Watertown’s June Baboian will appear in Boston Playwrights’ Theatre’s “Zabel in Exile,” a play by R.N. Sandberg about an Armenian writer and activist imprisoned in the Soviet Union. The play was developed at The Armenian Museum of America in Watertown. See the announcement from Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, below.
A powerful memory play set in a Soviet prison in 1937, “Zabel in Exile” tells the story of Armenian feminist writer and activist Zabel Yessayan. As personal and political histories collide, Zabel confronts not only the ghosts of her past, but what it means to resist — and to remember — when the very worst of human history repeats itself.
“It’s hard to overstate how proud I am to be bringing the first production of “Zabel in Exile” to Boston Playwrights’ Theatre,” BPT Artistic Director Megan Sandberg-Zakian, who will direct, says. “Many of our audience members will be meeting this incredible artist and human for the first time, and I hope that they will find her as inspiring as I do. Her life and work reminds me that even — or especially — in the bleakest moments, the act of telling stories, of bearing witness, is critical to maintaining our humanity, our compassion, and our capacity for resistance.”
This production is sponsored by Victor Zarougian and Judith Saryan, one of the editors of the English translations of Yessayan’s work. Saryan initially commissioned the work in 2017, and selected playwright R.N. Sandberg’s — who is Sandberg-Zakian’s father — script from the many approaches to Zabel’s story. The play has been developed at Merrimack Repertory Theatre and The Armenian Museum in Watertown.
“When I learned about Zabel Yessayan, I knew that I had found my hero,” Saryan says. “She’s a reminder that people have resisted oppressive regimes. Yessayan is a beacon of courage and truth telling and a voice of hope during very dark times.”
“Zabel in Exile” features June Baboian*, Danny Bryck*, Sarah Corey*, Grace Experience*, Anelga Hajjar and Robert Najarian*. The creative team includes Scenic Designer Marina Sartori, Costume Designer Miranda Guirleo, Lighting Designer Brian Lilienthal, Sound Designer and Composer Arshan Gailus, Properties Artisan and Coordinator Courtney Licata, Assistant Director Nikta Sabouri, Voice and Speech Coach Christine Hamel, Movement Coach and Choreographer Nailah Randall-Bellinger, Production Stage Manager Jenna Worden*, Paint Charge Nina Cote, Wardrobe Assistant Claire Mitchell and Production Assistant Natalie Dion.
(*Appearing through an Agreement between Boston Playwrights’ Theatre and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.)
The season closes with Boston Theater Marathon XXVIII (May 3). The BTM is an award-winning all-day “marathon” of new ten-minute plays chosen from submissions from New England playwrights, and produced by New England theatre companies. The annual event benefits the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund, an organization that provides financial relief to individual theatre practitioners in Greater Boston.
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ABOUT BOSTON PLAYWRIGHTS’ THEATRE
Boston Playwrights’ Theatre is an award-winning professional theatre dedicated to new works for the stage founded in 1981 by Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott. Located on the campus of Boston University, we produce a season of new work, an annual “marathon” of ten-minute plays, and a festival of teenage writers. As the home of the Boston University MFA in Playwriting, we nurture the work of our graduate students through workshops and developmental productions. In addition, MFA Playwrights are closely involved in all facets of BPT—backstage, front of house, and everywhere in between, from education programs to social media management to curation and season selection.
Our alumni have had their work produced around the country and the world, on Broadway, on Netflix, and in wonderful regional theaters large and small. Our alums include Melinda Lopez, Ronán Noone, Molly Smith Metzler, Zayd Dohrn, Alexis Scheer, Eliana Pipes, Karen Zacarías and many more extraordinary writers and humans.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
R.N. SANDBERG’s plays have been seen at theaters throughout the U.S. as well as in Europe, Asia and Australia, and are available from Dramatic Publishing Company and Playscripts. His work includes adaptations of Anne of Green Gables, Frankenstein, A Little Princess, The Odyssey, and the original plays Convivencia, Done, In Between, Jarpteetza/The Firebird, The Judgment of Bett, Mad Dreams, What Can’t Be Seen and Roundelay. He has been commissioned by, among others, American Repertory Theatre, McCarter Theatre and the Seattle Rep. For many years, he taught playwriting, acting and dramatic literature at Princeton University where he received the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching. https://www.rnsandberg.com/
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
MEGAN SANDBERG-ZAKIAN is a theater director focusing on the development of vital new American plays for the stage and the ear, and the Artistic Director of Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. Favorite recent directing projects include The High Ground (Arena Stage), Nat Turner in Jerusalem (New York Theatre Workshop), Much Ado About Nothing (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company), House of Joy (California Shakespeare Theatre), Skeleton Crew (Huntington Theatre Company), Mr. Parent (Geva Theatre Center/Boston Playwrights’ Theatre) and Audible Originals’ Rapture Season and Evil Eye (Audie Award for Best Original Work; Gracie Award for Original Online Programming). Her book There Must Be Happy Endings: On a Theater of Optimism and Honesty is available from The 3rd Thing press. Megan lives in Jamaica Plain, MA, with her wife Candice and daughter Gabriela. megansz.com
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AT A GLANCE:
Zabel in Exile by R.N. Sandberg
Directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian
February 19–March 8, 2026 at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre
Yerevan, 1937. Armenian writer and activist Zabel Yessayan sits in a Soviet prison cell, awaiting execution. But what exactly is her crime? Writing novels? Knowing how to speak French? Being a woman? As Zabel confronts her captors, past and present blur, and she reckons with the injustices she has witnessed and confronted—from schoolyard bullying to the horrors of genocide. Zabel in Exile is a searing memory play that honors the strength of a woman unafraid to stand up to tyranny and wrestles with whether it is possible to continue to believe in light during times of endless darkness.
Production sponsors: Judith Saryan and Victor Zarougian
Content transparency: The play includes descriptions of violence, including the atrocities of genocide. It does not include any such violence depicted onstage.
Single tickets: Adults—$40; BU Faculty/Staff—$25; Seniors-62+ — $25; Students with valid ID — $15; Student rush — $0 (At the Box Office, day-of-performance only).
Pay-What-You-Want Previews—Thursday, February 19 (7 p.m.) and Friday, February 20 (8 p.m.)
For additional information and to purchase tickets, visit www.BostonPlaywrights.org
Related Events:
Wednesday, February 4, 6 p.m.: Zabel in Exile Meet the Artists reading and reception at The National Association of Armenian Studies in Belmont.
Thursday, February 26: Meet the Artists. Post-show conversation with director Megan Sandberg-Zakian, Sound Designer and Composer Arshan Gailius, and members of the Zabel in Exile cast, facilitated by BPT Managing Director Darren Evans.
Saturday, March 7: Post Show Conversation featuring historian Lerna Ekmekcioglu, facilitated by BPT Artistic Director Megan Sandberg-Zakian.