'7Women, 7Heavens,' About Muslim Women, Plays 11/18

The ASMA Society's Daisy Khan will present a special benefit performance of the world premiere of 7Women, 7Heavens: Portraits of Muslim Women.

Written by internationally recognized playwright and actress Kayhan Irani (We've Come Undone) and directed and staged by Broadway veteran Jonathan Stuart Cerullo (Legs Diamond, tours of Cats and Sweet Charity, "Tribute to Uta Hagen"), it will be performed Saturday, November 18, 2006 - 8:30PM at The Westin New York at Time Square (270 West 43rd St., Majestic Ballroom – Fifth Floor).

The show will feature Alexius Hale, Amira Nader and Laura Schleifer Rochelle Zimmerman. It will include lighting by David Weatherly, multimedia projections by David Schulder, movement consultation by Afua Hall and stage management by Vanessa Wendt.
 
"Daisy Khan, Executive Director of the ASMA Society, has a dream. She founded, in 1997, an Islamic cultural and educational organization dedicated to fostering an American-Muslim identity and building bridges between American Muslims and the American public. Part of this dream is to involve the performing; musical, visual, spoken, and language arts in support her mission. This year, Ms. Khan has commissioned the creation of 7Women, 7Heavens; Portraits of Muslim Women to be presented at her unprecedented conference entitled WISE: Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equity taking place here in New York City, November 17 – 19 at the Westin New York at Times Square," according to press materials.

Irani's show "is an emotional and time sensitive play that juxtaposes real experiences and true stories of seven, modern day, Muslim women overlooked by Islamic law and justice; art for life's sake....These women express in; abrasive and soothing, amusing and poetic, monologues about their personal struggles with faith, community, and relationships. Calling up voices of women in the past and in the present, 7Women, 7Heavens brings out of the darkness and into light the long-suffering and constant hope of women who lack bona fide representation and consideration in a struggle to make a place for themselves and for those who will come.

This four-character, all-female cast, incorporates multimedia montages of mixed art imagery, blended with traditional Islamic music and dance, story telling theatre and Koranic recitative."

WISE is a first-of-its-kind global Muslim women's leadership development conference where 100 distinguished women leaders from academia, civil society, art, politics, and religion will convene to network, strategize, and share best practices around the joint mission of advancement the rights of Muslim women.

For more information please on Irani, visit www.artivista.org.  For more on Cerullo, visit www.jscproductions.com.   For ticket information, visit www.asmasociety.org/home.
 

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