Franklin Stage Company Presents Solo Play, HOME? by Hend Ayoub

Writer and actress Hend Ayoub brings her solo play HOME? to the Franklin Stage Company July 24-26.

FRANKLIN —Franklin Stage Company will present an encore performance of Hend Ayoub’s one-woman show entitled HOME? A Palestinian Woman’s Search for Life, Liberty and Happiness July 24–26 in Chapel Hall in Franklin, NY. “We are thrilled to bring this funny, compassionate and poignant show to Franklin Stage,” said Franklin Stage Artistic Director Patricia Buckley.”

Hend Ayoub’s powerful solo performance explores identity, displacement, and belonging. Blending masterful storytelling, humor, and movement, the piece explores the search for home amid borders, language, and memory and invites audiences into an intimate, urgent conversation about migration, resilience, and selfhood. Through personal history, embodied storytelling, political observation, and moments of vulnerability, HOME? resonates, connects, and sparks empathy across cultures and generations. The show has been called “A story of hope and gratitude,” by Broadway World and The Washington Post said of the piece, “Ayoub projects a radiant presence and puts wit and warmth on the map.”

HOME? is an autobiographical story about a young woman's journey to retrieve and imagine a new sense of home. Through a panoply of vivid characters – from a five-year-old who just wants to join the neighborhood Purim party, to an Egyptian casting director who won't accept where she comes from, to her dying mother who longs for her daughter to find a place in the world – Hend shares a deeply personal, true story about a search for the place that many of us take for granted: Home.

The piece was initially developed with the guidance of the legendary Wynn Handman at the Wynn Handman Studio, and further developed through workshops with the invaluable guidance of director Carey Perloff. Developed by San Francisco Playhouse, Bill English, Artistic Director; Susi Damilano, Producing Director. HOME? was developed by Noor Theatre as part of its Highlight Reading Series and further developed with Voices Festival Productions, including a workshop production presented as part of its Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival. Additional development and support: Z Space; Golden Thread Productions; NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music and Theatre.

Showtimes are Friday, July 24 @7:30 pm, Saturday, July 25 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, July 26 @ 5:00pm. For more information and to make reservations, visit www.franklinstagecompany.org. Programming at the Franklin Stage Company is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

HEND AYOUB is a New York-based actor and writer of the solo show HOME?, nominated for the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards for Best Solo Performance.Her theatre credits include: Broadway’s Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo with Robin Williams, and its earlier run at Los Angeles’s Mark Taper Forum; Off-Broadway: 9 Kinds of Silence (PlayCo), First Down (Noor); Regional: A Thousand Splendid Suns (Arena Stage),Kiss (Yale Rep), American Fast (InterAct Theater), and Veils (Portland Stage; Barrington Stage). Television credits include Homeland, Orange Is the New Black, The Looming Tower, Madam Secretary, Power: Origins, Royal Pains, Feed the Beast, The Accidental Wolf, Comedy Central’s The Watch List, and recurring roles onTransparent and Damages. Film credits include the Emmy Award-winning Death of a President, the multi-award-winningPrivate, and the new film If You See Something. HendAyoub.com