A Multidisciplinary Performance offering
When We Look Produced April 2008 - Music directed by Maryam Yusefzadeh, promotes and fosters the connections between artistic practice and social responsibility. It facilitates relationships between artists, individuals and community groups on the one hand, and between artists and progressive sociopolitical engagement, on the other.
Women are often the 'collateral damage' in wars and genocides. Rape and other forms of gender-based violence tear societies apart, destroy identity, marginalize women, and create lives filled with such fear and dread that they are beyond our imagination. Using poetry, song, movement, and live music, When We Look examines the four roles in genocide and other mass atrocities - victims; perpetrators; bystanders; and upstanders. Stories of women from Rwanda, Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Guatemala are told along with the story of an American female veteran from the first Gulf War. The performance uses Elie Wiesel's words to encourage us to take action: "What hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor but the silence of the bystander."
When We Look promotes and fosters the connections between artistic practice and social responsibility. It facilitates relationships between artists, individuals and community groups on the one hand, and between artists and progressive sociopolitical engagement, on the other. This important production comes at a critical time for United States citizens as we deal with our compassion fatigue and digest the enormous repercussions of wars abroad. It provides a much needed opportunity for people to "do something" with the emotions, fears and confusion felt after consuming media reports of global events. The overarching themes are hope, honoring courageous women worldwide and the belief that every individual, if they choose, can make a difference.
The full cast includes: Julie Kastigar Jocko MacNelly, Margo Abdo O'Dell, Tim O'Keefe, Esther Ouray, Ellena Schoop, Laurie Witzkowski and Maryam Yusefzadeh, with script by Aditi Kapil.
