DRONE Comes to Detroit Public Theatre

This summer, the Arab American National Museum (AANM) will present the first fully-staged production of DRONE, a new play by Joyce Award-winning playwright Andrea Assaf, with performances at Detroit Public Theatre.

“AANM and Andrea Assaf have a long history of collaboration and partnership. It's an honor to be presenting her new play, DRONE, at the Detroit Public Theatre this summer during our 20th anniversary year.” - Diana Abouali, AANM Director

This transdisciplinary performance explores the drone as a metaphor for how we become desensitized to daily violence (domestic and global), the question of Moral Injury, and the effects of remote-control warfare on the human soul. The play is performed with an interactive media design and live music, intertwining songs from the U.S. South to the Middle East, featuring internationally acclaimed vocalist Lubana al Quntar.

A unique component of DRONE is the development process. AANM has been a key partner in the project's development since 2020. During the pandemic, AANM hosted Assaf for digital artist residency, in which Assaf facilitated community workshops online and completed the script. In November 2022, Assaf completed the music score with collaborating artists during a second residency at AANM, and presented a work-in-progress titled “DRONE: Testimonies & Music,” including three characters called “The Survivors” that are based on the real-life testimonies of witnesses and survivors of drone strikes, re-written into multi-voice poetry. Now, the full production will be mounted for the first time, with a large collaborating artistic team of local, national and international guest artists, including performers and designers.

“It is always an honor to be an artist-in-residence with the Arab American National Museum, a truly unique arts institution in the U.S. cultural landscape. The Dearborn and Detroit area is the perfect place to develop and share the DRONE project. We are creating a new performance about global wars that are happening right now, while they are happening, with the communities who are most impacted by them. We are investigating this technology while it is escalating. The project feels urgent, and challenging, and we are very fortunate to have support from AANM and the Joyce Award to raise our voices in this critical time.” -Andrea Assaf

Recently, Playwrights' Center asked 52 playwrights to each nominate a play that they hope to see produced and that fit the criteria for a Venturous Play: formally adventurous, epic in scope, and full of bold ideas. Iraqi American playwright and the first AANM artist-in-residence Heather Raffo nominated DRONE. About the play, Raffo said, “DRONE is a brave and challenging play on all accounts: in concept, theme, and narrative structure. An ambitious cast spans cultures, regions, and race, provoking audiences to understand how desensitization to surveillance and violence (domestic and global) truly impacts us all—no matter if we are victims, survivors, or operating behind a bunker wall. A trans-disciplinary play, weaving poetry, music, and technology within its narrative drama, DRONE explores the effects of remote-control warfare on the human soul and reminds us that with all our advancements, technology still cannot save us from ourselves.”

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Best Musical - Top 3

1. THE COLOR PURPLE (STAGECRAFTERS)

5.9% of votes

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5.3% of votes

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