For the first community presentation to take place at its new auditorium, Roosevelt High School will host the world premiere of "Darfur Stories," a staged reading of first-person accounts that dramatize both crisis and commitment in the African region of Darfur. The presentation will take place Thursday, Jan. 25.
"It seemed really important to find a way to get this information about Darfur that would be different," said project director Barbara Mackoff, of Save Darfur Washington State.
Based on real stories
Mackoff brought the idea to Book-It Repertory Theater, an organization that is known for adapting literature and transforming it into theatrical context.
"I've gone to their productions and admired their work," Mackoff said. "Everyone I talked to was really excited about the project."
Mackoff researched and conceived the program from written accounts and original interviews with Darfurians, activists, journalists and aide workers. Among the collection of interviews Mackoff conducted:
* Journalist Nick Clooney describes a trip to Sudan with his Oscar-winning son George;
* David Rubenstein talks about the formation of the Save Darfur Coalition;
* Mark Hanis, founder of the Genocide Intervention Network, explains how a group of students at Swarthmore helped fund the African Union peacekeeping troops by raising a quarter-million dollars in 100 days; and
* Actress and UNICEF ambassador Mia Farrow reports on her trip to Refugee camps in Chad in November.
"As urgent and disturbing as these stories are, many of these stories are helpful because they're making a difference," Mackoff said.
A universal story
Playwright and actor Reginald André Jackson, of Book-It Repertory Theatre, adapted the stories for the stage.
The staged reading will be performed by an ethnically diverse cast, including Felicia Loud, who is African-American; Lyssa Browne, who is half-Hispanic; John Ulman, who is Caucasian; and Sylvester Kamara, who was born in Sierre Leone and reared in Britain.
"It's kind of a tapestry of these voices," Mackoff said. "It's a beautiful piece of work."
With the diversity of the cast, director Susanna Burney hopes to make the stories universal and broaden perspective.
"It's an interesting challenge for all of us, and hopefully [for] the audience, as well," she said.
The actors will perform using their scripts and, in addition to the interviewees they play, the actors also will portray investigative reporters.
"For me, as a theater artist doing material that is relevant socially in terms of justice and human rights, it is just all the more rewarding," Burney said. "It's an honor to be asked to work on this piece."
Show information
"Darfur Stories" will be staged on Thursday, Jan. 25, at 7 p.m. at Roosevelt High School Theatre, 1410 N.E. 66th St. Tickets $5 at the door.
For more information or a script of the staged reading, visit www.darfur stories.org.
Jessica Davis can be reached via e-mail at needitor@nwlink.com.
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