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by Sanaz Toossi
directed by Mina Morita
Julianne Argyros Stage

JAN 12 - FEB. 2, 2025

$35-$114
Inclusive of fees

HONORARY PRODUCERS
Timothy & Marianne Kay/Argyros Family Foundation

CULTURAL PARTNER
Farhang Foundation

MEDIA PARTNER
KWHY 22


Wish You Were Here is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. concordtheatricals.com

Wish You Were Here

1978. Protests break out across Iran as five close girlfriends plan weddings, trade dirty jokes and try to live their young lives. As the revolution escalates, each woman is forced to face an uncertain future by staying in Iran or leaving it. In this enlightened comedy, Pulitzer Prize winner and Orange County native Sanaz Toossi chronicles a decade of life, as best friends become friends long lost, searching for the bond that once defined them.

Previews: Jan 12-16, 2025
First Night: Jan. 17, 2025
Regular Performances: Jan. 18 - Feb. 2, 2025
American Sign Language Performance: Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025 at 2 p.m.

Recommendation: Ages 16+

Running Time: Approximately 90 minutes with no intermission.

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About the Creative Team

Sanaz Toossi is an Iranian-American playwright and the winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Her plays include English (co-production Atlantic Theater Company/Roundabout Theatre Company) and Wish You Were Here (Playwrights Horizons; Williamstown/Audible). She is currently under commission at Atlantic Theater Company, Roundabout Theatre Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club and South Coast Repertory. Toossi was the 2019 P73 Playwriting Fellow and a recipient of the Steinberg Playwright Award, the Horton Foote Award, Hull-Warriner Prize, Outer Critics Circle Award, and in 2023, the recipient of the Best New American Play Obie Award. MFA: NYU Tisch.

Awmi Abdi-Bahri

Awni Abdi-Bahri* (Nazanin) is a multidisciplinary actor and writer based in both Los Angeles and New York City. She returns to South Coast Repertory after appearing in the 2007 production of A Christmas Carol as a student of the SCR Theatre Conservatory. Abdi-Bahri has performed on Broadway in POTUS or Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive (Shubert Theatre) and Off-Broadway in Persian Pod (Ars Nova), Bismillah (The Wild Project), and The Welcoming Committee (The Lark). Her regional credits include Wish You Were Here (Yale Repertory), and her television and film credits include "Girls on the Bus" (HBO Max), "Evil" (Paramount+), "Ahamed’s Ramadan Diary" (Comedy Central), and Eradication (Tubi). As a writer, her latest theatrical play, Three Tall Persian Women, had its world premiere at Shakespeare and Company, which she also starred in this past summer and fall to glowing reviews. She holds an MFA in Acting from Columbia University in New York City. Abdi-Bhari dedicates this show to the women of Iran. Zan, Zendegi, Azadi. @awni.joon


Sahar Bibiyan

Sahar Bibiyan* (Rana) is delighted to make her SCR debut. Her theatre credits include English (Guthrie Theater, Goodman Theatre and Berkeley Repertory, West Coast premiere), Wish You Were Here (Yale Repertory Theatre), Haram! Iran (Emerging Artists Theatre) and Veil’d (Astoria Performing Arts Center, world premiere). Select film and television credits include Uncut Gems (A24), “Mr. Robot” (USA Network), “Little America” (Apple TV), “Chicago Justice” (NBC) and “Bull” (CBS). She is also the voice of Dimah in the video game Just Cause 3.


Tara Grammy

Tara Grammy* (Salme) is an actor, writer, and producer. Her most recent theatre credits include playing the role of Elham in two productions of Sanaz Toossi’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning English at Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C. and The Old Globe in San Diego, California. Other theatre credits include the one-woman show Mahmoud (Best of Toronto Fringe and Patron’s Pick Winner, Fringe NYC Encore Series Excellence in Solo Performance Award). Mahmoud was published by Playwrights Canada Press (Governor General’s Award Nominee, Dora Mavor Moore nominee). Grammy was a host on “Persia’s Got Talent” (MBC Persia), part of the “Got Talent” franchise. She also recently starred in the hit romantic comedy A Simple Wedding (dir. Sara Zandieh) opposite Maz Jobrani, Rita Wilson and Shohreh Aghdashloo. Other film and television credits include “2042” (TBS), “S.W.A.T.” (CBS) and Jimmy Vestvood: Amerikan Hero. She holds a BA in Theatre Performance from the University of Toronto.


Mitra Jouhari

Mitra Jouhari* (Zari) is a writer, actor and comedian. She is one-third of the cast of “Three Busy Debras,” which ran for two seasons on Adult Swim, and whose second season won a WGA award. She has written for “Big Mouth,” “Human Resources,” “Welcome to Flatch,” “High Maintenance,” “Miracle Workers,” “Overcompensating,” “The President Show” and more. Her on-screen and voice acting appearances include “Abbott Elementary,” “I Think You Should Leave,” “The Bear,” “Broad City,” “Clone High,” The Big Sick, “Search Party,” “Digman!” and “The History of the World Part II.” She has performed sold-out live comedy shows all over the country and has written essays for The New York Times, McSweeney’s, Teen Vogue, Flaunt and Los Angeles Review of Books. IG @mitrajouhari.


Artemis Pebdani

Artemis Pebdani* (Shideh) is so happy to be part of this fantastic cast reprising the role of Shideh, which she originated in Wish You Were Here’s Off-Broadway debut at Playwrights Horizons. She received her BFA in Theatre from Southern Methodist University, continued her studies at The Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre and later at just about any improv/sketch comedy house in Los Angeles you can name. If you recognize her face, it’s most likely from playing Artemis on “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” Vice President Susan Ross on “Scandal,” or recurring roles on “The Goldbergs,” “Modern Family,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “Masters of Sex” and others. If you recognize her voice, it’s very likely from playing Gramma Alice Green on Disney Channel’s “Big City Greens,” Gran on Hulu’s “The Croods: Family Tree,” Ensign Karavitus on “Star Trek: Lower Decks” or roles in other animated films, TV programs and video games. She is the proud daughter of Iranian immigrants who supported her artistic endeavors from a young age and who, thankfully and against all stereotypes, never once pressured her to become a doctor.

Mina Morita (Director) (she/her) is a celebrated new plays director just awarded the Woolly Mammoth BOLD Resident Director & Creative Producer position as part of the BOLD Theatre Women’s Leadership Circle. She has directed for Australia’s National Theatre of Parramatta and La Boite Theatres, Guthrie Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, Magic Theatre, Center REPertory Company, Campo Santo, Shotgun Players, Playwrights Foundation, Ferocious Lotus, Bay Area Children’s Theatre, and Crowded Fire Theatre Company. She is a recipient of the inaugural FrontOffice Mid-Career Director’s Award, Theatre Bay Area’s Outstanding Direction of a Musical in 2014 and Shellie Awards Best Director in 2018. She was recognized as a Beinecke Fellow with Yale University in 2022. Previously, Morita served as the Leader of Artistic Curation & Strategy as part of the Shared Leadership Team in 2023 and Artistic Director from 2015-2022 at Crowded Fire Theater Company. From 2011-2015, she was the Artistic Associate at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and its center for the creation and development of new work, The Ground Floor. Morita has also served as Board President and Treasurer of Shotgun Players, as a 2014 Lincoln Center Director’s Lab participant, as one of the founding members of Bay Area Children’s Theatre, as a speaker for the Getty Leadership Summit, lead facilitator for the Lotus Playwriting Retreat with Playwriting Australia and Guest Artist at Yale’s David Geffen School of Drama, UC Berkeley and Stanford universities. In 2016, Theatre Bay Area awarded her the 40@40 distinction for her impact on Bay Area Theatre. In 2015, Morita was honored to share her story on TEDx, and in 2016, she was chosen as one of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts 100, for “asking questions and making provocations that will shape the future of culture.”


Afsoon Pajoufar (Scenic Design) is a New York City-based designer of stage and environment for play, opera and live performances. Her recent works include Cyrano de Bergerac (Pasadena Playhouse), Fuente Ovejuna (Theatre For A New Audience), Adoration (Beth Morrison Projects/LA Opera), Out of Character (Berkeley Rep), Molière’s Dom Juan (Fischer Center at Bard SummerScape), English (Studio Theatre/Barrington Stage), Lady M (HeartBeat Opera), MONIN[MORNING/MOURNING] (Prototype 2022), Word. Sound. Power. (Brooklyn Academy of Music), Paper Pianos (Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center) and Will You Come With Me (The Play Company). Internationally, her work has taken her to Alte Münze (Berlin) and Schauspiel Köln (Cologne). Pajoufar is a proud member of USA 829. afsoonpajoufar.com


Shahrzad Mazaheri (Costume Design) is an Iranian costume designer based in Washington, D.C., known for her advocacy against misrepresentation and cultural appropriation in movies and theatre. Her regional and professional credits include English, a co-production of Goodman Theatre and Guthrie Theater, Someone Will Remember Us, POTUS, Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson: APT 2B, Becky Nurse of Salem, The Good John Proctor, Sweeney Todd and Sueño at Trinity Rep and English at Berkeley Rep. In addition to her work as a costume designer, Mazaheri is a visiting teaching professor of costume design at the College of William & Mary. For more information on her work and upcoming projects, visit shahrzadmazaheri.com.


Pablo Santiago (Lighting Design) is a live performance and digital film lighting designer, originally from Chiapas, Mexico. He is the winner of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Kinetic Lighting Award and the Orange Curtain Review Award for Best Lighting, as well as the Henry Award, Richard Sherwood Award, Stage Raw Awards, and multiple Ovation Award nominations. His designs aim to find evocative images that embody the emotional moment of the show and create images that can spark the imagination of the audience to worlds beyond the stage. Returning to South Coast Repertory for the fourth time, Santiago’s resume includes The Kennedy Center, Teatro Municipal São Paulo Brazil, Santa Fe Opera, LA Opera, Opera Omaha, Detroit Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Boston Lyric Opera, Long Beach Opera, Opera Columbus, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Opera Santa Barbara, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Goodman Theatre, Arena Stage DC, BAM-Harvey Theater, Geffen Playhouse, Mark Taper Forum, Denver Center, Broad Museum, Kirk Douglas Theatre and Hollywood Bowl.


Veronika Vorel (Sound Design) is making her SCR debut. Her recent local work includes Cyrano de Bergerac and Little Shop of Horrors at Pasadena Playhouse, A Wicked Soul in Cherry Hill and The Inheritance at Geffen Playhouse, and Our Dear Dead Drug Lord at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Vorel has also designed at Cornerstone Theatre, Theatre at Boston Court, East West Players and IAMA Theatre Company. Her regional Sound Design credits include Denver Theatre Center, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Ford’s Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Folger Theatre, Olney Theatre, Everyman, Yale Repertory Theatre, Signature Theatre (VA), Kansas City Starlight Theatre and others. She has worked as an Associate Sound Designer at Manhattan Theatre Club, The Kennedy Center, CENTERSTAGE and Arena Stage. Outside of the theatre, Vorel has taught undergraduate and graduate students, and worked as a sound designer at Walt Disney Imagineering in California, Shanghai and Paris. She trained in Music Composition at the Prague Conservatory of Music, and received her BFA from the California Institute of the Arts and MFA from Yale School of Drama.


Ana Bayat (Cultural Dramaturg and Dialect Coach) is a multilingual/multicultural actress, acting/voiceover/language and dialect coach, playwright, cultural dramaturg/consultant, translator, linguist, and professor of languages and cultures, storytelling and film. Fluent in Spanish, French, Persian, UK and US English, and proficient in German, Italian and Catalan, she supports actors in finding and creating authentic voices and dialects when approaching linguistically diverse roles. Her critically-acclaimed multilingual play Mimi’s Suitcase—an autobiographical coming-of-age journey exploring themes of immigration, women’s rights, and human resilience—received the highly competitive Neda Nobari Foundation Matching Grant in Innovative Arts, was shortlisted for a Freedom of Expression Amnesty International Award, and named “a hidden gem” at the 70th Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Bayat’s most recent projects as dialect coach include English at Melbourne Theatre Co., Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Alliance Theatre, Barrington Stage, Studio Theatre (also as cultural and casting consultant), and The Old Globe. Her film and TV coaching and collaboration credits include “Tehran” (AppleTV+), “The Agency” (Paramount Plus) and Rule Breakers, which is slated to premiere in 2025. anabayat.com


Darlene Miyakawa (Stage Manager) has enjoyed working in both stage and production management, focusing primarily on new works and adaptations. At SCR: Galilee, 34, A Raisin in the Sun (replacement SM), Coleman ’72, Sheepdog and Ella Enchanted. Recent regional theatre credits include Arizona Theatre Company, Barrington Stage, East West Players, Geffen Playhouse, Getty Villa, Geva Theatre Center, Playwrights’ Arena and The Old Globe. Opera and Symphony credits include California Symphony, Fort Worth Opera, LA Philharmonic, Long Beach Opera, New York City Opera, Opera Maine, OPERA San Antonio, Opera San Jose, Opera Santa Barbara, Piedmont Opera and Tri-Cities Opera.


Lauren Buangan (Assistant Stage Manager) is a stage manager based out of the Southern California area. Her previous SCR stage management credits include Joan, Coleman ’72, A Christmas Carol, Nina Simone: Four Women, and Million Dollar Quartet, among others. She has also served as assistant stage manager at Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles on Tiny Father, the Broadway transfer of Fat Ham, and the world premiere musical The Lonely Few. Buangan holds a BA in Theater from UCLA, a Certificate of Achievement in Film from Orange Coast College and studied drama at Queen Mary University of London.

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

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