Portland will be welcoming me with an awesome venue to perform my one man show, Blood Fruit!!! Details here. Spread the word!!!

Majd

Hey there Blood Fruit fans! This Saturday the 25th will be my LAST performance of Blood Fruit in Southern California on account of me leaving for graduate school. Please come see the show before I leave, and donate to help send me along! Donations AND tickets can be purchased HERE. Also, this performance is “Arabian Nights” themed-bring your own luxurious pillow or “magic carpet” to enjoy the performance!

We got a STANDING OVATION on Saturday afternoon’s new opening of Blood Fruit at the Lounge Theatre. Get your tickets for this weekend’s performances today!

Blood Fruit at Hollywood Fringe

I FINALLY added my newer leather masks to the masks page. Check it out! I also added prices in case anyone is interested in buying these, or to get an idea of how much it will cost.

YAY!

Masks by Majd

Blood Fruit was reviewed by SoCal.com and La Weekly. Here are some great highlights from each. Below are links to the full articles:

LA Weekly – “Murad projects a likable and unassuming persona, ably depicting multiple characters and injecting enough humor and personal charm into his performance….”
Full LA Weekly Article

So, Blood Fruit has been getting some great press lately. Check it out!

LA Stage Times asked me to write an article about me and my show. Here it is:
LA Stage Times

ExperienceLA.com has featured me as “What’s Hot!”
Experience LA

YAY!!!

I am SO excited that my one man show is coming back. I just got an email today from my contact Laura at the Lounge Theatre telling me that my show was on NPR today. Wow! AND my show got put on the “What’s Hot” list for experienceLA.com. I am SO happy to have all this buzz! Yay!

Ok, so I’m going to really use this for BLOGGING and not as my home page. It seems to make more sense. I spent all day today working on this website, adding the pics to the mask page (finally), and fixing up the Blood Fruit page slightly, though I think it could use some more pics (tomorrow).

Today I also finished the booking of my venue for Blood Fruit, which will be at the Lounge 2! Yay! Love that place, and Laura and Raquel are so nice (Laura is my contact and Raquel owns the theatre). Very great theatre to rent from.

And… I have a sore throat. . I walked to the Rite Aid nearby for some cough drops. Was a little scary walking at night in Koreatown… memo: Don’t do that again.

Now: Sleep, at 2am… tomorrow: Finish edits for Blood Fruit once and for all!

My name is Majd. No…. not Madge…. MAJD. Pronounced like “measured” without the “ure”. Keep the “d”. All one syllable.

I was born in Baghdad, Iraq. My earliest memories are of the Gulf War. As soon as that was over, my family moved to Jordan for a brief period then made it to Redlands, CA when I was almost 6 years old. I grew up there, had my first love there, my first instrument, my first play… then I went onto UC Riverside with a full scholarship for Neuroscience…

I sat in Chemistry class my first quarter and I had a vision…
The professor rose up on a pedestal and his drones about chemistry turned into a Gregorian Chant. Three other teachers came in and rose with him, and they were put in a yellow-red light. Below, in purple, a sparse group of college students struggling to stay awake. On either end of the room, a giant laptop with one person tap-dancing on them to create the clicks of the laptop. I snapped out of it, and changed majors.

Now, I am an actor, a director, a writer, a maskmaker, and I also teach (though not usually theatre, which is what I’d prefer.) I created this website to show off what I can do, and also help promote the projects I’m working on. It’s not a fancy website with flash and such, but maybe someday… I mean I do dream big after all.

Browse through! My masks are for sale, and I have a production of Blood Fruit happening November-December. The info is all there. Thanks for taking the time to read this! Most people would have gotten antsy and checked their Facebook in between. Good for you (or not… if you left and came back… then shame on you!)

Here’s what’s in the tabs:

Blood Fruit: This is all about my one-man show. It’s the autobiographical story I tell about how I came out to my Catholic Iraqi family. It was recently voted Best of the Hollywood Fringe Festival 2011! Yay! Find out more there.

Masks by Majd: Here you will find pictures of all of my little creations. I make all kinds of masks from classical Commedia Dell’Arte and the contemporary commedia to art masks and costume pieces. Check those out (they are all for sale!)

That’s all for now. Soon I’ll put up some resumes and such so y’all know what I’m capable of. I might even put up a video or two!

Thanks for visiting!

Majd