Omer Abbas Salem Archives - Chicago Reader

An Arab American family at a kitchen table. The daughter is standing on the left. The mother is seated in front of her, looking at a laptop and talking to her son, who is seated at the right. His head is resting in his hand and he looks worried.

Mosque4Mosque upends stereotypes

by Boutayna Chokrane November 23, 2022November 23, 2022

Mosque4Mosque is not a monolithic representation of the Arab American Muslim experience, and perhaps that’s exactly the point. Written by Omer Abbas Salem and directed by Sophiyaa Nayar, this charming production challenges all preconceived notions of a play about an Arab American Muslim family. In this sitcom-esque dramedy, Ibrahim (played by Salem) and his family […]

Agenda

Umamicue, Mosque4Mosque, concerts, dancing, and more

by Salem Collo-Julin and Kerry Reid November 21, 2022November 21, 2022

Already hungry for some hearty fare? Join Monday Night Foodball this evening as the “barbecue supergroup” Umamicue brings A Very Umamicue Friendsgiving to the Kedzie Inn (4100 N. Kedzie). Expect an array of flavors including wasabi turkey confit croquettes (who doesn’t love a croquette?) with five-spice cranberry sauce, courtesy of the “Asian stoner food” duo […]

Nine actors of various ages and races stand on a series of platforms onstage. Above their heads we see suspended curling pieces of sheet music. Chairs and lamps are scattered onstage.

Theater Review

Dimming of the day

by Irene Hsiao July 13, 2022July 13, 2022

“When people die, they move from the first person to the third person. They also move from the present tense to the past tense.” These words are spoken by Christine (Kendra Thulin), who opens Simon Stephens’s Light Falls, directed by Robin Witt, by narrating her own death—sudden, solitary, and mundane in a liquor store in […]

Three people in exaggerated blonde wigs and blue dresses in a row.

Theater Review

Dictator dictation

by Melissa Renee Perry May 19, 2022May 19, 2022

The energy in the Den Theater last Thursday was electric, as The Secretaries, written by Omer Abbas Salem and directed by Laura Alcalá Baker, made its highly anticipated debut with First Floor Theater. The dark comedic play was first developed through Goodman Theatre’s Future Labs and marks Salem’s first full production as a playwright in […]

Theater Review

Coercive utopia

by KT Hawbaker November 24, 2021November 24, 2021

While its drama focuses on 20th-century events, the New Coordinates’ (the company formerly known as the New Colony) Love in the Time of Jonestown is uncannily contemporary—which is exactly how historical fiction should feel. Production-wise, Jonestown richly reflects our time and place. Written by Omer Abbas Salem, it’s a radio play in three parts that […]