Leila Buck performs at the US Consulate in Jeddah.

Leila Buck, Arab American playwright, actress and storyteller, entertained a select audience at the US Consulate with her solo performance here on Sunday.

Her Jeddah performance was a part of a multi-country tour that includes programming with the US Missions in Tunisia and Lebanon, as well as a stop in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

While in Jeddah, Buck also performed for a female audience at the Safeya Binzager Museum and conducted a workshop at the Ahmed Badeeb Center.

Her award-winning solo shows about growing up between the US and the Arab world have been staged in the US, Europe and China. Her performances weave complex interactive dialogues in Arabic and English, which reflect her experience growing up in a cross-cultural environment.

About her work, Buck writes: “In my writing, performance and teaching, I often serve as a bridge, facilitating direct and nuanced connections that cross political, social, economic, national, religious and cultural boundaries. I grew up with my Lebanese mother and American diplomat father, constantly moving between the US and the Arab world.

“In the process, I experienced first hand how multiple cultures, lives and daily realities exist simultaneously — equally real, sometimes in conflict, often intersecting. So I strive in all of my work to reflect both the uniqueness of our different experiences and the unexpected links between them.

I seek always to create a shared space of intimacy, inviting everyone present to connect to the work and one another at the intersection of the personal and political, where our beliefs about the world and our relation to it are formed. Over the years I have seen how this process can transform the energy in the room, create challenging dialogue and shift perceptions. I strive through these moments of connection in my work to inspire compassion, empathy and action across all boundaries toward meaningful change in ourselves, and in our local and global communities.”

Over the past ten years, Buck has been a founding member and Education Director of Nibras Arab-American Theater Collective, Artistic Director of Nisaa Arab-American Women’s Collective, and a writer and performer for the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival.

She has conducted workshops on playwriting, storytelling and drama for cross-cultural engagement at conferences, universities, schools and cultural centers across the US and around the world, most recently in Denmark as a US State Department Cultural Envoy.

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