DISCUSSION & WRITING PROMPTS :

1

The play’s characters have specific relationships with the English language. What’s your relationship to English? Do you have relationships with additional languages? How does your relationship to English and other languages shape how you see yourself and other speakers of that language?

2

Playwright Sanaz Toossi says writing plays is a way to “bridge the gap between my Iranian-ness and my American-ness.” Can you relate to the need to bridge cultures or groups? Are there worlds that seem very different that come together in you? How do you bridge the gap between them?

3

The characters in this play use Farsi and English to communicate their needs, wants, “and souls.” Choose a time when something you said or wrote was misunderstood. What happened? How did you feel and what did you do next?

4 Compare the events of the play to learning experiences in your own life. Was there any part of the play that reflected your own experiences? Was there any part of the play that gave you insight into something you have never experienced?

5

Describe the learning space you are in right now. Use sensory details about things you hear, see, touch, and smell in this space. Examine how it supports, or does not support, the things you are learning in this place. Propose a plan for an ideal learning space for you: what would it include and how would it function?