Zabel in Exile: Meet the Artists, Reading and Reception at NAASR

BELMONT — The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) will host an in-person only Meet the Artists program and reception featuring Director Megan Sandberg-Zakian, Judith Saryan, and Members of the Cast of the play Zabel in Exile, on Wednesday, February 4, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. at the NAASR Vartan Gregorian Building, 395 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA.

Following the reading and discussion there will be a reception to which all attendees are cordially invited.

Running February 19 through March 8 at the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, R. N. Sandberg’s 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.

The play is sponsored by Victor Zarougian and Judith Saryan, one of the editors of the English translations of Yessayan’s work and a member of NAASR’s Board of Directors and former Chairperson. Saryan initially commissioned the work in 2017, and selected playwright R.N. Sandberg’s—who is the director Megan 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.

For more information about this program, contact NAASR at hq@naasr.org.