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Publisher's Summary

Nazanin and her friends are on the brink of adulthood. As they prepare for a wedding, outside their living room the Iranian Revolution simmers and threatens to alter the course of their lives. Set over the course of 14 years, Sanaz Toossi’s timely world premiere play, directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch, shines a light on the daring potential of friendship amid the relentless aftershocks of political upheaval. 

Directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch
©2021 Sanaz Toossi (P)2021 AO Media LLC
Drama & Plays Middle Eastern
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Go Behind the Scenes of Wish You Were Here

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Sanaz Toossi
Gaye Taylor Upchurch
Additional Credits

About the Writer

Sanaz Toossi is an Iranian-American playwright from Orange County, California. Her plays include Wish You Were Here (Williamstown Audible 2020; Playwrights Horizons 2021) and English (Roundabout Underground 2021; Weissberger New Play Award; Kilroys’ List 2019). She is currently under commission at the Atlantic Theater (Launch commission; Toulmin grant), Williamstown Theatre Festival, South Coast Repertory, IAMA Theatre, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival (American Revolutions Cycle). Toossi is a member of Youngblood and the Middle Eastern American Writers Lab at the Lark, and an alum of Clubbed Thumb’s Early Career Writers’ Group. She was the 2019 P73 Playwriting Fellow and a recipient of the 2020 Steinberg Playwright Award. She has an MFA from NYU Tisch. Toossi is a proud child of immigrants.

About the Director

Gaye Taylor Upchurch has directed many world premieres, including Lauren Gunderson's The Half-Life of Marie Curie (Audible at Minetta Lane); Anna Ziegler's The Last Match (Old Globe and Roundabout); Nick Gandiello's The Blameless (The Old Globe); Clare Lizzimore’s Animal (Atlantic Theater with Rebecca Hall and Studio Theatre, DC, Helen Hayes nomination); Laura Marks’s Bethany with America Ferrera (Women’s Project and Old Globe); and Melissa Ross’s Of Good Stock (South Coast Rep). She has also directed Carson McCullers's The Member of the Wedding (Williamstown); The Year of Magical Thinking with Kathleen Turner (Arena Stage); Michael Kimmel and Lauren Pritchard's musical Songbird (Two River); Simon Stephens’s Harper Regan and Bluebird (Atlantic); and Lucy Thurber’s Stay (Rattlestick Theater). Regional work includes An Iliad and As You Like It (Hudson Valley Shakespeare, the International Falstaff Award for Best Production and Falstaff nomination for Best Director). She has developed new work at P73, The Vineyard, Lincoln Center Theater, New Dramatists, Playwrights Realm, NY Stage & Film, and SPACE on Ryder Farm. She is an alumna of The WP Directors Lab, The Drama League, and North Carolina School of the Arts.

Sound Design: Sinan Refik Zafar
Original Music Composition: Brandon Terzic, Rufus Cappadocia, Alby Roblejo, and Sinan Refik Zafar
Recording Musicians:
Brandon Terzic Oud
Rufus Cappadocia Cello
Alby Roblejo Drums
Turkish Voiceover performance by: Ozgur Okter and Dilek Zafar
Assistant Director: Tyler Thomas
Cultural Competence Consultants: Maia Directors
Executive Producer for Audible: Kate Navin
Producer for Audible: Jessica Amato
Executive Producer for Williamstown Theatre Festival: Mandy Greenfield
Producer for Williamstown Theatre Festival: Aileen Lambert
Staff for Williamstown Theatre Festival
Antonello Di Benedetto, Director of Audience Engagement
Mandy Greenfield, Artistic Director
Henrietta Key, Development Coordinator
Aileen Lambert, Literary Manager
Josh Martinez-Nelson, Director of Development & Communications
Amy Russell, Director of Finance
Laura Savia, Associate Artistic Director
Lindsey Turteltaub, Director of Production
Lianna Rada-Hung, Assistant to the Artistic Director
For over six decades, Williamstown Theatre Festival, recipient of the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre and the Commonwealth Award for Achievement, has brought emerging and professional theatre artists together to create a thrilling summer festival of premiere work alongside fresh, new productions of the western canon, accompanying cultural events including Community Works and Late-Night Cabarets, and readings and workshops of new plays. Under Artistic Director Mandy Greenfield, WTF launched the Andrew Martin-Weber New Play and Musical Commissioning Program, through which theatre artists, including Jocelyn Bioh, Nathan Alan Davis, Halley Feiffer, Justin Levine, Matthew Lopez, Jiehae Park, Benjamin Scheuer, and many others, create new work supported by a year-round play development program. WTF runs unmatched training programs for new generations of theatre talent, and artists and productions shaped at WTF fill theatres in New York, London, and around the country each season. Williamstown Theatre Festival’s productions of The Bridges of Madison County, The Elephant Man, Fool for Love, Living on Love, and The Visit enjoyed critically acclaimed runs on Broadway, with The Elephant Man and The Visit receiving Tony Award nominations for Best Revival of a Play and Best Revival of a Musical, respectively. WTF's world premiere productions of Cost of Living (winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama), Actually, Paradise Blue, and Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow played acclaimed Off-Broadway runs. In the abbreviated 2019-20 theatrical season, Williamstown Theatre Festival was represented or scheduled to be represented on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regionally by The Sound Inside and Grand Horizons, both of which received Tony Award nominations for Best Play, The Rose Tattoo, Seared, Selling Kabul, Unknown Soldier, and Lempicka. Visit us at www.wtfestival.org.
Williamstown Theatre Festival would like to thank 321 Theatrical Management, Telsey & Company and DKC/O&M.

Featuring

Featuring

What listeners say about Wish You Were Here

Average Customer Ratings
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Profile Image for Louise Roodt

Heartwrenching

I've spent ten years in the Middle East ang got to know the women from there as special, caring and sharing women - as portrayed in this play. The heartbreak due to separation because of politics is so true. What an excellent piece of writing.

8 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Profile Image for Kaylyn Johnson

Amazing

This story was written and narrated beautifully. The bonds and emotions were captivating and the distancing was heartbreaking and lovely. What a wonderful way to describe growing up and moving on but still loving your roots. Truly enjoyed the listen!

7 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Profile Image for Parastoo

Amazing play

This play was beautifully written and casted. I grew up in Iran ane immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 20 and I relate to this story and their friendships so much! I enjoyed listening to their fights, gigglings and intimate moments. I wish to see it in theaters soon!

6 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Profile Image for Ayse Burke

Bittersweet

Loved the whole play and could have listened for 20 hours. Could the author please write more!

2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Profile Image for Angela

Loved

Even though I didn’t understand all of the history behind this play (I was in Middle school during the Iran war), the message was clear. Women friendships are the same regardless of where we are from. Women have the power to support, love, and laugh through all life throws at us. I loved how I felt a kinship with the characters even though I am not Iranian.

2 people found this helpful

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Profile Image for Amazon Customer

Perfect.

absolutely amazing. beautiful story, performed wonderfully, with an amazing message we need right now. perfect.

2 people found this helpful

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Profile Image for Paul titus

Astonishing**

Superior ,heartfelt so much empathy for you .. glad I invested the time so eye opening.

2 people found this helpful

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Profile Image for Anonymous User

Immersed

An absolutely riveting experience. It felt insanely real for me. I was completely submerged in the raw emotions and reality of each day. Well written, and amazingly delivered.

1 person found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Profile Image for Laurie Wittges

We rarely think about the people on the other side

At first I wasn't sure where the story was going. The characters are well-developed. The tragedy of being left behind by the people you love & trustthe most seems unbearable

1 person found this helpful

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Profile Image for Essleigh Ekstrom

Truly amazing and unexpected.

What do i know about Iran? Almost nothing. But this beautiful play opened the lives of Iranian women to me in a completely unexpected way. Thank you to everyone involved!

1 person found this helpful

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 06-06-22

Disgusting

I’ve never heard such crass and disgusting representations of Iranian women. I had to turn it off after 5 minutes.
This is not in any way truly representative of any Persian people I’ve ever come across.
Abhorrent and misrepresentative of a very polite and old culture.