Fort Point Theatre Channel to Present Jessica Litwak and Amir al-Azraki's THE LAND, 5/16-18

Fort Point Theatre Channel presents The Land, a new play written by Jessica Litwak, with Amir al-Azraki. Directed by Marc S. Miller, production design by Anne Loyer. Workshop performances: May 16-18, Thurs.-Fri. at 8 pm; Sat. 7 & 9 pm.

Tickets: free, donations welcome. Held at 10 Channel Center Street, Fort Point, Boston. Wheelchair accessible. For general information, visit www.fortpointtc.org or call 617.750.8900.

The Land is a new play by Jessica Litwak, a U.S. playwright, with Amir al-Azraki, an Iraqi playwright. The first script collaboratively developed by U.S. and Iraqi theater artists, The Land is being workshopped as part of the development of the work toward future full productions. The play is based on an idea by Litwak and al-Azraki.

The story for The Land merges the fantastic and the realistic as it moves across time and geography and traverses the worlds of the living and the dead. It is a tragicomedy about two soldiers, one from Iraq and one from the U.S. Although both have been killed, they come to see the horror and humor of their lives while a gravedigger poet buries them. As the gravedigger rushes through his job, they go over their lives, from history to religion to the women they love and will miss. They come to a reconciliation and are motivated to make peace in the afterlife. Meanwhile, their mothers, on opposite sides of the world, come to terms with sorrow, rage, and regret. They meet years later to ask each other: Is understanding possible? Is forgiveness possible? Is peace?

The Land, part of the overall "Tamziq: Scattered and Connected" project, is being developed by Fort Point Theater Channel (FPTC) in conjunction with the Odysseus Project (www.odysseusproject.org) and the William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences (www.umb.edu/joinercenter). "Tamziq" means torn in Arabic and this multifaceted project serves as a conversation in art by Middle Eastern and American artists. "Visitors will see art of profound beauty and artifacts that Open Windows on Islamic culture and Western perceptions of it." (Chris Bergeron, GateHouse News Service)

Anne Loyer, director of the Odysseus Project and a member of the Fort Point Theatre Channel's (FPTC) artistic board, has organized and co-curated the "Tamziq" project, which is currently presenting the "Tamziq" exhibition at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown, MA. The Fort Point Arts Community (FPAC) and FPTC are supporting partners in this exhibit. Loyer conceived "Tamziq" to create opportunities for dialogue and exchange with and within two communities: Iraqi refugees resettling in Massachusetts and U.S. veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

FPTC's workshop production of The Land features Ahmad Maksoud as the gravedigger, Lisa Caron Driscoll as an Iraqi mother, Michael Dwan Singh as her son, an Iraqi freedom fighter, Sally Nutt as an American mother, and Wilkinson Theodoris as her son, an American soldier.

Further background information:

Jessica Litwak, RDT, is artistic director of The H.E.A.T. Collective (www.heatcollective.org) an organization dedicated to Healing, Education, Activism and Theatre, and the New Generation Theatre Ensemble, a theatre for youth (www.ngte.org) Litwak's work has been published by Applause Books, Smith and Krause, and The New York Times. Plays include Emma Goldman: Love Anarchy and Other Affairs directed by Anne Bogart; A Pirate's Lullaby, winner of the Oregon Book Award, produced in Portland, at Rattlestick Theater, and at The Goodman Theatre; The Promised Land, commissioned by The National Federation of Jewish Culture and produced in Budapest; Secret Agents and Victory Dance produced in Los Angeles at The Renberg Theatre and the DR2 in New York; and many others. Litwak has taught at San Francisco State University, the Theatre Academy at Los Angeles City College, Stella Adler Academy, Marymount Manhattan College, Naropa, Columbia, NYU, and Lesley University. She conducts workshops around the world in peace-building and Performance for Acting Together On the World Stage. Litwak is on the steering committee of Theatre Without Borders and co-leads Artist Distress Services for freeDimensional.

Born in Basra, Amir Al-Azraki received his BA from the University of Basra, an MA from Baghdad University, and a PhD in theatre studies at York University in Toronto, Canada. After completing his dissertation, he returned to the University of Basra in 2011. During the first years of the Iraq War, Al-Azraki, in addition to teaching English drama at the University of Basra, worked as a fixer and translator for such international news outlets as The New York Times and The Dallas Morning News, later working for Al Mirbad TV and Radio run by the BBC World Service Trust. He developed a collaboration of the University of Basra, the Central School of Speech and Drama, and the University of London on "Transforming the Learning Environment Through Forum Theatre: Developing a Basra University Model." Among his plays are Waiting for Gilgamesh: Scenes from Iraq, Stuck, Notorious Women, Lysistrata in Iraq, Home Woes, and Judgement Day.

Anne Loyer has been involved in visual storytelling throughout her career, from her two-dimensional fine art work, to narrative animations, to public art projects and performances that include her audio and video collages based on participants' stories. Her first film short won the "Indie Soul" Special Recognition award at the Boston International Film Festival. She recently served as art director for the Academic Media Studio at Wesleyan University, where she produced award-winning video and interactive web sites for educational use in classroom and museum settings. While a guest artist at Montserrat College of Art, she collaborated with professor Gabrielle Keller and students on a project that evolved into the Odysseus Project, an ongoing dialogue among veterans, artists, and artist-veterans. Her work has been supported by grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Jane's Trust, and a fellowship at the National Academy of Design.

Marc S. Miller is FPTC's co-artistic director, co-founder, and producer. He has directed for a number of Boston-area theatres and was a member of the Actors' Coop of North Carolina. With FPTC, he has directed 4:48 Psychosis, The Time of Your Life, and Hotel Cassiopeia and Silvia Graziano's Heads or Tales? for FeverFest 2010. He has acted, stage managed, and swept the floors for countless theatre companies over four decades. A writer and editor for his day job, he has written or been project director for a dozen books, including several that won major awards. He has written on theatre, economic opportunity, health care, human rights, history, and technology policy. He is a long-time board member and past president of Resist Foundation, www.resistinc.org, and a board member of Fort Point Arts Community, www.forpointarts.org.

Fort Point Theatre Channel (www.fortpointtc.org) is dedicated to creating and sustaining new configurations of the performing arts. They bring together an ensemble of artists from the worlds of theater, music, visual arts, and everything in between as a forum for collaborative expression while enriching the Fort Point community, Boston, and beyond. FPTC Artistic Directors are: Rick Dorff, Mary Driscoll, Christie Lee Gibson, Silvia Graziano, Anne Loyer, Marc S. Miller, Hana Pegrimkova, Sally Nutt, Amanda Sheehan, Robin Smith, Nick Thorkelson, Douglas Urbank, Daniel J. van Ackere, and Mark Warhol.

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