Fort Point Theatre Channel
Presents
"The Land"

Free Workshop Runs May 16 - 18

Fort Point Theatre Channel will present "The Land," a new play written by Jessica Litwak (an American playwright), with Amir al-Azraki (an Iraqi playwright). The play is being workshopped as part of the development of the work toward future full productions. Directed by Marc S. Miller, performances will take place from May 16 - 18 at 10 Channel Center Street, Fort Point in Boston.

The story for "The Land" merges the fantastic and the realistic as it moves across time and geography and traverses the worlds of the living and the dead. It is a tragicomedy about two soldiers, one from Iraq and one from the U.S. Although both have been killed, they come to see the horror and humor of their lives while a gravedigger poet buries them. As the gravedigger rushes through his job, they go over their lives, from history to religion to the women they love and will miss. They come to a reconciliation and are motivated to make peace in the afterlife. Meanwhile, their mothers, on opposite sides of the world, come to terms with sorrow, rage, and regret. They meet years later to ask each other: Is understanding possible? Is forgiveness possible? Is peace?

Part of the overall “Tamziq: Scattered and Connected” project, "The Land" is being developed by Fort Point Theater Channel in conjunction with the Odysseus Project (www.odysseusproject.org) and the William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences (www.umb.edu/joinercenter). “Tamziq” means torn in Arabic and this multifaceted project serves as a conversation in art by Middle Eastern and American artists.

Anne Loyer, director of the Odysseus Project and a member of the Fort Point Theatre Channel’s artistic board, has organized and co-curated the “Tamziq” project, which is currently presenting the “Tamziq” exhibition at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown. The Fort Point Arts Community and FPTC are supporting partners in this exhibit. Loyer conceived “Tamziq” to create opportunities for dialogue and exchange with and within two communities: Iraqi refugees resettling in Massachusetts and U.S. veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

FPTC’s workshop production of "The Land" features: Ahmad Maksoud as the gravedigger; Lisa Caron Driscoll as an Iraqi mother;Michael Dwan Singh as her son; an Iraqi freedom fighter;Sally Nutt as an American mother; and Wilkinson Theodoris as her son, an American soldier.

For information, call 617.750.8900 or visit www.fortpointtc.org.