The Kite Runner Play Guide - Actors Theatre of Louisville

About the authorkhaled hosseiniIn many ways, the life of Amir and the events portrayed in TheKite Runner, reflect author Khaled Hosseini’s own personal story.He was born on March 4th, 1965 in Kabul where The Kite Runnerbegins. Like the protagonist Amir, Hosseini and his four youngersiblings enjoyed a peaceful childhood in the affluent Wazir AkbarKhan neighborhood in the Afghan capital city where kite fightingis a local passion, much like basketball or football here in theUnited States. Because of his father’s career as a diplomat forthe Afghan Foreign Ministry, the family had to move away fromAfghanistan to Tehran, and later Paris. It was while the Hosseinifamily was living abroad that the PDPA (the People’s DemocraticParty of Afghanistan) violently took control of the governmentin 1978, followed by the Soviet invasion. Instead of returning tothe war-torn country, the Hosseini family resettled in San José,California, among a growing Afghan refugee population.Like Baba and Amir, Hosseini’s family had very little when theycame to the United States, despite their wealth and status backin Afghanistan. His father, the former diplomat, worked on anassembly line, while his mother, a former teacher of history andFarsi, worked as a waitress at a Denny’s. Taking an examplefrom his hardworking parents, Hosseini applied himself to hisstudies, graduating from high school, college, and medical school,eventually becoming a doctor. However, he had always lovedreading and writing, and was first inspired to try writing novelsafter reading John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath in his highschool English class. He wrote the draft for The Kite Runner in theearly morning hours before working longs shifts at Cedars-SinaiMedical Center in Los Angeles. The book was published in 2003and quickly became a best-seller; its themes of friendship andredemption resonated with readers. While there are many parallelsbetween Hosseini’s and Amir’s lives as far as the setting and thehistorical events in The Kite Runner, Hosseini says that the plotitself is not autobiographical.Hosseini continues to write (A Thousand Splendid Suns, 2007), andprovides humanitarian aid to Afghanistan through The KhaledHosseini Foundation. He organized the Foundation after a trip toAfghanistan in 2007 as a Goodwill Envoy for the United NationsHigher Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It had been thirtyKhaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runneryears since the author had left his native country. Although hewrote a graphic depiction of modern-day Afghanistan in The KiteRunner, he said after seeing the devastation first-hand he realizedthe situation was worse than what he had imagined. Hosseinicurrently lives in northern California with his wife and twochildren.About the adaptorMatthew SpanglerMatthew Spangler adapted the script for The Kite Runner from Khaled Hosseini’s novel.He is an Assistant Professor of Performance Studies at San Jose State University, where heteaches courses on adaptation. Previous works include a one-actor show of James Joyce’snovel, Dubliners, as well as an adaptation using several short stories by Ernest Hemingway.He also wrote a music-theatre adaptation, Mozart!, based on the composer’s letters. Hereceived his B.A. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, and later a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is amember of the Dramatists Guild of America.Did you know?Actors Theatre is offering a newhow-to-adapt playwriting residency.Adaptation is a ten-session residencyguiding fifth-grade classroomsthrough the process of turning amodern classic book into a play.For more information contact us ateducation@actorstheatre.org4