Press
Hakawati Named a MENA Theater Makers Fund Awardee | MENATMA, July 2026
Hakawati has been named one of 18 awardees of the inaugural MENA Theater Makers Fund, the first national funding initiative of its kind for MENA theater organizations in the United States. Administered by the Middle Eastern North African Theater Makers Alliance (MENATMA) with support from The Wallace Foundation’s Advancing Wellbeing in the Arts Initiative and the National Arts Regranting Partners, the fund provides two years of general operating support to organizations serving MENA artists and audiences. Awardees were selected by an external peer panel through a national application process. Hakawati is honored to stand in this cohort alongside organizations including Golden Thread Productions, producing partner of the world premiere of AZAD (the rabbit and the wolf).
The Light Cast by the Shadow Puppets | EVN Report Podcast, EVN Talks, December 2025
In this episode of EVN Talks, Sona Tatoyan speaks about discovering 180 of her great-great-grandfather’s shadow puppets in the attic of the family home in Aleppo, a living thread to her family’s pre-genocide past, and about AZAD (the rabbit and the wolf), the multimedia performance that brings the puppets back to life and carries memory onto a contemporary stage.
The Beautiful Spectacle of ‘AZAD’ at Golden Thread
KQED / NPR
Storytelling Alchemy: Sona Tatoyan
HowlRound
AZAD (the rabbit and the wolf), reviewed
San Francisco Chronicle
Azad Storytelling: Interactive Karagöz Puppetry Experience
The Michigan Daily
The Storyteller
Wake Forest Magazine
Countering Destruction with Creation
Armenian Weekly