Divas You Don’t Know is a one-woman play in English, Arabic, French, and Russian. In it, Milia Ayache explores her enduring preoccupation with three transnational divas of yore, their presence (or lack thereof) in contemporary culture, their posthumous impact on women in the public sphere, as well as the converging struggles that accompanied their personal and professional lives. Through song, dramatic monologue, and movement, she investigates their legacies and questions their roles relative to the politics of their respective nations.

Not completely forgotten, the divas, Maya Kristalinskaya (Russian), Asmahan (Syrian-Egyptian), and Dalida (French-Egyptian-Italian), have little space carved out for them on our consumer culture sponsored world stage. In our fraught political landscape where we are cornered into choosing sides, this is a story of women who didn’t. Kristalinskaya, once a grand Soviet diva, was relegated to touring backwoods cultural centers due to the rising anti-Semitism in the USSR. Asmahan, a Druze princess and spy, was murdered for being a double agent during WWII. Ayache dedicated much of her time at Surel’s Place to writing their stories in order to get their show on the road.

BIOGRAPHY
Milia Ayache is a Beirut-based actor and writer. She originated the role of Molly in The Birth of Paper, an online/offline show linking the cities of Beirut and Pittsburgh through the mail, as well as The Performer in Angelmakers: Songs for Female Serial Killers, both plays produced by Real/Time Interventions.
Her latest piece of writing "Splits/kin" was published in The New England Review. “Vocal Hygiene for the Revolution” was published in Contemporary Theatre Review in 2020. Her article “Playing for Time in Beirut” on making theatre in public spaces was published in American Theater Magazine in 2017.
She recorded the entirety of Etel Adnan’s The Arab Apocalypse for the Sfeir-Semler Gallery in Hamburg. Favorite credits include Frog and Nadezda in Masrah Ensemble’s production of Derek Walcott’s Ti-Jean and His Brothers and Biljana Srbljanović’s Family Stories; Hermia in Walden Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Miles in the world premiere of Futurity: A Musical at the ART Institute at Harvard. In 2022, Ayache was in residence at Hedgebrook.

As an educator at the American University of Beirut and as a volunteer both at a senior citizen university program and in Syrian/Palestinian refugee camps, she championed voices from the margins- including migrant workers, refugees, women, seniors, and youths of different sexual orientations. She helped design and run Youthful Cities, a writing residency between Beirut and Coventry for writers under the age of 25; sat on the panel for the Mastercard scholarship, edited (and still edits!) drama for the Beirut literary journal Rusted Radishes, and produced plays for disenfranchised drama students at the university. Her mission has continued even while as a visiting assistant professor at Point Park University in Pittsburgh. In joining the community at Surel’s Place, she wants to offer her time, mentorship, connections, and advice on digital security/open source technology...if anyone wants it.