Ismail Khalidi إسماعيل خالدي | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1982 (age 41–42) Beirut, Lebanon |
| Occupation | Playwright Poet Actor |
| Genre | Theater |
| Notable works | Tennis in Nablus (2010) Truth Serum Blues (2005) |
Ismail Khalidi (Arabic: إسماعيل خالدي; born 1982) is a Palestinian/Lebanese American playwright, screenwriter and theater director whose work tackles the history of Palestine and the modern Middle East, as well as wider themes of race, colonialism, displacement and war. He is best known for the plays Tennis in Nablus (2010) and Truth Serum Blues (2005) and the critically-acclaimed Returning to Haifa, which premiered in London in 2018. Tennis in Nablus received two graduate student Kennedy Center Honors in 2008 while he was still at NYU, the Mark Twain Comedy Playwriting Award and the Quest for Peace Playwriting Award. Since then his plays have been produced and presented internationally and published in half a dozen anthologies.