Why Pulitzer Winner Ayad Akhtar Wrote Disgraced

“I was at a dinner party in 2006 with some friends and talk turned to Islam and a couple of European friends were there … who I don’t think had identified me as Muslim, at least not in any operative sense. And I noticed in a very subtle way how that evening shifted their idea of me and it always – after that night, it always struck me that this would be a great idea for a play.”