3:00 - 4:15
A docent talk about Sanaz Toossi’s play English, currently playing at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, will be followed by open audience discussion about experiences with new languages and cultures. Attendees do not need to have seen the play in order to enjoy the talk and discussion.
The Berkeley Rep docent will provide context for the play, covering topics that include the playwright, the play's history, Iran at the time of the play, English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes, the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and language acquisition and learning. There will also be discussion with the audience about the challenges of learning to speak, think and function in a new language and culture and how this can affect self-concept.
Award-winning playwright Sanaz Toossi makes her Berkeley Rep debut with English, winner of the 2022 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play. Language and identity intertwine in this incisive, funny, and moving seriocomedy set in a classroom in Iran in 2008, where four adult students are preparing for the Test of English as a Foreign Language. But as they pursue fluency in a language that for them represents access, opportunity and even escape, they find that while English may expand their world, it might also limit their voice.