Rehana's plays have been published with the Alexander Street Press, indietheaternow, and the New York Theatre Review, and her play BARRIERS was included on the curriculum at West Virginia University, Yale University and NYU, as well as looked at in-depth in the article, “Staging Diaspora” (First View of the Cambridge Journal of American Studies). An excerpt from SOLDIER X is included in The Kilroys' List publication.
Full Length Plays
WORDS WE BELIEVE
Drama, 1 hr, 20 min
4W
Two life-long friends Elaine and Sally are at a crossroads in life, while young teenagers, Fitri and Ayan are still trying to figure out life after high school. But when one goes missing, worlds collide. A play about the words we hold and what we elide.
HATEFUCK
Drama/Comedy, 1 hr, 20 min
1W, 1M
Local Michigan lit prof seeks out famous Muslim-American novelist to find out if he's an Islamophobe, a rube, or a really good lay.
A PEOPLE'S GUIDE TO HISTORY IN THE TIME OF HERE AND NOW
Drama, 1 hr, 40 min
4W, 6M
Loner and grungy Muslim-American student Jennah has just transferred to a small Michigan high school, and during the weeks immediately following the 2016 election, she struggles to find her place as she embarks on a battle of wills against a popular History and Civics teacher. A PEOPLE'S GUIDE TO HISTORY IN THE TIME OF HERE AND NOW asks how can we teach history when people have two versions of the present.
LADYBITS
Comedy, 1 hr, 50 min
5W
When unsure newbie comedienne, Janie, crashes and burns at an open mic night, fellow comedienne Lydia takes pity on her, and invites her to a female comedy meet-up group for support. In the attempt to find out which bits are funny and which bits are just not, they also discover what's most valuable to them.
NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH
Dark comedy, 1 hr, 40 min
1W, 4M
A suburban family man, Paul, becomes so convinced that his new neighbor is a terrorist that in his pursuit to uncover the truth, he terrorizes his daughter and neighborhood.
TOMORROW INSHALLAH
A collage play of interviews
Huffington Post/Story works commission
1 hr, 20 min
multiple
SOLDIER X
Drama, 1 hr, 45 min
3W, 1M
Soldier X is about a generation that's spent more of their lives at war than at peace. It's a love triangle about a young soldier who comes back from Afghanistan and falls in love with his dead comrade's sister, only to have his military therapist fall in love with him.
THE ROMANTICS
Dark Comedy, 1 hr, 40 min
3W, 1M
A new play re-imagining the Bronte sisters living today in a Brooklyn brownstone. Emily is a burnt out prodigy. Charlotte is an underperforming genius. But only one can be the winner as they fight over selling their childhood home.
LONELY LEELA
Dark Comedy, 90 min
3(+) W, 4(+) M
Leela’s boyfriend has disappeared. So she goes into the Internet to find him. An Alice in Wonderland type adventure where malicious codes and white knight bloggers meet in a shifting world of everything’s at your fingertips but you can’t quite find what you’re looking for
if it’s sad, i don’t want to see it
Dark Comedy: 1 hr, 40 min
3M, 3W
Setting: New York, present day
In a newly formed boutique water company, an odd assortment of individuals come together. As the global economy becomes increasingly smaller, each individual comes to face what they are willing to give up in the pursuit for happiness.
*Read short excerpt of if it's sad, i don't want to see it
PARTICLES OF PAKISTAN
Drama, 1 hr, 40 min
1W, 4M
When 16-year-old Haroon gets suspended from his Michigan high school, his mother ships him off to Pakistan until he shapes up. But then he meets Mehreen, a young woman whose idol is a Physicist named Abdus Salam, whose research in the 50s, 60s, and 70s has led to the current-day discovery of the ‘God’ particle, a historical figure's past shapes his future.
A DISTANT RELATION
Dark Comedy: 90 min
2W, 1M
Setting: Suburbs of Virginia
Bi-racial, lesbian, bio-geneticist Heather Ramos firmly believes that the Y chromosome is unnecessary. Until she discovers that she has a long-lost brother. With her on and off girlfriend Martha, Heather embarks on a trip to find this brother and put her world back in order again. But when she finds him, will she be able to handle what's hidden in her family tree?
BARRIERS
90 minutes
4M, 2W
Setting: New Jersey, 2002
Sunima returns home to announce her pending engagement, but instead gets trapped in the family loss they never dealt with. As this multi-cultural, Muslim family begins to fragment, we begin to piece together the past each one hides, and the future they all share.
“… the pertinence and poignancy of its subject in the current context is indisputable. If the play’s idea is to make a plaintive case on behalf of a community, it is a deserving case, a deserving plaint. You leave the theater sympathetic to fellow Americans who don’t feel much fellowship at the moment.” –New York Times
“Mirza has chosen her medium well -- Barriers reaches out and grabs us -- wrenches us-- to teach us something valuable about the state of the world.” –NYTheatre.com
*Read short excerpt of Barriers
RADIO DIARIES OF HANK, YANK AND PRANK
1 hr, 40min
3M, 1W
Setting: New Jersey, present day
A semi-serious comedy about a radio show that wakes up New Jersey with frivolous pranks, and the intern who comes along to reform it, one fart joke at a time.
THE GOOD MUSLIM
90 minutes
2W
Setting: Queens, New York, present day
An atheist clubkid, Nora, and a sheltered Muslim girl form an unlikely friendship. When circumstances lead them to becoming roommates, the personal becomes political.
JUST AIR
90 minutes
1M, 2W
Setting: The Airport of Americas
A homeless, hasbeen child pop star who has taken up residence in an airport and falls in love with the security guard. But when the security guard takes under his wing the extremely sheltered only child of a Bollywood superstar couple, a love triangle turns into international headlines.
*Be sure to check out my short plays as well.
