A scrappy Palestinian pop band enters Eurovision to take the world stage – if they can survive the chaos, politics, and each other, first. Experience a raw and electrifying Arab pop concert that grapples with the immense responsibility of giving voice to a people whose stories are not often heard.
Tix to this show are Name Your Price starting at $15, meaning you decide what you pay! We pass on 100% of the single ticket revenue directly to the show’s lead artists. You can learn more about What’s Ars Is Yours: Name Your Price Tix by visiting our How We Do It page.
Area D will stream live from Ars Nova on June 11 @ 7pm on Ars Nova Supra. Following the live stream, you’ll be able to watch the show on-demand for up to a year. Get a cancel-anytime $15/mo subscription to stream live or on-demand.
LOUR is a Palestinian actor, singer, and composer based in NYC. Named one of the 30 Arabs Under 30 for 2024, she is the recipient of the Rim Banna Award for music production and the Ruth Sanford Memorial Prize in Theatre for her work on AREA D, the first Arab Pop Broadway musical. In 2023, she wrote and composed Under The Sheet, a genre-fusion show blending musical theatre, mariachi, hip-hop, and rap, presented at IRT Theatre. Her acting credits include Tired (Trenton Film Fest Finalist), Arab Olympics, and One Thousand and One Nights at The Lenfest Center. A Lin-Manuel Miranda Fellow, LOUR uses theater and music to amplify marginalized narratives and celebrate her Palestinian heritage.
Shatha Yas is a comedian, writer, and singer – born and raised in Palestine – and now based in New York. After a decade in foreign policy, she returned to her first love: the performing arts. Shatha performs standup across the U.S. and internationally, and writes sharp, witty TV comedies rooted in her Middle Eastern upbringing and rich with political and social commentary. Her scripts have placed in top festivals, and she’s been awarded several comedy fellowships for her solo show about growing up in Palestine. She’s thrilled to be bringing her vocal and musical comedy chops back to the stage with Area D.
Jad Jacob is a composer, performer, and filmmaker; recent film score credits: Christopher Grant’s NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE (prod. Tony nominee Crystal-Lucas Perry; Premiere, Micheaux Film Festival); Mas Bouzidi’s CONCESSIONS (starring Michael Madsen, Steven Ogg, and Josh Hamilton). In the theater world, he wrote Book, Music & Lyrics to the rock musical BEETHOVEN: LIVE IN CONCERT (Finalist, MTW’s New Works Reading Festival; Semifinalist, Syracuse’s New Works/New Voices, CreateTheater New Works Festival). Jad has traveled the world as Dueling Pianist and Music Director in China; New York; and on cruises in the Mediterranean and Caribbean. He is the recipient of the Al Budde Playwright Scholarship, and finalist for the Michael Collyer Memorial Fellowship in Screenwriting. He made his 54 Below debut in February, with a sold-out concert of his original works. www.jadjacob.com @jadjjacob
Mark Yowakim is a first-generation Syrian American artist based in NYC. Originally from Allentown, PA, he received a BA in Musical Theatre from DeSales University. A classically trained actor and stage combatant with improv and audience interaction skills, he has been featured in Netflix’s “Money Heist: The Experience NYC” as well as Warner Bros. “The Polar Express Train Ride” in Whippany, NJ. He has been a part of several Regional Theatre productions at Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival and Shakespeare Theatre New Jersey! He has built a community for himself in the Off-Broadway scene in NYC, developing new works in the Arab theatre community and is working on developing his poetry into a publicly sharable medium.
Jane is a music director, pianist, and copyist living in Queens, NY. They were most recently the Music Director for the Six US Tour. They were the pianist in, and a co-orchestrator of Heather Christian’s Oratorio for Living Things at Ars Nova, directed by Lee Sunday Evans, for which they received a Lucille Lortel Award. Their broadway conducting credits include Moulin Rouge, Six, Jagged Little Pill, Head Over Heels, and To Kill a Mockingbird. Broadway keyboard credits include Beetlejuice the Musical. Pre-broadway transcription credits include Outsiders and Moulin Rouge.
Whenever Lour calls Leo for a gig, the answer is always an emphatic yes! Leo has studied classical Ottoman music and taksim with Armenian American oud masters Ara Dinkjian and Mal Barsamian. He plays oud and mandolin with klezmer/eastern fusion duo, Miriam’s Pickle Factory and double neck guitar with his “circus rock” act, the Globe of the Eye. He is currently working on a sea chanty about the perils of being a stagehand.
Danielle Breitstein (she/they) is a Brooklyn-based musical theater writer, dramaturg, arranger and performer. Recent credits include Riceland at Columbia University (Viola) , AREA D at The Tank (Violin) Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at Columbia University (Viola) The Thousand and One Nights at Columbia University (Violin)
Alex Petti is a Lebanese Irish-Catholic writer from Massachusetts who grew up as a pop punk rocker. Though his dreams of headlining Warped Tour have ended, the energy of the genre still infuses his music. He writes musical theater shows in the genres of rock, punk, and folk, and is the front man of good thoughts, his NYC based rock band. Alex is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon, a composer in the BMI Advanced Musical Theatre Workshop (2021-present), a member of Untitled Writers Group (2024-present), a NAMT Finalist (2024), a former Keepsake House Artist in Residence (2023), an O’Neill Semi-Finalist (2022, 2025), a Participant in the Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project (2022), and a proud Dad to his cat, Sonia.
Kasey Blezinger is a versatile drummer and percussionist active in New York’s musical theatre scene, with a background in contemporary and orchestral percussion. She brings technical expertise and a wide range of musical experience to every performance, spanning genres and styles. Kasey has performed at Carnegie Hall, Feinstein’s/54 Below, Green Room 42, Ars Nova, Roulette Intermedium, and more. Her credits include Broadway, Off-Broadway, cabarets, and community theatre. She recently appeared in Heather Christian’s Terce: A Practical Breviary at the 2024 Prototype Festival and is currently a percussion sub at Aladdin. Kasey also performs regularly with the Greek-rock band Panel.
Katrien Van Riel is a Filipina-Belgian actor, singer, and multi-instrumentalist from San Francisco, now based in New York City. You can see her on the Norwegian Aqua starting September 2025, playing guitar and singing lead vocals for Syd Norman’s Pourhouse and Syd Norman’s Presents: Rumors. Credits include: Milwaukee Repertory Theatre: Much Ado About Nothing (Margaret, Bass, Keys, Drums, Guitar), Run, Bambi, Run (Swing and various instrument cover), Women of Rock (Assistant Music Director, Guitar, Keys, Bass). Timber Lake Playhouse: Hank Williams: Lost Highway (Audrey), Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (Maria Elena, Keys). Stages (Houston TX): MacGyver the Musical (Strudel, Bass); Playhouse on Park, West Hartford CT: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Music Director, First Fairy, Guitar), The Irish and How They Got That Way (Katrien, Musical Arrangements).
Esmé Maria Ng (they/he/she) is a playwright,dramaturg, and producer who loves heartbreak and developing new plays. Esmé’s creative work focuses on the complexities of Asian American history, queerness and the family unit, for which they have been recognized as a Eugene O’Neill Finalist, a 2023 Lambda Literary Playwriting Fellow, and a June Bingham New Playwright Commission Recipient. Esmé is currently a member of The Tank Producers Cohort, a 2024 CIPA Fellow, and a freelance writer with bylines in American Theatre Magazine. @esmemariang
Maraika Lumholdt (she/her) is an indie theater producer and arts administrator. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University’s Master of Arts Management program, Maraika is passionate about supporting early-career theater artists and making inclusive theater. She currently works in Administration at Second Stage Theater and Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre, and most recently produced the New York City premieres of One Day Down by Samantha Toy Ozeas and FISH MEAT by Esmé Maria Ng.
This show will take place at Ars Nova, located at 511 W 54th Street, New York, NY 10019.
Seating is general admission and first-come first-served. So, the earlier you arrive at the theater, the more choice you’ll have about where you sit! (Bonus: cheapest drinks in Midtown are at Bars Nova!)
The only way to guarantee you reserved seats is to become a Super Nova. Super Novas never hear “sold out,” get reserved seats in prime locations, and make fair wages and accessible tickets possible. Learn more about becoming a Super Nova here!
Tix to this show are Name Your Price starting at $15, meaning you decide what you pay! Best of all, when you name your price, 100% of the single ticket revenue is passed on directly to the show’s lead artists! You can learn more about What’s Ars Is Yours: Name Your Price Tix by visiting our How We Do It page.
If a performance is sold out, you can join a standby line for day-of-show tix made available by minute cancellations and no-shows. Standby will begin 1 hour prior to curtain and will form outsideFolks from the standby line will be admitted into the show on a rolling basis as availability is confirmed. Standby tix are name-your-price starting at $15 + fees.
Additionally, Supra is never sold out! If you can’t make the show in-person, you can always stream online for only $15/mo, which gets you unlimited streaming access to performances from the last year. You can cancel your membership anytime by emailing contact@arsnovanyc.com.
Once you’ve selected your performance date and time at check-out, you’ll see a number of ticket price options ranging from $15 to $100. Select the price point you want to pay and the number of tickets you’d like to purchase and they’ll be added to your cart. After that, continue through the check-out process and you’ll be all set!
Yes. The processing fees are charged by our ticketing and credit card processors, and increase along with the base price of your ticket.
Yes! Ars Nova Supra is our digital platform where you can live stream all of our one-night shows and watch premieres from the past year on-demand. For the low price of $15/mo, you can access an entire seasons worth of comedy, music and theater from our groundbreaking artists, and additionally you can cancel your subscription anytime!
All sales are final – there are no refunds or exchanges.
If you’re unable to use your tickets, you may donate them in exchange for a letter of tax credit by emailing tix@arsnovanyc.com.
We ask that you stay home if you aren’t feeling well or are awaiting the results of a COVID test. Please let us know prior to your ticketed performance, and we will work with you to find a solution if you’re unable to attend.
We welcome and encourage mask-wearing to protect yourself and others. However, as mask mandates have lifted and city, state and federal guidelines have changed, we will not be requiring them at performances.
We no longer require proof of vaccination, but we strongly encourage all audience members to get vaccinated and boosted in accordance with public health guidelines.
Our staff will clean and sanitize the theater and common areas and we’ll continue to provide hand sanitizer for your personal use.
Signage is posted in all spaces encouraging washing or sanitizing hands frequently.
Ars Nova is uncensored. We provide content advisories — to the best of our ability — to inform audiences when shows contain racial violence, racist language, sexual violence or nudity. We provide information about this type of content in advance, based on our core values, so that each audience member can make an informed decision about if and how they’d like to engage with that content. We welcome artists to share additional information about their shows based on their own core values.
Ars Nova is wheelchair accessible. If you wish or need to remain in your wheelchair throughout the show, our staff will remove the theater chair. This can be done by letting us know your needs/plans in advance; just email Declan Zhang. It can also be done without prior notice when you arrive! If you wish to transfer to the theater seat from your wheelchair, we are happy to store your wheelchair or motorized mobility aid in the lobby during the performance. The House Manager will return your mobility device to you at the end of the performance as this show has no intermission.
About 25% of the seating is on the ground floor of the theater and does not require using stairs to access. There are five six-inch steps to get into the building.
All remaining seats require no less than one and no more than three steps to access.
Licensed service animals (any dogs that are trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities) are welcome at Ars Nova. They must rest in your seating area throughout the performance and are unable to occupy the aisle. Please bring proof of certification or a license for your service animal and be prepared to present it to the House Manager upon request. You can send advance notice to tix@arsnovanyc.com, which is appreciated, but not required.
Our bathrooms are stalled, all gender restrooms – everyone is welcome to use any bathroom of their choice. We have two single-person restrooms in the lobby; with the wheelchair accessible option located right outside the theater on the first floor (doors 7 feet 10 inches x 3 feet 10.5 inches).
We have space that can be made to offer privacy for feeding should you need at any time. See the House Manager onsite and they will arrange a comfortable space, with storage and refrigeration for your materials.
The audience seating locations could be in, around and throughout the playing area. Performers will be within 3’ of you.
The seating is a combination of chairs.
Black Chairs with back: 19” wide x 32.25” high x 21.75” deep with a 500lb capacity
Black Counter height: 16.5” wide x 38” high x 18” deep with a 500lb capacity
The doors for entry into the building are 7 feet 10.5 inches x 3 feet 7 inches (external) and 7 feet 10 inches x feet 10.5 inches (internal).
Box Office height is 3 feet 6 inches and the Bar height is 3 feet 8.5 inches.
ANT Fest is our annual festival of All New Talent showcasing new work from New York’s most adventurous emerging artists. Learn more and get into our other ANT Fest shows here!
Charlene Jean, Regi Angelou, Star Mitchell, Dria Brown
ANT Fest 25
Mack Brown, Murphy Taylor Smith, Emerson Mae Smith
ANT Fest 25
Xhloe Rice, Natasha Roland
ANT Fest 25
kanishk pandey, Milo Tucker-Meyer, Lauren Serafica, Katie Walenta
ANT Fest 25
Carsen Joenk, Molly Bicks, Rat Queen Theatre Company
ANT Fest 25
Dalia Ashurina and Go Home
ANT Fest 25
