G.O.L.D. Spotlight: Fouad Dakwar ’18

Friends Seminary is proud to congratulate Fouad on being named a 2025 Jonathan Larson Grant recipient—a nationally recognized honor from the American Theatre Wing that champions early-career musical theater writers (composers, lyricists, and librettists) through an unconditional investment in their work and long-term careers.

This honor reflects what Fouad’s work has made clear for a long time: a voice with courage, craft, and something urgent to say.

A multimedia artist whose subversive comedy channels his Palestinian-American immigrant upbringing—with a punk-rock twist—Fouad is the creator of the semi-autobiographical musical Fouad of Nazareth, featured on the Playbill Songwriter Series, which described him as “a darkly comic pop-punk composer on the rise.”

The piece was first developed through Berklee NYC’s Writing and Production for Musical Theater master’s program, then premiered through two sold-out Joe’s Pub concert fundraisers benefiting the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. Since then, Fouad of Nazareth has continued to build momentum—earning a residency with the 2025 Johnny Mercer Foundation Writers Grove at Goodspeed, and moving toward an upcoming concept album produced by Noor Theatre and recorded at the Power Station at Berklee NYC with support from Pop Culture Collaborative’s “Becoming America” grant.

Fouad’s trajectory is equally unstoppable: a 2024–25 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow, 2025 Yes And… Laughter Lab Fellow, Joe’s Pub Council member, 2026 Kleban Prize librettist finalist—and a 2023 Jonathan Larson Grant finalist, now officially making the cut.

Congratulations, Fouad—here’s to the next chapter (and the music still to come).