The Land

The Land

By Jessica Litwak, with Amir al-Azraki 

May 16-18, 2013
Thursday, May 16, 8 pm
Friday, May 17, 8 pm
Saturday, May 18, 7 pm AND 9 pm

10 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston

All performances are free (donations accepted).
Click here for reservations or call 1-800-838-3006

Fort Point Theatre Channel will stage a workshop production of The Land, a new play by Jessica Litwak, a U.S. playwright, with Amir al-Azraki, an Iraqi playwright. The first script of its kind, 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 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 tragic-comedy 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 Cast

Lisa Caron Driscoll
Ahmad Maksoud
Sally Nutt
Michael Dwan Singh
Wilkinson Theodoris

The Staff

Anne Loyer, Production Designer
Marc S. Miller, Director
Sarah Asbury, Stage Manager
Hana Pegrimkova, Props, Masks
Ida Aronson, Lighting Designer
Meredith Magoun, Costume Designer
Erin Anderson, Makeup
Samual Lasman, Dramaturg

Our production is part of Tamziq: Scattered and Connected, a long-term collaboration of Anne Loyer, an artistic director of FPTC, with the Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences at UMass Boston, where she is artist-in-residence. The multifaceted project creates opportunities for dialogue with and within two communities: Iraqi refugees resettling in Massachusetts and veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. It seeks to explore and stimulate conversation about the impact of war on the communities and cultures of Iraqi and other Arabic refugees; the impact on education; and the related topics of gender, human rights, storytelling, and differences between American and Arabic perspectives.

Other main parts of Tamziq are:

American and Middle Eastern Artists: A Conversation in Art, March 17-April 27, 2013, Arsenal Center for the Arts, Watertown: This exhibit will feature local and international artists from the United States, the Middle East, and its Diaspora. An artist panel, reception, and film screenings will take place during the spring. 

Artist Network: Creating a community of local American and Middle Eastern artists in Boston. Meetings, supported by professionals and academics specializing in area studies, art/politics, and other relevant fields, will lead to work for the exhibit.

Education: With the goal of developing mutual understanding that goes beyond the media portrayal of our respective cultures, the project is partnering with playwright Amir Al Azraki at the University of Basra to explore opportunities for educational projects involving students in Iraq and the United States.

As part of Tamziq, Fort Point Theater Channel is also producing staged readings and other productions of works by Middle Eastern playwrights. The first reading, an excerpt from Waiting for Gilgamesh, took place at HallSpace Gallery in Dorchester, June 20, 2012, during Icons, an exhibition of work by Anne Loyer, with pieces by Aaron Hughes and Matt Thompson. Icons is a series of art works that has grown out of interviews with U.S. veterans of the Iraq war and with Iraqi citizens, recorded over the past three years. This was presented in conjunction with Danny Bryck reading an excerpt from his one-man play, No Room for Wishing.

For more information on Tamziq: Scattered and Connected and the Odysseus Project, see http://www.odysseusproject.org/tamziq.html.