AZAD (the rabbit and the wolf)
Ancient shadow puppets meet cutting-edge multimedia in a work named among KQED’s Best Bay Area Theater of 2025, reviving humanity’s cultural heritage while pushing artistic frontiers.
A kaleidoscopic multimedia play featuring Sona Tatoyan alongside ancient Karagöz shadow puppets, renowned oud player Ara Dinkjian, video and projection. Written by Sona Tatoyan with director Jared Mezzocchi, a two-time Obie Award-winning pioneer of multimedia performance. After several prestigious development residencies, including Harvard ArtLab, AZAD (the rabbit and the wolf) world premiered in San Francisco in Spring 2025, produced with Golden Thread Productions, to acclaimed reviews.
AZAD (the rabbit and the wolf) was named among KQED’s Best Bay Area Theater of 2025 and received the San Francisco Chronicle’s highest rating. The production is now on a path toward its New York premiere.
120-year-old puppets survived genocide. Now, they are telling a story that can heal the world.
The Story
Stranded in her abandoned war-torn Aleppo family home during the Syrian war, fearing for her dear friend and mentor Turkish human rights activist Osman Kavala facing life in prison, Sona Tatoyan, a first generation Syrian-Armenian-American film and theatre artist discovers a trunk full of her great-great-grandfather’s handmade Karagöz shadow puppets, salvaged a century earlier from the Armenian Genocide.
These puppets hold their own stories – bawdy, hilarious, haunting – pulling her through a dizzying psychedelic, intergenerational landscape. With the help of master storyteller Scherazad, Sona alchemizes a radiant truth with universal implications: stories, when reimagined, possess the power to transmute trauma to healing.
Team
AZAD (the rabbit and the wolf) is more than entertainment. It is a cultural preservation project, a healing ritual, and artistic innovation that transforms trauma into transcendence.
Join us in bringing this extraordinary story to audiences globally. Contact us for presenting, touring, and partnership inquiries.
Azad (the rabbit and the wolf) has been developed by the generous support of The Vineyard Theater in New York City, January 2023; UConn Global Affairs Digital Media Residency in partnership with The Ballard Institute of Puppetry, May 2023; Harvard University ArtLab September 2023; Wake Forest University Theatre Character and Leadership Residency, January/February 2024; and Hakawati at the Vineyard Theater, December 2024.