Yussef El Guindi is a playwright living in Seattle. His most recent production was Back of The Throat, winner of the the 2004 Northwest Playwright’s Competition. It recently won LA Weekly’s award for Best New Play. It was also nominated for the 2006 American Theater Critics Association’s Steinberg/New Play Award, and was voted Best New Play of 2005 by the Seattle Times. It was first staged by San Francisco’s Thick Description and Golden Thread Productions; then later presented by Theater Schmeater in Seattle; Manbites Dog Theater in Durham, North Carolina; the Cyrano Theater Company in Anchorage, Alaska; the Flea Theater in New York; the Furious Theatre Company in Pasadena; and Silk Road Theatre Project in Chicago. Silk Road Theatre Project produced another play of his, Ten Acrobats in An Amazing Leap of Faith, which recently won the ‘After Dark Award’ for best new play in Chicago. Back of the Throat, and two related one-acts, Such a Beautiful Voice is Sayeda’s and Karima’s City, have been published by Dramatists Play Service. Yussef holds an MFA from Carnegie-Mellon University and was playwright-in-residence at Duke University. He can be contacted at yelg@mindspring.com.