Eclipsed will change the way you think about war…

As McCarter’s Director of High School Programs, I am responsible for writing the educational content for our audience resource guides, and I also facilitate many of the post-show discussions for the student matinees.  A significant focus in my approach to preparing educational materials and curricula, is deciding what our student audiences and their teachers might need to prepare them for the production and/or to enrich their experience of the play in performance.

After reading Danai Gurira’s Eclipsed and seeing a directed reading with actors, it was immediately clear to me that what our student audiences—and perhaps our general IN-Festival audience—might need to prepare themselves for this remarkable and moving play:

• knowledge about the plight of women in Liberian through what playwright Danai Gurira refers to as “twenty years of on again, off again wars”

• knowledge about the brutal treatment, torture, and demoralization of women and girls in Liberia, as well as in other conflict zones, past and present, across the globe;

• knowledge about what women and children (both girls and boys) are forced and coerced into doing to simply survive a day, a week, a month, a year, a decade, and beyond, in a country or region torn asunder by war.

To educate me about the backdrop for Eclipsed, my colleague, McCarter Literary Intern, and frequent McCarter blogger, Patrick McKelvey (in his capacity as assistant to Literary Manager and Eclipsed Dramaturg, Carrie Hughes), provided me with a stack of books on women, war, and sexual and gendered violence, including editor Anne Llewellyn Barstow’s War’s Dirty Secret:  Rape Prostitution, and Other Crimes Against Women and editors Meredith Turshen’s and Clotilde Twagiramariya’s What Women Do in Wartime:  Gender and Conflict in Africa.  Although neither of these books focus specifically on the plight of Liberian women, they present eye-opening research and scholarship on the nature and scope of the victimization of woman in armed conflict situations from World War II to the present day; on the crimes perpetrated upon women from Korea, China, Yugoslovia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Chad, Mozambique, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Haiti, etc.; and on atrocities committed by Japanese, Rwandans, Kenyans, Guatemalans, Nicaraguans, Haitians, Yugoslavians, Serbians, Bosnians, Croats, as well as citizens of the United States, etc.

Barstow begins the introduction of her book with the sentence, “The purpose of this book is to change the way you think about war” (1). This simple quotation reminds me very much of the effect of Danai Gurira’s Eclipsed on me; although Gurira may not have had this as her conscious intention when writing, this play will change the way you think about war.

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Danai Gurira in In the Continuum, photo by Craig Schwartz

Playwright Danai Gurira has been developing her newest play, Eclipsed at McCarter. She and Nikkole Salter read excerpts from the play in our first “IN-Festival,” and the play received its first reading at McCarter in last year’s IN-Festival.  This year, the play is the Spotlight Production for the IN-Festival, running from January 29-February 8.  For ticket information, click here.  In researching the play, which explores the effects of war on Liberian women, Danai traveled to Liberia through a TCG New Generations grant, which she applied for with McCarter Theatre. She came back with a journal of her experiences which we shared on the blog last year.  I thought it worth re-posting today, on the first day of rehearsals for the Spotlight Production of Eclipsed.

I arrived with a vague confidence that things were in place to accomplish my goals; transport was organized, contacts were aware of my arrival, accommodations were relatively in place. Mohammed who would be my trusty driver for my entire stay picked me up from the airport. The US embassy Public Affairs officer Meg had connected me to his boss. The US embassy officer in the same position in Pretoria South Africa who had brought us to perform In the Continuum there earlier that year connected me to her. I marvel at how constructively my web of connections in Liberia was weaved. I was connected and ready to go.

The city was frightful to the eye. I realized this was where Hollywood and popular media filmed their “Africa” footage, where things could not be more destroyed and dismal, services could not be more lacking, buildings could not be more decrepit, and people could not be poorer. The streets marveled me, they were so riddled with potholes navigating them completely disallowed one the ability to speed. I thought of my own country, Zimbabwe, and realized how advanced it was for an African nation, and lamented at how bad leadership could lead to what I saw before me. We are crumbling at the seams, and though it would take a great deal to get us to this point, we are descending dangerously. But Monrovia showed all the signs of a land recovering from the ravages of war. It was later described to me by Americans working on the ground as a shantytown and a refugee camp. It was designed for only one hundred thousand residents and now was the home to over a million. Much of this influx was due to war displacement and the process of urbanization, which has taken its course across the continent.

My work began with phone calls, once settled in the Cape Hotel, recommended by Meg as safe and sufficient, and very close to the US embassy (for whatever that was worth). My first meeting was set up with Juli, a Liberian woman of steel in my present estimation, she became my most important contact, she was connected to me once again by Meg, described as one of those phenomenal Liberian women who just make it happen despite it all. The description was an underrating; this woman was a true tour de force. She had fought for peace in the midst of a vicious war, risking her life on several occasions, returning to a war zone when the US government evacuated her (she has American born children) and negotiating with armed rebel fighters to disarm by promising to send them back to school. She presently heads her own non-profit: Crusaders for Peace, which functions in a multidimensional way to bring about needed development in the country. We met at the Royal Hotel and had a meal; she listened to my spiel, more specifics on who I was and what my hopes and goals were. She was blunt, telling me, ‘you sound white do you know that? I was sure I was coming to meet a white girl. When you approached me I thought you were just someone who knew me from somewhere else.” I made a quick mental note to self to blacken up my English tone, whatever that meant exactly I would figure out later. She was glad to hear what my mission was, but had one final concern, “How old are you?” I assured her I was older than I looked and when I stated I was on the verge of thirty her face relaxed with relief. From that moment on, we became colleagues. She was very keen to maximize my dramatic arts expertise, she utilized much theater for development in her various developmental campaigns and was horrified with the performances and created works of her dramatic team. “They need help. I can’t stand to look at the stuff they come up with.” She said she would bring in other aspiring artists and I could conduct a weeklong workshop. She then offered to set up interviews with women who survived the war, both in and outside of the capital. I later learned that Juli was also the Liberian Cultural Ambassador; meaning she represented Liberia globally on any cultural activity. She had just returned from South Africa where she attended Lucky Dube’s funeral (the African Bob Marley, gunned down in Johannesburg recently). She shared her struggle to gain financial backing to create a home for children, complete with a school and a community of a church, stores and other facilities. She invited me to come to her census workshop the next morning. I readily accepted. Her organization had won the government bid to spear head communications and education on the national census - happening in 2008, the first one since 1984 - before the country went into twenty years of on again, off again wars.

Things were off to a good start, Juli was going to organize interviews, I was going to conduct workshops and I would work with other contacts to find more potential interviews.

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EVEN MORE 2008 Retreat Participants!!!

WILL POWER

Will Power is an award-winning playwright, rapper, actor, and educator.

Most recently, Power received the 2006 Lucille Lortell Award for Outstanding Musical for his play, The Seven, Theatre Communications Group’s 2006 Peter Zeisler Memorial Award recognizing innovation, the prestigious Joyce Award, a 2005 NYFA Fellowship, a 2004 Jury Award for Best Theatre Performance at the HBO/US Comedy Arts Festival, and a 2004 Drama Desk nomination for Best Solo Performance.

Power’s skills have also been captured on television and film. Recent guest appearances include Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason (PBS), The Colbert Report (Comedy Central), Last Call with Carson Daly (NBC) and Russell Simmons’s Def Poetry Jam (HBO). He was the lead male in the film, Drylongso, a hit at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival and was also featured in the documentary, All Fathers are Sons.

He has been highlighted in publications as varied as his skills. From glowing reviews in The New York Times and American Theater Magazine, to interviews in VIBE and The Source, Will Power deftly walks the line between serious, studied actor and urban hip hop MC. Will Power’s varied skills, high-energy performances and lyrics are matched only by his remarkable teaching ability, providing communities across the globe with tools of self-expression.

Will was in residence at McCarter during the 2007-2008 season through an Artists & Communities program of the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation and the Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights, a project of the National Endowment for the Arts and Theatre Communications Group.

JOSE RIVERA

Jose Rivera is the author of 27 plays and 13 screenplays. He is the recipient of two OBIE Awards for Playwriting, a Fulbright Arts Fellowship, a Whiting Foundation Award, a McKnight Fellowship, a Rockefeller Foundation Grant, and a Kennedy Center Grant. He studied with Gabriel Garcia Marquez at the Sundance Institute and was writer-in-residence at the Royal Court Theatre, London.

U.S. premieres include THE HOUSE OF RAMON IGLESIA (Ensemble Studio Theatre), THE PROMISE (Ensemble Studio Theatre), EACH DAY DIES WITH SLEEP (Circle Rep & Berkeley Rep), SLAUGHTER IN THE LAKE (Ensemble Studio Theatre), MARISOL (Humana Festival), CLOUD TECTONICS (Humana Festival), REFERENCES TO SALVADOR DALI MAKE ME HOT (South Coast Rep.), SONNETS FOR AN OLD CENTURY (Greenway Arts Alliance), SUENO (Hartford Stage), TAPE (Humana Festival), GIANTS HAVE US IN THEIR BOOKS (Magic Theatre), MARICELA DE LA LUZ LIGHTS THE WORLD (La Jolla Playhouse), THE STREET OF THE SUN (Mark Taper Forum), ADORATION OF THE OLD WOMAN (La Jolla Playhouse), SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS (Joseph Papp Public Theatre & LAByrinth Theatre), MASSACRE (SING TO YOUR CHILDREN) (Goodman Theatre & Teatro Vista), BRAINPEOPLE (ACT, San Francisco), GLIESE 581D (Chicago Humanities Festival), BOLEROS FOR THE DISENCHANTED (Yale Rep.), YELLOW (Collaboraction), and FLOWERS (Ensemble Studio Theatre).

Rivera was nominated for a 2005 Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Writers Guild of America award for his screenplay “The Motorcycle Diaries.” In 2006 he wrote and directed the short film “The Tape Recorder.” His film “Trade” was the first film to premiere at the United Nations. His screen adaptation of Kerouac’s ON THE ROAD will begin production winter 2008. In 2007 he directed the music video of Serj Tankian’s (System of a Down) song “The Sky is Over.”

ANNA ZIEGLER

Anna Ziegler’s plays include: BFF (W.E.T. at the DR2 Theatre, 2007), NOVEL (SPF, 2007), PHOTOGRAPH 51 (commissioned by Active Cultures and produced February-March, 2008), DOV AND ALI (Theatre 503, June-July 2008), LIFE SCIENCE (Bulldog Theatrical, 2007), VARIATIONS ON A THEME (to be work-shopped July 2008 by Chautauqua Theater Company, directed by Ethan McSweeny) , IN THE SAME ROOM, THE MINOTAUR, TO BE FAIR, and EVERYTHING YOU HAVE.

Ziegler’s plays have been developed by: The Sundance Theatre Lab, The Old Vic New Voices program, Primary Stages, The Geva Theatre Center, The McCarter Theatre, The Lark Play Development Center, Ars Nova, The Kennedy Center, Theater J, New Georges (where she is an Affiliated Artist), Clubbed Thumb, The New Harmony Project, The hotINK Festival, Icicle Creek Theatre Festival, Catalyst Theater, The Playwright’s Center PlayLabs Festival, Short + Sweet Festival (Melbourne, Australia), The Fireraisers Theatre Company at the Hampstead Theatre (London) and The Birmingham Rep, and by Company B at the Belvoir St. Theatre (Sydney, Australia).

She was a Dramatist’s Guild Fellow for 2004-2005, a member of the 2005 Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, and is currently a member of the Lark’s Monthly Meetings of the Minds writers’ group.

She has been published in Ten-Minute Plays for 2 Actors: The Best of 2004 (Smith and Kraus, Inc.) and New American Short Plays 2005 (Backstage Books, ed. Craig Lucas). BFF and LIFE SCIENCE will be published by Dramatists Play Service and BFF will be included in the anthology: New Playwrights: The Best Plays of 2007 (Smith and Kraus). A graduate of Yale, she holds an MFA from Tisch.

Anna Ziegler’s poetry has appeared in The Best American Poetry 2003, The Threepenny Review, The Michigan Quarterly Review, Reactions, The Mississippi Review, Arts and Letters, Mid-American Review, Smartish Pace, The Saint Ann’s Review, and many other journals.

More 2008 Retreat Participants!

RICHARD MALTBY, JR.
BROADWAY: Conceived and directed two Tony Award winning musicals: AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ (1978: Tony, N.Y. Drama Critics, Outer Critics, Drama Desk Awards — also Tony Award for Best Director); FOSSE (1999: Tony, Outer Critics, Drama Desk Awards); and RING OF FIRE, The Johnny Cash Musical Show, (2006); With composer David Shire, director/lyricist: BABY, (1983, book by Sybille Pearson; seven Tony Award nominations); lyricist: BIG, (1996, book by John Weidman; Tony nomination: Best Score); lyricist/conceiver, TAKE FLIGHT (book by John Weidman), world premiere 2007 at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London, also produced in Japan the same year. Co-lyricist: MISS SAIGON (Evening Standard Award 1990; Tony nomination: Best Score, 1991). Co-bookwriter/lyricist: THE PIRATE QUEEN (2007). Director/co-lyricist: American version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s SONG & DANCE, (1986 Tony Award for star, Bernadette Peters.) OFF-BROADWAY: director/lyricist STARTING HERE, STARTING NOW, (1977 Grammy nomination); CLOSER THAN EVER, (1989, two Outer Critics Circle Awards: Best Musical, Best Score), both written with composer David Shire. REGIONAL: director, MASK (2008, Pasadena Playhouse); director, THE 60′S PROJECT (2006, Goodspeed Opera House). FILM: Screenplay, MISS POTTER, (2007) about Beatrix Potter, starring Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor (Christopher Award, best screenplay.). Contributes devilish crossword puzzles to Harpers Magazine. Son of well-known orchestra leader; Five children: Nicholas, David, Jordan, Emily and Charlotte.
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The McCarter Artists retreat, in its seventh year, has become a pillar of our artist cultivation process. We invite nine artists—largely writers, with some composers, directors and designers from time to time—to come to Princeton, stay at a bed and breakfast (which happens to have 9 rooms—hence the size) and work on whatever they want. There are no required events, although we do have a number of fun group dinners so we can get to know all the artists and they can get to know us. (The aforementioned “eating and chatting” component.) It’s a time for starting new things, working uninterrupted, searching for inspiration in a new place—each artist comes to the retreat with different goals.

So what about this year? They’re working really hard! Some snapshots: Earlier this week, Daniel Goldfarb, one of our participants, wandered in to my office to visit because he’d just finished writing 12 pages (this is a lot for a playwright in a day). Jose Rivera spent the day in the rehearsal room with some actors working on a play that’s been commissioned by McCarter. I had a great lunch with Anna Ziegler talking about her play Minotar. And of course, many people have visited town or the library or the Bent Spoon (because high quality ice cream has been proven to stimulate creativity)—taking advantage of everything Princeton has to offer.

Over the next two weeks we’ll be posting the bios of the artists who are with us this year. Some of them you’ll recognize as old friends of McCarter, others we’re just getting to know—they’re all really interesting artists we’re excited to have with us.
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Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

This is the sixth and final segment of our interview with Yehuda Hyman, writer and performer of IN-Festival Spotlight Production The Mad 7. Read the fifth segment here. The play is based on “The Seven Beggars,” a story by Hasidic Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, and follows a character named Elliott as he encounters six storytellers from various regions of the world. Each one shares a mystical story through music and dance, propelling Elliott on a spiritual journey of self-discovery.In the following section, Yehuda discusses the play’s ending and its implications.

Well, we’ve been speaking for a long time and I don’t want to keep you, but I would love to address one final point, which is the fact that we don’t hear the final story—that it doesn’t end, that it’s not told. So, what is your take on that? What is the significance of that fact; what are we waiting for?

Well, there’s a couple of things. First of all, Rabbi Nachman was dying when he told this story. He died, what, three weeks after? It’s the last story he told. So he was definitely looking at his own death. And his work in this world, in this realm, what he was trying to accomplish. Maybe he felt that he wasn’t going to be able to accomplish it, in this realm. But I think he did have a—I mean I don’t think, I know, because he said it—he said that his teachings, his spirit, would grow stronger and stronger and stronger after his death.

That’s why it’s so important not to strangle these stories. “You tell a story simply.” We prepare, we do our best, we do everything we can. But then when it comes to it we just tell it. Because the real finish to the story happens through the listener. It’s what they do with it.

And so in “The Seven Beggars,” it’s like story, story, story, story, story. But the real finish, the real end to the story is yet to happen. It’s something alchemical that will hopefully take place in the future. And hopefully what is being created in the theater that night is the possibility of something happening in the future. That’s what I really believe.

Posted by Elizabeth Edwards, Literary Intern at McCarter Theatre.

Nikkole Salter and Danai Gurira in In the Continuum, photo by Rubin Coudyzer

Playwright Danai Gurira has been developing her newest play, “Eclipsed” at McCarter. She and Nikkole Salter read excerpts from the play in last year’s “IN-Festival,” and the play will receive its first reading at McCarter on March 6, 2007. In researching the play, which explores the effects of war on Liberian women, Danai traveled to Liberia through a TCG New Generations grant, which she applied for with McCarter Theatre. She came back with a journal of her experiences, which I will be sharing excerpts from on the blog. Part I is here. Part II is here. Below is Part III:

My workshops commenced after my days of interviews. They went exceedingly well, though we got to a bumpy start. They were a little loose on the concept of classroom decorum: staying in the room, not talking on the phone in the room, etc. So we ironed that out by the end of the first day—I became very free with them—yelling when I felt the need, they responded positively, thankfully. They became aware, I think, that I was trying to make them the best they could be and impart a great deal in a very small window of time and that I was not going to tolerate anything less than their full effort. Teaching proved challenging in certain areas; I tried to expose them to scripts and how the structure of one can work, it was tricky, they had never read full scripts before, nor prepared a piece from a script, Juli later told me many of them had only learned to read recently, they were largely young adults she had rescued from dire situations and brought to the city and sent to school. Slowly but surely we gained some ground, I worked them pretty hard, and often forgot to give breaks. They loved certain corrections I made to their performance style like the issue of telegraphing, a term they could not get enough of. It was so revelatory for them to realize what they had been doing wasn’t the way to perform at their best. We ended on wonderful terms, with all of them asking for my return. Juli, in typical phenomenal woman fashion, made a few phone calls and set up a press event for the day of my departure—to present the participants with a workshop certificate and let the press know of the work we were trying to do. We wanted to include the US embassy’s participation in the press so that they would feel compelled to bring me back when Juli and I proposed it later this coming year so that I could do more intensive training. Amazingly, everything fell into place just as Juli described it and the next day I was handing out certificates and making speeches while smiling for the Liberian press. My friend Fred in South Africa forwarded me a Liberian newspaper snippet quoting me discussing my project. Juli is something else.

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What is this IN-Festival of which we speak? Great question!! I looked it up, and this is what the dictionary says:

IN-Festival (ĭn´fěs´tə-vəl) n. 1. A fully staged production of a significant new work. 2. A series of free play readings and special events featuring some of our favorite authors. 3. A place to explore exciting ideas and theatrical forms. 4. A glimpse into the creative process. 5. Quite inexpensive, if not free. [Origin: 2007. From IN- “innovating,” “invigorating,” “inventive,” “in-progress” + FESTIVAL “a program of cultural events,” “a celebration.”]

You may have noticed that television totally stinks these days, with only re-runs and reality TV. Since the writers refuse to have their labor stolen and the producers refuse to pay the writers internet residuals, you’re gonna have an awfully dull evening if you sit at home. So why don’t you come to McCarter’s IN-Festival? It’s cheap, it’s fun, and we pay our artists.

Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.

Danai Gurira

Playwright Danai Gurira has been developing her newest play, “Eclipsed” at McCarter. She and Nikkole Salter read excerpts from the play in last year’s “IN-Festival,” and the play will receive its first reading at McCarter on March 6, 2007. In researching the play, which explores the effects of war on Liberian women, Danai traveled to Liberia through a TCG New Generations grant, which she applied for with McCarter Theatre. She came back with a journal of her experiences, which I will be sharing excerpts from on the blog. Part I is here. Below is Part II:

I had already resolved that my research was going to be open to all Liberian women’s stories during the war; the theme of survival is what kept becoming clearer and clearer to me. I met with more contacts, Americans this time: Jessica from CCF (Christian Children Foundation - soon to be Children’s Foundation International), Joana from United Nations Mission in Liberia and of course Meg from the US embassy. Each of them referred me to even more contacts; Joana referred me to Rita whose story was beyond words or description. I met with Marie through Jessica and she connected me with the videographer of the organization she worked for. I had a videographer!It was perfect timing - the day before my interviews out of town were to start. Through Meg I met Etweda - the head of the Liberian Women’s Initiative, and another phenomenal Liberian woman—her navigation through the war zone, the heroic work of herself and other women fighting for peace and genderizing the treaty agendas, made some instantaneous alterations to my dramatic narrative. I was moved by her, inspired by her and changed by her, and we found an almost immediate powerful connection. She was invested in what I was trying to do and we found much common ground on our thoughts about the continent we both called home. I asked her if I could interview her more extensively, and she asked if she could send some more aspiring artists to my workshop. We both agreed.

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Danai Gurira in In the Continuum, photo by Craig Schwartz

Playwright Danai Gurira has been developing her newest play, “Eclipsed” at McCarter. She and Nikkole Salter read excerpts from the play in last year’s “IN-Festival,” and the play will receive its first reading at McCarter on March 6, 2007. In researching the play, which explores the effects of war on Liberian women, Danai traveled to Liberia through a TCG New Generations grant, which she applied for with McCarter Theatre. She came back with a journal of her experiences, which I will be sharing excerpts from on the blog. Below is Part I:

I arrived with a vague confidence that things were in place to accomplish my goals; transport was organized, contacts were aware of my arrival, accommodations were relatively in place. Mohammed who would be my trusty driver for my entire stay picked me up from the airport. The US embassy Public Affairs officer Meg had connected me to his boss. The US embassy officer in the same position in Pretoria South Africa who had brought us to perform In the Continuum there earlier that year connected me to her. I marvel at how constructively my web of connections in Liberia was weaved. I was connected and ready to go.

The city was frightful to the eye. I realized this was where Hollywood and popular media filmed their “Africa” footage, where things could not be more destroyed and dismal, services could not be more lacking, buildings could not be more decrepit, and people could not be poorer. The streets marveled me, they were so riddled with potholes navigating them completely disallowed one the ability to speed. I thought of my own country, Zimbabwe, and realized how advanced it was for an African nation, and lamented at how bad leadership could lead to what I saw before me. We are crumbling at the seams, and though it would take a great deal to get us to this point, we are descending dangerously. But Monrovia showed all the signs of a land recovering from the ravages of war. It was later described to me by Americans working on the ground as a shantytown and a refugee camp. It was designed for only one hundred thousand residents and now was the home to over a million. Much of this influx was due to war displacement and the process of urbanization, which has taken its course across the continent.

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