Spring 2019

CrossCurrentsFestival.org#CrossCurrents2019

Welcome to CrossCurrents

We are thrilled to welcome you to the inaugural CrossCurrents festival hosted by The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics.

The vision for this citywide biennial festival grows directly from the inspiration we take from artists all over the world who, in difficult and often dire times, are finding innovative ways to harness the power of performance to humanize global politics. These artists give us hope, and CrossCurrents reflects our desire to share and celebrate that work and the vital conversations it prompts with DC audiences. CrossCurrents will feature leading artists and companies from more than 40 countries, with full-scale productions, residencies, concerts, workshops, and forums. There is something for everyone.

As the title of the festival suggests we see the power of this work in the connections across these varied events, topics, cultures, and communities; in the energy and dialogues that flow across them. As is our custom, every event will engage thought-leaders and policymakers alongside the artists in discussions inspired by the performances.

We welcome you, and hope to see and engage you often throughout CrossCurrents.

—Derek Goldman & Cynthia Schneider, Co-Directors, Laboratory for Global Performance & Politics

Schedule of Events

Falling Out by Phantom Limb CompanyApril 4–5, 7:30pmThe Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theatre

Inspired by the 2011 tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disaster, this rip-pling meditation on water, heartbreak, and toxic fallout represents the final installment of an environmental trilogy exploring our changing relationship to nature over time.

Somi in Residence

Petite AfriqueApril 11, 8pm, FreeGaston HallGeorgetown Univ.

A full-scale concert performance of Somi’s award-winning song cycle about the dignity of immigrants and the gentrification of Harlem’s vibrant African quarter.

Dreaming ZenzileApril 12, 4pm, FreeDe la Cruz Art GalleryGeorgetown Univ.

An intimate salon performance from Somi’s modern jazz opera based on the extraordinary life of South African sing-er and political activist Miriam Makeba.

Republics of Imagination with Azar NafisiApril 15, 7:30pm, FreeWoolly Mammoth Theatre Company

An evening of cross-cultural perfor-mances inspired and co-curated by Azar Nafisi (Reading Lolita in Tehran, The Republic of Imagination), highlight-ing the power of performance and liter-ature in repressive times, featuring Rick Foucheux, Jon Hudson Odom, Heather Raffo, Howard Shalwitz, and others.

Renegade Theatre’s The Chibok Girls: Our Story by Wole OguntokunU.S. PremiereMay 7, 8, 11Gonda Theatre, Davis Performing Arts Center

Performed in tandem with Nobel laure-ate Wole Soyinka premiering excerpts from his work A Humanist Ode for Chi-bok, Leah. A searing work of testimonial theater about the abduction of 276 girls from their school in the Nigerian town of Chibok by Boko Haram in 2014, and the enduring reverberations of their story.

The GatheringMay 8–11Daytime events by invitation onlyLivestream at HowlRound.comEvening performances open to the public

The Lab will bring together more than 200 visionary artists from more than 40 countries to celebrate and highlight how their innovative work harnesses the power of performance to address the pressing challenges of our world. See website for full details.

Our CrossCurrents collaborators include: Alliance for New Music-Theatre, Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, the British Council, Cambodia Living Arts, Edinburgh International Culture Summit, European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC), Smithsonian’s Freer|Sackler, the Goethe-Institut, Imagination Stage, Mosaic Theater Company, the National Museum of African Art, Octopus Theatricals, Olney Theatre Center, The Romanian Cultural Institute, Round House Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Studio Theatre, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Theater J, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, as well as the Embassies of Austria, Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Sweden.

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This program is presented in partnership with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. CrossCurrents is funded in part by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Additional support comes from the Revada Foundation and Samia Farouki. Special thanks to Kirsten Bowen, Maria Manuela Goyanes, John Vreeke, Rita Housseiny, and Clare Ogden.

Thank You

The following donors have joined us in a new initiative, The Circle, supporting the work of The Lab, its global reach, and educational initiatives.

Lab AmbassadorsSamia Farouki Kunthary & Edmond de Gaiffier Liliane Haub Christie & Roger Platt Al Munzer & Joel Wind

Lab DiplomatsSusan Hougen Fiona Philip

Lab PartnersMariko Ikehara & Jeff Cunard Judy Philactos & Steve Heller Marie Himel Stephen Stern

The Circle is a way to experience global artists in intimate settings. It’s a place to show your support for The Lab’s work by providing the funds needed to host the CrossCurrents festival and its many programs as well as provide the annual support The Lab needs to flourish and grow. If you would like to know more about or join The Circle, please contact Laura Apelbaum at laura.thelabgeorgetown@gmail.com.

D O N ’ T M I S S O U R N E X T C R O S S C U R R E N T S E V E N T:

The Chibok Girls May 7–9, 2019 7:30 p.m. Davis Performing Arts Center’s Gonda TheatreGeorgetown University

The Chibok Girls: Our Story, the U.S. Premiere of Renegade Theatre’s searing work of testimonial theater about the abduction of 276 girls from their school in the Nigerian town of Chibok by the Boko Haram in 2014, and the enduring reverberations of their story. Written and directed by Wole Oguntokun, The Chibok Girls: Our Story will be presented in tandem with The Lab’s special guest, Nobel Prize winning playwright and author Wole Soyinka, who will premiere excerpts from his brand new work A Humanist Ode for Chibok, Leah. This long-form epic poem pays tribute to 15 year-old Leah Sharibu, one of the 108 girls abducted in 2018 from Dapchi by the Islamic State for the West African Province (ISWAP), a splinter group of Boko Haram.

About Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Woolly Mammoth, a national innovator in the development and production of new plays, is one of the best known mid-sized theaters in the country and “the hottest theater company in town” (Washington Post). For almost four decades, Woolly has held a unique position at the leading edge of the American theater, earning a reputation for staying “uniquely plugged in to the mad temper of the times” (New York Times). We’ve garnered that reputation by holding fast to our unique mission and our core values:

To create rousing, visceral, enlightening theater experiences that galvanize diverse artists and audiences to engage with our world in unexpected and often challenging ways.

We are a radically inclusive community – across race, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical ability, socioeconomic background, and political viewpoint – in which all are encouraged to exchange ideas freely and reach for new understanding.

We are a supportive home for creative risk-taking by our company and guest artists, staff, board, volunteers, audiences, donors, and colleagues.

Through relentless inquiry and experimentation, we strive for world-class excellence and innovation in every aspect of our work.

Join the Conversationfacebook.com/WoollyMammothTC Twitter: @WoollyMammothTC Instagram: @woollymammothtc

About the Performers

Shannon Dorsey is a Woolly Company Member. Woolly productions include BLKS, Familiar (2018 Helen Hayes Nom. for Outstanding Production), Kiss, and An Octoroon (2017 Helen Hayes Nom. for Outstanding Supporting Actress). Off-Broadway credits include: The Great MacDaddy (Negro Ensemble Company), The Power of the Trinity (NYC SummerStage), and The Man Who Ate Michael Rockefeller (West End Theatre). DC and regional credits include: A Christmas Carol (Ford’s Theatre), All the Way (Arena Stage), Two Trains Running, Safe House and Trip to Bountiful (Cincinnati Playhouse), Two Trains Running (Round House Theatre), Skeleton Crew (Studio Theatre), In the Red and Brown Water, and Marcus, or the Secret of Sweet (Studio Theatre), Synetic Theatre’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Kennedy Center, Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Ensemble), Stick Fly (Everyman Theatre), and A Raisin in the Sun (Perseverance Theatre). Shannon holds a dual B.A. from Temple University in Theater and African American Studies.

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Republics of ImaginationCo-curated by Azar Nafisi & Derek GoldmanAdapted and directed by Derek Goldman

The Man from Podolsk excerpt directed by Yury Urnov

Monday, April 15 at 7:30 p.m.Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

An evening of cross-cultural performances highlighting the dangerous power of performance and literature in repressive times, in partnership with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.

Stay after the performance for a discussion with Azar Nafisi, Derek Goldman, the participating artists, and David Smith, Washington, DC bureau chief of The Guardian.

Tonight’s program is in conjunction with Woolly Mammoth’s forthcoming production of Describe the Night (May 27–June 3, 2019), Rajiv Joseph’s 2018 Obie Award-winning play.

Tonight’s performance features excerpts from:

“To Posterity,” by Bertolt BrechtStuds Terkel’s 1961 interview with James BaldwinDescribe The Night, by Rajiv JosephElizabeth Cady Stanton’s “The Solitude of Self: Speech to the House Judiciary

Committee” (1892)“Writing in the Dark,” by David Grossman“From Chibok With Love,” by Wole SoyinkaThe Man from Podolsk, by Dmitry Danilov“Art, Truth and Politics,” Harold Pinter’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech Poetry by Zhaleh Alamtaj, translated by Naghmeh Zarbafian“Music Saved My Life,” by Arn Chorn-Pond, founder of Cambodian Living Arts

Rick Foucheux is a longtime member of Washington’s vibrant theatre scene and has been featured at many of our area’s fine regional theatres. He is a Helen Hayes Awardee and a member of the Woolly Mammoth Acting Company. Rick has performed frequently with Georgetown University and the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, and again feels privileged to be able to join in its mission.

Danny Gavigan is an award-winning actor who has performed on stage and screen for more than a decade. He is a recipient of the Helen Hayes Award for Best Ensemble in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf at Ford’s Theatre. Danny’s appeared on stages across the United States and Ireland including Everyman Palace Theatre in Cork, La Jolla Playhouse, Kansas City Rep, Baltimore Center Stage, Studio Theatre, Round House Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, and Signature Theatre in Virginia where he originated the role of Jimmy in the world premiere of Really Really. Danny is a company member at Everyman Theatre in Baltimore.

Heather Raffo is an award-winning playwright and actress whose work has been seen off Broadway, off West End, in regional theater, and in film. She is the author and solo performer of the play 9 Parts of Desire (Lucielle Lortel award, Blackburn, Drama League, OCC, Helen Hayes nominations), which The New Yorker called “an example of how art can remake the world.” 9 Parts of Desire has been performed across America and internationally for over a decade with current productions in Greece, Hungary and India. Raffo’s newest play, Noura (Weissberger Award, Helen Hayes nomination) had its world premiere at DC’s Shakespeare Theatre Company before moving to Abu Dhabi and NYC. It will next be seen in multiple regional theaters in their 2019/2020 season. Her libretto for the opera Fallujah, developed as part of Kennedy Center’s International Theater Festival, premiered at Long Beach Opera in 2016 then moved to New York City Opera. A film of the opera aired on PBS accompanied by a documentary entitled Fallujah: Art, Healing and PTSD.

Jon Hudson Odom Regional Credits: Ms. Blakk for President (Steppenwolf Theatre Co.), Witch (Writers Theatre), On Clover Road (American Blues Theatre), The Magic Play (Actors Theatre of Louisville), A Christmas Carol (McCarter Theatre Center), Under the Skin (The Public Theatre ME), A Christmas Carol (Goodman Theatre). DC/Baltimore Credits: Botticelli in the Fire (Helen Hayes Nomination) and An Octoroon (Woolly Mammoth Theatre), Angels in America 1 & 2 (Helen Hayes Nomination, Round House and Olney Theatre Center), The Magic Play, Piano Lesson, Our Town, Hay Fever, and Colossal (Helen Hayes Nomination, Olney Theatre Center), Father Comes Home From the Wars 1, 2 & 3 (Round House Theatre), Nat Turner in Jerusalem, and Passion Play (Helen Hayes Award, Forum Theatre), Twelfth Night (Center Stage), Yellowman (Rep Stage), You Can’t Take It With You (Everyman Theatre), A Christmas Carol, and Our Town (Ford’s Theatre), 2-2-Tango (Studio Theatre), A Few Good Men (Keegan Theatre), Reals (Theater Alliance DC), The BFG (Imagination Stage and The National Children’s Theatre), The Ramayana (Constellation Theatre). TV Credits: Chicago PD. Film Credits: A Savage Nature. He is a company member at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, and an Artistic Associate at Olney Theatre Center. Education: University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

Phounam Pin is a former contortionist and an actress from Phare The Cambodian Circus in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Phounam joined Phare Association when she was 13 years old. Raised in a strict Cambodian traditional norm that calls for girls and women to be submissive and deferential to men, she faced many criticisms when she was a girl and a female circus artist in Cambodia. Nevertheless, she beat the odds. Through circus, she found her own strength. She realized that she could do as much and as well as any boy or man could do. Today, Phounam is working on her Associate Degree at Montgomery College and is a part-time employee at the Cultural Arts Center in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Howard Shalwitz co-founded Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in 1980 and guided the company as Artistic Director for 38 seasons. Under his leadership, Woolly grew from a tiny alternative theatre into one of the nation’s most influential producers of provocative new plays. He has directed dozens of new works by the nation’s most adventurous playwrights and received the 2014 Margo Jones Award for lifetime commitment to new American plays. Howard’s 2012 keynote address at the TCG national conference, reflecting on his travels to Eastern Europe, sparked a national conversation about theatrical innovation. He has spoken nationally about Woolly’s “Connectivity” strategy which promotes civic discourse through theatre, and about the challenge of sustaining provocative theatre in a polarized world.

Sophia Skiles is a NYC-based theater actor and teacher. She has performed in productions directed by May Adrales, Chay Yew, Ralph Peña, Andrei Serban, Mary Zimmerman, Richard Foreman, and David Herskovits. She can next be seen in Michael Kahn’s final production at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Ellen McLaughlin’s new adaptation of The Oresteia. An experienced educator, Sophia has taught theater at Mount Holyoke College, SUNY Ulster and SUNY Purchase. Sophia was a lead organizer for the Obie Award-winning Theaters Against War (THAW). BS, Performance Studies (Northwestern University), MFA, Acting (Columbia University).

Yury Urnov (Director of The Man from Podolsk) is a stage director, translator, and educator. His recent directing credits in the U.S. include Mr. Burns A Post-Electric Play at Wilma Theater, Philadelphia, Putin on Ice at the ACME Corporation, Baltimore, Ubu Roi at Cutting Ball Theater in San Francisco, award-winning Thr3e Zisters at Salvage Vanguard Theater in Austin, The Pillowman at Forum Theatre in DC, and also KISS, Marie Antoinette, and You for Me for You at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in DC, which Yury is a member of. Yury is an Associate Director of the Center for International Theater Development, and teaches at Towson University, MD.

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About the Co-Curators

Derek Goldman is Professor of Theater and Performance Studies at Georgetown University, Co-Director of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, and curator of CrossCurrents. He is an award-winning stage director, playwright, adapter, producer, developer of new work, teacher, and published scholar, whose artistic work has been seen around the country, Off-Broadway and at numerous major regional theaters, as well as internationally. His work has been seen at Steppenwolf, Lincoln Center, Arena Stage, Folger, Round House, Everyman, Baltimore CenterStage, Mosaic, the Kennedy Center, Ford’s, Theater J, McCarter, Segal Center (Montreal), Northern Stage, Synetic, Forum, Olney (Artistic Associate). He is the author of more than 30 professionally produced plays and adaptations, including work published by Samuel French and produced internationally, and he has directed over 90 productions. His engagement with global performance in recent years has taken his work to Sudan, China, Russia, Bangladesh, Poland, South Africa, Cambodia, Australia, Peru, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Armenia, Chile, Canada, Spain, France, New Zealand, throughout the UK, among others. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Theatre Communications Group, co-President of the U.S. Center of International Theatre Institute and Founding Director of UNESCO’s Network for Higher Education in the Performing Arts (based in Shanghai). He received his Ph.D. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University. In 2016, he received the prestigious President’s Award for Distinguished Scholar-Teachers at Georgetown.

Azar Nafisi is best known as the author of the national bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, which electrified its readers with a compassionate and often harrowing portrait of the Islamic revolution in Iran and how it affected one university professor and her students. Reading Lolita in Tehran has been translated in 32 languages, and has won diverse literary awards, including the Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, Non-fiction Book of the Year Award from Booksense, the Frederic W. Ness Book Award, the Latifeh Yarsheter Book Award, the Grand Prix des Lectrices de Elle, and an achievement award from the American Immigration Law Foundation, as well as being a finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for Memoir. In 2006 she won a Persian Golden Lioness Award for literature, presented by the World Academy of Arts, Literature, and Media. Between 1997 and 2017, Azar Nafisi was a Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute of Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Her most recent book is entitled The Republic of Imagination: America in Three Books (October 2014), a powerful and passionate case for the vital role of fiction in America today. Azar is a Lab Think Tank Member and Georgetown School of Foreign Service Centennial Fellow.

The Power of ImaginationA Note from Woolly Mammoth

Dear Friends,

In January 2019, Woolly Mammoth partnered with the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics to co-present Tania El Khoury’s As Far As My Fingertips Take Me, which explored empathy and connection through human touch between performer and audience member. We continue that conversation with Republics of Imagination. Tonight, we celebrate the unique power of literature as a force for hope, inspiration, and connection, leading to greater understanding and empathy of our fellow global citizens.

Featured in tonight’s presentation is an excerpt from Woolly’s final offering of our 2018/19 Season, Describe the Night by Rajiv Joseph, which re-imagines the lives of historical figures Isaac Babel, Nikolai and Yevgenia Yezhov, and (possibly) Vladimir Putin. The play speaks to the power of literature and imagination as forms of solace, survival, and revolt, giving meaning and hope during dark times, including war, imprisonment, or totalitarianism.

Thank you for gathering with us tonight as we draw on the power of imagination to build a better a better future, and please do return in May for the full story of Describe the Night.

— Kirsten Bowen, Literary Director, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

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BY RAJIV JOSEPH DIRECTED BY JOHN VREEKE

MAY 27 – JUNE 23

2018 Obie Award Winner,Best New American Play

WOOLLY MAMMOTH THEATRE COMPANYWOOLLYMAMMOTH.NET // 202-393-3939

“A work of major ambition”(New York Times)

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Republics of Imagination Monday April 15 7:30 p.m. Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company Free

An evening of cross-cultural performances co-curated by celebrated author Azar Nafisi (Reading Lolita in Tehran, The Republic of Imagination) with Lab Co-Director Derek Goldman, highlighting the dangerous power of performance and literature in repressive times, in partnership with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. This program is in conjunction with Woolly Mammoth’s forthcoming production of Describe the Night (May 27–June 3, 2019), Rajiv Joseph’s 2018 Obie Award winning play, and will include an excerpt from the play along with material from James Baldwin, David Grossman, Azar Nafisi, Wole Soyinka, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and others. The performance will feature an ensemble of leading performers, including Rick Foucheux, Jon Hudson Odom, Heather Raffo, Shannon Dorsey, Danny Gavigan, Jonathan David Martin, Sophia Skiles, Phounam Pin, and Howard Shalwitz, and will be accompanied by a discussion with Azar Nafisi, Derek Goldman, the participating artists, and David Smith, Washington, DC bureau chief of The Guardian.

CrossCurrents is funded in part by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Additional support provided by The Revada Foundation. These events are sponsored by Georgetown School of Foreign Service, with support from Georgetown College and the African Society of Georgetown. Dreaming Zenzile is developed with the support of The Clarice Smith Center’s Artist Partner Program, Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Apollo Theater, and The Public Theater. Special thanks to The Miriam Makeba Estate and Mama Africa Cultural & Social Trust for their support and permission to create this work.

D O N ’ T M I S S O U R N E X T C R O S S C U R R E N T S E V E N T:

About SomiBorn in Illinois to immigrants from Rwanda and Uganda, acclaimed vocalist and songwriter Somi has built a career of transatlantic sonicism and storytelling. Petite Afrique, Somi’s sophomore effort for Sony Music’s historic OKeh Records, is a daring, relevant, refashioning of what “jazz” and “African music” mean – both singularly and to each other. The album, which won a 2018 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album and features special guest Aloe Blacc, is a timely song cycle about the dignity of immigrants in the United States. Equally anthropologist and writer, Somi’s songs both celebrate Harlem’s black experience and lament gentrification’s slow erasure of the vibrant African immigrant population from the historic neighborhood.

Petite Afrique is the highly anticipated follow-up to Somi’s last chart-topping album and major label debut entitled The Lagos Music Salon which was

inspired by an 18-month creative sabbatical in Lagos, Nigeria and landed at #1 on US Jazz charts. The album, which features special guests Angelique Kidjo and Common, draws material from the tropical city’s boastful cosmopolitanism, urgent inspiration, and giant spirit. Somi continues to craft a fiercely original way of songmaking that straddles the worlds of African jazz, soul, and pop with a newfound ease and a voice that Vogue Magazine simply calls “Superb!” The Boston Globe proclaims that Somi’s latest work “is a sustained triumph displaying rich musicality, a sharp pop sense, and rare sophistication” while The Huffington Post dubbed the vocalist as “the New Nina Simone.”

Singing and writing in English and a wide range of African languages, Somi is currently developing an original modern jazz play about the life and legacy of South African singer Miriam Makeba that will premiere in Spring 2020.

Widely acknowledged as artist, activist, and scholar, Somi is a TED Senior Fellow, a 2018 Doris Duke USA Fellow, a 2018 Soros Equality Fellow, and an inaugural Association of Performing Arts Presenters Fellow. She is also a former Artist-in-Residence at Park Avenue Armory, UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance, The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Apollo Theater, and a recipient of numerous national arts grants. She is also the founder of Salon Africana, a boutique culture and social impact firm that celebrate the very best of contemporary African artists working in the performance, visual, and literary arts. Also celebrated for her activism, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon recently asked Somi to perform at the United Nations’ General Assembly in commemoration of the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The following year, she was invited to perform at Carnegie Hall with her longtime mentor Hugh Masekela, as well as Dave Matthews and Vusi Mahlesela in celebration of 20 years of South African democracy.

Somi and her band continue to perform at international venues and stages around the world. In her heart of hearts, she is an East African Midwestern girl who loves family, poetry, and freedom.

About Octopus TheatricalsOctopus Theatricals (Producer of Dreaming Zenzile) was founded by creative producer Mara Isaacs and is dedicated to producing and consulting in the performing arts. From experimental to commercial, Octopus Theatricals collaborates with artists and organizations to foster an expansive range of compelling theatrical works for local, national, and international audiences. It eschews boundaries – aesthetic, geopolitical, institutional – and thrives on a nimble and rigorous practice. Current projects include Hadestown by Anaïs Mitchell (on Broadway, at London’s National Theatre); Iphigenia, a new opera by Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding; Theatre For One; Minefield by Lola Arias; An Iliad by Denis O’Hare and Lisa Peterson; Haruki Murakami’s Sleep by Ripe Time; and Project Springboard: Developing Dance Musicals. Octopus Theatricals is also proud to work with The Civilians, Song of the Goat Theatre, Baryshnikov Arts Center, CalArts Center for New Performance, Princeton University, and more. octopustheatricals.com

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Petite AfriqueThursday, April 11 at 8 p.m.Georgetown University’s Gaston HallAlso featuring Otis Brown, Toru Dodo, Liberty Ellman, and Ben Williams.

Dreaming ZenzileSalon PerformanceFriday, April 12 at 4 p.m.Georgetown University’s Maria & Alberto De La Cruz Art GalleryWritten and performed by SomiAlso featuring Toru Dodo, Bongi Duma, and Phindi Wilson.

Please join us after both events for a discussion with the artists.

Presented by Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, with support from Georgetown College and the African Society of Georgetown.

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The Chibok Girls: Our StoryWritten & directed by Wole Oguntokun

May 7, 8 and 9 at 7:30 p.m.Gonda TheatreDavis Performing Arts CenterGeorgetown University

The U.S. Premiere of Renegade Theatre’s searing work of testimonial theater about the abduction of 276 girls from their school in the Nigerian town of Chibok by the Boko Haram in 2014, and the enduring reverberations of their story.

Presented in tandem with:

Wole SoyinkaThe Lab’s special guest, Nobel Prize-winning playwright and author Wole Soyinka will premiere excerpts from his brand new work A Humanist Ode for Chibok, Leah. This long-form epic poem pays tribute to 15 year-old Leah Sharibu, one of the 108 girls abducted in 2018 from Dapchi by the Islamic State for the West African Province (ISWAP), a splinter group of Boko Haram. Leah was the only one not returned after the Nigerian government paid an enormous ransom. She refused to renounce her faith and has been held captive since.

About the Artists

Wole Oguntokun, playwright and Artistic Director of Renegade Theatre, was a 2015, 2016 and 2018 Fellow of the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA). He wrote, produced and directed The Waiting Room (2013), and The Tarzan Monologues (2014), the only Nigerian plays to feature at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. Wole led Renegade Theatre as the only West African Company to participate at the Shakespeare Olympiad by The Globe in London where he directed The Winter’s Tale in 2012. He directed plays in five of the six editions of the Lagos Black Heritage Festival in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2015.

Wole Soyinka, Nigerian playwright and political activist, received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. He was born in 1934 in Abeokuta, near Ibadan, into a Yoruba family and studied at University College in Ibadan, Nigeria, and the University of Leeds, England. Soyinka is the author of five memoirs, including Aké: the Years of Childhood (1981) and You Must Set Forth at Dawn: A Memoir (2006), the novels The Interpreters (1965) and Season of Anomy (1973), and 19 plays shaped by a diverse range of influences, including avant-garde traditions, politics, and African myth. An outspoken opponent of oppression and tyranny worldwide and a critic of the political situation in Nigeria, Soyinka has lived in exile on several occasions. During the Nigerian civil war in the 1960s, he was held as a prisoner in solitary confinement after being charged with conspiring with the Biafrans. In 1997, while in exile, he was tried for, convicted of, and sentenced to death for antimilitary activities, a sentence that was later lifted. Soyinka has taught at a number of universities worldwide, among them Ife University, Cambridge University, Yale University, and Emory University.

Lily Byoma, “LeeLee,” also a scriptwriter and Television producer, made her stage debut as a cast member of Wole Soyinka’s Obstacle Race in the Lagos Black Heritage Festival in 2011. She was a member of the cast of Renegade Theatre’s The Waiting Room in August 2013, the first indigenous Nigerian stage play to run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. Her film credits include Hoodrush and Love is not Enough. Leelee holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Abuja.

Tayo Sam Oluwasogba, “Ijotayor,” Renegade Theatre’s music director, has worked on many projects with Wole Oguntokun over a period spanning nine years. His credits include the Muson Festival play of 2014, Jagua Nana, Ajai the Boy Slave, Oshodi Tapa (The Black Heritage Festival), The Tarzan Monologues, and The Chibok Girls: Our Story in Rwanda. He is also the Artistic Director of Whitestones Culture Ambassadors, a drumming ensemble.

Tobi Igbenoba, a stage and film actress, studied theatre at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana and holds a master of arts in mass communication from the Sikkim Manipal University. She has appeared in the television series Hotel Majestic, Tinsel, and Roots, played the lead in Renegade Theatre’s The Legend of Moremi Ajaasoro, and performed in The Chibok Girls: Our Story in Rwanda in 2017.

About the Artists (Continued)

Jennifer Osammor,“J Lah,” holds a degree in Theatre Arts from the University of Lagos and first began to work with Renegade Theatre as an undergraduate. She played lead roles in Renegade Theatre stage premieres including Gbanja Roulette, The Inheritors, Piper, Piper, The Sound and the Fury, Anatomy of a Woman, and The Other Side, among several others. Her film credits include Half of a Yellow Sun, Kiss and Tell, Bella’s Place, A Woman of Calabar, and the television series, Desperate Housewives Africa.

Meg Otanwa, the 2017 winner of the Africa Magic Viewers Choice Award (AMVCA) in the Best Actress in a Drama category, holds a bachelor of arts in English from the Ahmadu Bello University, a master’s degree in human resources management from Time University, Tunis and an MBA from the University of Jean Moulin, Lyon, France. She has starred in television series including B4 30, Hush, and Gidi Culture, as well as Eve and Coffee Shop. She also starred in the movie Atlanta, among several others.

CrossCurrents is funded in part by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Additional support comes from the Revada Foundation and Samia Farouki.

Thank You

The following donors have joined us in a new initiative, The Circle, supporting the work of The Lab, its global reach, and educational initiatives.

Lab AmbassadorsSamia Farouki Kunthary & Edmond de Gaiffier Liliane Haub Christie & Roger Platt Al Munzer & Joel Wind

Lab DiplomatsSusan Hougen Fiona Philip

Lab PartnersMariko Ikehara & Jeff Cunard Judy Philactos & Steve Heller Marie Himel Stephen Stern

The Circle is a way to experience global artists in intimate settings. It’s a place to show your support for The Lab’s work by providing the funds needed to host the CrossCurrents festival and its many programs as well as provide the annual support The Lab needs to flourish and grow. If you would like to know more about or join The Circle, please contact Laura Apelbaum at laura.thelabgeorgetown@gmail.com.

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As a part of The Gathering and alongside performances of The Chibok Girls: Our Story by Renegade Theatre, The Lab will present a suite of performances from around the world open with limited availability to the public. All performances will take place at the Davis Performing Arts Center at Georgetown University. Free to all Georgetown students, faculty, and staff.

Moving Stories

Documentary Film Screening Thursday, May 9 at 6:15 p.m. Including discussion with Battery Dance Company founder Jonathan Hollander

For 40 years, the Battery Dance company has been a force on the New York and international scenes. In hundreds of performances and workshops in American schools, they’ve not only moved audiences but changed thousands of young lives. Seeing dance as a universal language, founder Jonathan Hollander created Dancing to Connect, in which his dancers travel the globe to teach the tools of creativity to youth who have experienced war, poverty, sexual violence, extreme prejudice and severe trauma, enabling them to express their feelings and stories through dance.

Directed by Sundance award-winner Rob Fruchtman, Moving Stories follows six diverse dancers to India, Romania, Korea, and Iraq, documenting their process of teaching choreography and collaboration for performance within a week, while capturing the struggle, frustration, determination, and transformation of students and teachers alike.

Moving Stories is a film by Rob Fruchtman, Cornelia Ravenal, Mikael Södersten and Wendy Sax.

$#!thole Country Clapback

Staged Reading Thursday, May 9 at 7:45 p.m. Written and performed by Tony Award nominee Pascale Armand Directed by Patrice Johnson

A rebuttal to Donald Trump’s comment about allowing “people from shithole countries” entrance to the United States and a chronicle of the playwright’s family’s journey to American citizenship.

I Pledge Allegiance

Thursday, May 9 at 10:00 p.m. Written and Performed by Velani Dibba, Cristina Ibarra, Benjamin Lillian, Aly Panjwani, and Devika Ranjan

An original Lab production written and performed by five Georgetown students and alumni that has been seen around the world, I Pledge Allegiance explores the convergence of “Americanness” and immigrant identities of five young adults who grew up in a post-9/11 society. Created through personal interviews, social media testimony, and news headlines, this play interrogates notions of nationalism in the private and public spheres and what it means to be an American in the current political moment.

How to Have Fun in a Civil War

Friday, May 10 at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday, May 11 at 1:00 p.m.* Written and performed by Ifrah Mansour Directed by Lindsey Cacich

Minnesota-based Somali playwright and performer Ifrah Mansour revisits her childhood memories during the 1991 Somali civil war to confront violent history with humor, and provide a voice for the global refugee stories of children. How to Have Fun in a Civil War, is a one-act multimedia play, which explores war from an idyllic viewpoint of a seven-year-old Somali refugee girl.

* May 11 performance will be followed by an excerpt from Imagination Stage’s Óyeme The Beautiful. Written by Miriam Gonzales. Directed by Elena Velasco.

An Evening with an Immigrant

Friday, May 10 at 7:30 p.m. Written and performed by Inua Ellams

Born to a Muslim father and a Christian mother in what is now considered by many to be Boko Haram territory, Inua Ellams left Nigeria for England at age 12, moved to Ireland for three years, then returned to London to start work as a writer and graphic designer. Littered with poems, stories and anecdotes, An Evening with an Immigrant recounts Ellams’ ridiculous, fantastic, poignant immigrant-story of escaping fundamentalist Islam, experiencing prejudice and friendship in Dublin, performing solo at the National Theatre, and drinking wine with the Queen of England, all the while without a country to belong to or place to call home.

Oranges and Stones

Friday, May 10 at 9:15 p.m. Ashtar Theatre of Ramallah, Palestine Created and performed by Iman Aoun and Edward Muallem

Two actors create a story without words (though with music and occasional sound), on a minimalist set of stones and oranges. She lives her life peacefully, writing a journal, tending to her garden then one day He arrives, tired and old, with a suitcase and a rolled-up document, signifying his ownership of her house. What follows is a power struggle which is both childish and terrible — it provokes us to laugh and recoil in equal measure.

A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction

Staged reading of a new work-in-progress Saturday, May 11 at 12:45 p.m. LubDub Theatre Company Written by Miranda Rose Hall

What has happened to the little brown bats? To the spotted tree frog? What will happen to Homo sapiens? A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction is an evening of interactive, interspecies storytelling. This new work-in-progress asks — through story, song, and movement — how to be a human in an era of man-made extinction. This project is being developed by LubDub Theatre Company through an ongoing two-year residency with the Orchard Project’s NYC Greenhouse.

All performances subject to change. Cover photo of Inua Ellams by Oliver Holms. An Evening with an Immigrant is presented in partnership with the British Council, with support by the Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice, and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The Laboratory for Global Performance & Politics harnesses the power of performance to humanize global politics. Since 2012, we have created and presented innovative, high-quality work from around the world that is at the intersection of politics and performance. The Lab’s signature approach raises voices rarely heard in Washington, DC through compelling, authentic narratives, and engages policymakers, artists, and wider audiences in forums that cast critical issues in a new light. As a signature joint-initiative between the School of Foreign Service and the Georgetown College, The Lab is passionate about helping to train the next generation of innovators to use their artistry and voices to shape new understandings and to humanize others in pursuit of a better, more just world. For more information, please visit: GlobalLab.Georgetown.edu or follow us @TheLabGU.

CrossCurrents is funded in part by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Additional support comes from the Revada Foundation and Samia Farouki.

The Lab Staff

Derek GoldmanCo-Director

Cynthia SchneiderCo-Director

Teddy RodgerPrograms Manager Producer, CrossCurrents

Aly PanjwaniPrograms Assistant

JT TvardovskayaOperations Assistant

Lily HughesAssociate Producer, The Gathering

Laura ApelbaumDevelopment Associate

Michael DonnayCrossCurrents Technical Director and Production Manager

Graphic design by Alexander Hage.Marketing support by PatientRock Marketing. Falling Out is co-presented in collaboration with The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Falling Out is a part of their Direct Current Festival. The CrossCurrents festival is not associated with the CrossCurrents Foundation.Falling Out photo courtesy of Sierra Urich.Somi in Residence is sponsored by Georgetown SFS, with support from Georgetown College.