Adil Mansoor is a theatre director centering the stories of queer folks and people of color. His performance “Amm(i)gone” adapts Sophocles’s “Antigone” as an apology to and from his mother. “Amm(i)gone” is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creative and Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Kelly Strayhorn Theater, The Theater Offensive, and NPN.
Mansoor has developed work with New York Theatre Workshop, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, The Poetry Project, BAAD! The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Tofte Lake Center, NYU Tisch, PearlArts, and others. Recent directing projects include “Daddies” by Paul Kruse (Audible), “Gloria” by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Hatch Arts Collective), “Kentucky” by Lean Nanoko Winkler (Pittsburgh Playhouse), and “Once Removed” by Paul Kruse (Tribeca Festival).
Mansoor is a founding member of Pittsburgh’s Hatch Arts Collective and the former Artistic Director of Dreams of Hope, an LGBTQA+ youth arts organization. He has been an NYTW 2050 Directing Fellow, a Gerri Kay New Voices Fellow with Quantum Theater, and an Art of Practice Fellow and Community Leader with Sundance. He was part of the inaugural Artist Caucus gathered by Baltimore Center Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, and Woolly Mammoth. Mansoor received his MFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon.
Website: www.adilmansoor.com
Work by Adil Mansoor:
AMM(I)GONE – An adaptation of Sophocles’ “Antigone”, is an apology to and from a mother. Creator and performer Adil Mansoor explores queerness, the afterlife, and obligation using canonical texts, teachings from the Quran, and audio conversations between him and his mother. Since discovering his queerness, Mansoor’s mother has turned towards her faith in an attempt to save her son in the afterlife. In an effort towards healing, Mansoor has invited his mother to join him as dramaturg and co-conspirator. In reading, discussing, and translating various adaptations of the source play, together they mine Greek tragedy, Islamic traditions, and their own memories to create an original performance locating love across faith. Can prayer substantiate care? Can care manifest as artistic methodology and inquiry? Can Mansoor and his mother contend with Antigone’s fate?
This is a touring solo performance that can only be performed by creator Adil Mansoor.