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AFTERMATH
“The
Making of Aftermath” panel discussion on Thursday, September
10, will feature the play’s creators and director, Jessica Blank
and Erik Jensen. Joining them will be Marla Keenan, Associate Director
of CIVIC (Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict), who traveled to
Jordan with Blank and Jensen, assisting with the logistics of interviewing
the Iraqi refugees. Sinan Antoon, translator of the interview transcripts
and assistant professor at NYU Gallatin School, will also participate
on the panel. Elizabeth Diamond, Chair of the Directing Department at
Yale School of Drama, will moderate the discussion. http://www.civicworldwide.org/
The
panel discussion will take place at 9:30 following the 8:00 performance
of Aftermath. It is FREE and open to the public.
Panelist Bios
Moderator
Liz
Diamond is a Resident Director of Yale Repertory Theatre, Professor
of Directing, and Chair of the Directing Department at Yale School of
Drama. Yale Rep productions include Lucinda Coxon’s HAPPY NOW?,
Marcus Gardley’s DANCE OF THE HOLY GHOSTS, Strindberg’s
MISS JULIE; Sunil Kuruvilla’s FIGHTING WORDS and RICE BOY; Seamus
Heaney's THE CURE AT TROY; Paul Schmidt’s translations of Moliere's
SCHOOL FOR WIVES, and Brecht's ST JOAN OF THE STOCKYARDS; Suzan-Lori
Parks' THE AMERICA PLAY (also at the Public Theater in New York) and
THE DEATH OF THE LAST BLACK MAN IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD. National
credits include Catherine Treischmann’s CROOKED at the Women’s
Project; Lisa Loomer’s DISTRACTED, Octavio Solis’ GIBRALTAR
and Kenneth Cavander’s new translation of Euripides’ THE
TROJAN WOMEN, all at Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Racine’s PHEDRE
at the American Repertory Theatre, and Steinbeck’s OF MICE AND
MEN at Arena Stage. Liz has been awarded the OBIE for Best Direction
and the Connecticut Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Direction,
and has won fellowships and grants for her work from the Ford Foundation,
the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the
Arts, the Asian Cultural Council and the SDC Foundations. She serves
as a Visiting Professor of the Shanghai Theatre Academy, and lives in
New York with her family. This season, Liz will direct HAPPY NOW? At
Primary Stages.
Panelist
Marla Bertagnolli-Keenan joined Campaign for Innocent Victims
in Conflict (CIVIC) as associate director in October 2005. Prior to
joining CIVIC, Marla was an Edward Rawson Fellow at Citizens for Global
Solutions working on US global engagement on such issues as the Darfur
genocide and Avian Influenza. She started a management consulting company
in New York City -- working with a small portfolio of clients in diverse
industries including technology, not-for-profit and finance. She has
previously served as Manager of Marketing & Communications, Communications
Coordinator and Financial Planning Analyst in private sector organizations.
Marla has also worked with the Disaster Public Affairs Office for the
American Red Cross. She holds a M.S. degree in International Policy
& Policy Analysis (research focus of human rights in areas of conflict)
from the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy & Management
at Carnegie Mellon University.
CIVIC'S MISSION: Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC) advocates
on behalf of victims of armed conflict the world over, working to ensure
they receive recognition and assistance from warring parties. CIVIC
persuaded the US Congress to establish programs for war victims in Afghanistan
and Iraq, guides victims to assistance, brings the human cost of war
to the attention of policymakers and the public, and is advocating a
new global standard of conduct that warring parties should help where
they have hurt. To learn more about CIVIC visit: www.civicworldwide.org
Panelist
Sinan Antoon came to the US after the 1991 Gulf War. He studied
English literature at Baghdad and Arabic literature at Georgetown and
Harvard where he earned a doctorate. He is widely published in Arabic
and English (The Nation, Middle East Report, al-Ahram Weekly, among
others). He has two collection of poetry in Arabic and one in English,
The Baghdad Blues and a novel, I`jaam; An Iraqi Rhapsody (City Lights)
which has been translated and published in five languages. His poetry
is anthologized in Iraqi Poetry Today and Inclined to Speak; Arab-American
Poetry and has appeared in Ploughshares, World Literature Today and
Banipal. Antoon returned to Iraq in 2003 as a member of InCounter Productions
to co-direct and co-produce About Baghdad; a documentary film about
the occupation of Iraq. His translation of Mahmoud Darwish’s In
the Presence of Absence is forthcoming from Archipelago. Antoon is a
contributing editor with Banipal and Middle East Report and is an assistant
professor at New York University.
Panelists
Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen are writers,
actors, and directors. Together, they are authors of The Exonerated,
a play based on interviews they conducted with over 40 wrongfully convicted
death row inmates across the United States. Erik and Jessica co-directed
the first production of The Exonerated at Tim Robbins' Actors'
Gang Theater, which was nominated for five Ovation Awards and three
NAACP Awards, winning the Ovation for Best World Premiere Play. Under
Bob Balaban's direction, the New York (Culture Project) and London (Riverside
Studios) production of The Exonerated ran for over 600 performances
Off-Broadway, toured nationally, won Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle,
Drama Desk, Fringe First and Herald Angel Awards, and was nominated
for the Dramatists’Guild's Hull-Warriner Award and the John Gassner
Playwriting Award. The play received awards from Amnesty International,
the American Bar Association, the National Association of Criminal Defense
Lawyers, Death Penalty Focus, and Court TV. The Exonerated
enjoyed sold-out runs in London and at the Dublin International Theater
Festival and has been translated into Spanish, French, Italian and Japanese.
An award-winning movie for Court TV, the film version featured Susan
Sarandon, Danny Glover, Brian Dennehy, Aidan Quinn and Delroy Lindo.
As
an actor Jessica Blank has appeared on film, TV, and
in theaters throughout New York City. Television credits include The
Bronx Is Burning, Law and Order: CI, Rescue Me, One Life to Live and
Guiding Light; film credits include The Namesake (dir.
Mira Nair), The Exonerated (dir. Bob Balaban), You’re
Nobody Till Somebody Kills You (exec. prod. Spike Lee), On
the Road With Judas (Sundance 2007) and Undermind. Her
play Liberty City was produced in 2008 by NYTW (with Jessica
directing), and was nominated for Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, and Outer
Critics Circle Awards. Her first novel, Almost Home, about
homeless youth in Los Angeles, was published by Hyperion in 2007 and
her second novel, Karma for Beginners, is forthcoming in 2009.
As
an actor, Erik Jensen has co-starred in over twenty
feature films, including Black Knight and The Love Letter.
He stars as NY Yankee legend Thurman Munson in ESPN miniseries The
Bronx is Burning, and will star in Virtuality, the new
series by the creators of Battlestar Galactica. He has appeared
on CSI, Law and Order, and Love Monkey, as well as Alias
and Century City. Notable stage appearances include Arthur
Kopit’s Y2K and Terrance McNally's Corpus Christi
at MTC. He is at work on Main Street, an independent documentary
about corporate farming’s impact on small-town America.
As
writing partners, Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen’s work has been
supported by the Ford Foundation, the Soros Foundation, the New York
State Council on the Arts, the New World Foundation, and the Ethel and
Abe Lapides Foundation. Their writing has been published in several
magazines and journals, including The Believer, The Dramatist, Another
Magazine, and Theater History Studies. Living
Justice, their book on the making of The Exonerated,
was published in 2005 by Simon and Schuster. Jessica's novel, Almost
Home, was recently optioned for feature film by Jon Bon Jovi’s
film production company, and Jessica and Erik are adapting the screenplay.
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