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SRTP is a creative response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Company co-founders and life partners, Malik Gillani and Jamil Khoury, felt galvanized to respond to the anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiments that swept the US in the aftermath of the attacks. Their hope was to counter negative representation of Middle Eastern and Muslim peoples with representation that was authentic, realistic, and grounded in human experience. The idea quickly expanded beyond the Middle East to encompass that vast geographical area known historically as the "Silk Road" home to a diverse array of peoples and cultures stretching from China to Italy. SRTP thus officially came into existence in summer 2002, becoming Chicago's first ever theatre company dedicated to representing the experiences of such a broad grouping of peoples and regions.
Since 2002, SRTP has grown by leaps and bounds -- we now have a state-of-the-art full time theatre in Chicago's Loop theatre district! SRTP produces both full productions and staged readings. We introduce Chicago audiences to playwrights of Silk Road backgrounds, who have been produced on a national and international basis, but seldom if ever in Chicago. In giving voice to cultures and experiences long absent on the American stage, we aim to integrate these voices within the canon of American theatre.
