A small but very engaged audience with four actor friends who read the works of my Afghan students. These are the stories that will never be heard on the news: How many Americans even know there's a very depressed minority (Hazara) in Afghanistan.
Tamina's monologue of the Protester at the Shia Law demonstration on Darulaman Rd near the Iranian mosque, March, 2009, already two years ago. But the law is still in place, the story (of legal rape) relevant as ever.
Hasan's monologue of the old woman who has just lost her whole family in a Nato AIRSTRIKE! What's new.
Nematullah's monologue of the Pashtun man talking about the history of Afghanistan, singing the famous couplet attributed to Malalai inthe 1880's war with the British; also his monologue of the young Hazara.
These monologue were the result of using as a text, Anna Deveare Smith's FIRES IN THE MIRROR, about the battle between Hasids and blacks in Brooklyn
One of the pleasures of sharing my experience is the comments from the audience who see things in the photos I never have as in this painting by a young orphan in Kabul- it is the tent of a Kuchi family, the nomads of Afghanistan (was the child who painted it a Kuchi?) The person in the audience marveled at how integral the animals are to this family . . .and how beautifully rendered
One audience member sent an email suggesting this be a staged production which has been my thought all along . .
I drove the 60 miles home with only one headlite under the fall of giant snowflakes (April28!) happy to arrive at my cozy home in the Oregon forest plenty wood to keep me warm.
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