Spotlight On Creative Team
- Playwright
- Sanaz Toossi
- Director
- Knud Adams
- Scenic Design
- Marsha Ginsberg
- Costume Designer
- Enver Chakartash
- Lighting Design
- Reza Behjat
- Sound Design
- Sinan Refik Zafar
Jump to:
What is the Show About?
Two words set in motion playwright Sanaz Toossi’s intricate and profound New York debut: “English Only.”
This is the mantra that rules one classroom in Iran, where four adult students are preparing for the TOEFL — the Test of English as a Foreign Language. Chasing fluency through a maze of word games, listening exercises, and show-and-tell sessions, they hope that one day, English will make them whole. But it might be splitting them each in half.
| Where | A classroom in Karaj, Iran |
| When | 2008 |
Who: Meet The Characters
THE TEACHER
| MARJAN 44 years old. Accent has traces of both American and British English. Once lived in Manchester, England. Loves speaking English. |
THE STUDENTS
| ELHAM 27 years old. Has a very thick Iranian accent. Wants to go to medical school in Australia. Doesn't care for English, prefers speaking in Farsi. |
| ROYA 54 years old. Has a noticeable accent. Is studying English before she visits her son and granddaughter in Canada. |
| OMID 29 years old. Has no accent. Grew up with American cousins. Studying English for a U.S. Permanent Resident (also known as a "Green Card") interview. |
| GOLI 18 years old. Accent is light and sweet. Has wanted to speak English since she was a child. |