by Alexandra Mansilla
From Othello To Open Mic Nights: Season 11 At The Arts Centre NYUAD
18 Sept 2025
So, the new season at The Arts Centre at NYU Abu Dhabi is beginning very soon. It comes with a theme that feels especially timely: Stories of Our Communities. Inspired by the UAE’s Year of Community, it invites audiences to reflect on heritage, memory, and transformation through theatre, dance, music, and multimedia. It is a way to see how art helps us make sense of who we are, individually and together.
Executive Artistic Director Bill Bragin describes the season as both a celebration and a promise: rooted in the UAE, energised by the cultural pulse of Saadiyat Island, and carried by the intellectual energy of NYUAD. As the Arts Centre steps into its second decade, the focus is on deepening connections between artists and audiences — sparking conversations that resonate locally and globally.
What to expect?
The season launches with three productions that set the tone for what is to come.
On September 19–20, British visual theatre maker Benji Reid brings the Arab world premiere of Find Your Eyes. Reid’s work moves between photography, choreography, and theatre, creating striking images that feel both surreal and deeply human. With themes of vulnerability, race, masculinity, and mental health at its core, the performance is less about answers and more about holding space for the complexities of life.
On September 26–27, audiences will see Dear Children, Sincerely…, a collaboration between Sri Lanka’s Stages Theatre Group and Rwanda’s Mashirika Performing Arts and Media Company. Directed by Ruwanthie de Chickera, it draws on interviews with elders born in the 1930s who lived through colonisation and its aftermath. Their stories unfold on stage as a moving tapestry that connects two countries an ocean apart, but bound by shared histories.
Then, on October 9–10, Shakespeare’s Othello is reborn through an African lens. Directed by award-winning Lara Foot and staged by Cape Town’s Baxter Theatre Centre, this reimagining traces a line from German colonialism and the Herero uprising in Namibia to the present day. Performed in English, Afrikaans, and isiXhosa with English subtitles, it is a fierce reminder of how the classics can still illuminate contemporary struggles with power, race, and identity.
Beyond the stage
The Arts Centre is not only about performances; it is about exchange. International artists teach workshops, lead conversations, and open rehearsals that turn the campus into a space of learning through experience. This year, Off the Stage, presented by Mubadala, expands further with career talks, Q&As, and masterclasses — giving students and audiences a chance to engage with the ideas behind the performances.
Community traditions also continue to thrive. Rooftop Rhythms, the Middle East’s longest-running open mic poetry night, returns for its 13th season, bringing voices old and new to the mic every month. CinemaNa, a collaboration with the NYUAD Film and New Media program, will spotlight bold cinema from across the Arab world, each screening followed by conversations with the filmmakers.
“What makes The Arts Centre special is its deep connection to place — to Abu Dhabi, to NYUAD, and to the diverse communities that call this city home,” says Bragin. Season 11, with its theme of Stories of Our Communities, is ultimately about that connection: the act of coming together, listening, and recognising ourselves in the stories on stage.
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