Mark your calendar! October 7th 2019 is the official start of the On the Front Lines: Performing Afghanistan project. Join us for the opening events (details below)! These include two one-act plays based on stories written by Afghan women and adapted for the stage, images of Kabul presented by photojournalist, Joël van Houdt, and authentic Afghan culture, as we watch, socialize, and discuss. Complete information on the guest artists and scholars can be found on this page. We are also hosting top scholars in the field of theatre to discuss topics relevant to Afghan history and culture, including the history of Afghan theatre, theatrical practices that the military uses for simulating field operations in Afghanistan, and “the Great Game.”
The aforementioned plays were commissioned as part of a larger project to bring Afghan women’s voices to the public more prominently through storytelling and theatre. The project, On the Front Lines: Performing Afghanistan, is directed by Lesley Ferris, Art and Humanities Distinguished Professor of Theatre at Ohio State University. Palindrome Productions produced several of the plays in London prior to this project. The first three plays, are based on stories written for the Huffington Post by Afghan women journalists who completed training through Sahar Speaks. Now Ohio State University is home to this project which will engage and build an intellectual community around the issues brought up in the plays.
On the Front Lines: Performing Afghanistan, Opening Events, October 7, 2019
4:30 p.m.
Sahar Speaks: Voices of Women from Afghanistan
Film/Video Theater
Wexner Center for the Arts
Playwrights Nushin Arbabzadah and Alia Bano adapted these works for the stage, giving a rare and revealing look into Afghan women’s lives. Following the performances, the playwrights, with invited guests, join the post-performance discussion with Lesley Ferris, Art and Humanities Distinguished Professor of Theatre at Ohio State University and other invited guests. Since 2016 Dr. Ferris, as Artistic Director of Palindrome Productions (London), commissioned and produced the first four plays for Sahar Speaks. This event is free but we ask that you obtain a ticket through the Wexner Center.
5:45 p.m.
Chai Khana Social Hour
Wexner Center for the Arts Lower Lobby
Afghan afternoon tea and refreshments.
7:00 p.m.
Joël van Houdt: “Kuja Meri?” (Where are you going?): Afghan Refugees Across the Globe
Film/Video Theater
Wexner Center for the Arts
Dutch photographer Joël van Houdt’s discusses his gripping exhibit documenting the journeys of Afghan refugees around the world following the despair resulting from the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan. This event is free but we ask that you obtain a ticket through the Wexner Center.
Supported by a Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme Grant
Presented by the Department of Theatre and the Middle East Studies Center with support from the Department of History, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures (NELC), the Wexner Center for the Arts, and the Middle East and Islamic Studies Service and Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute at the University Library.
Panjir Valley, Afghanistan. Photo by Tom McClimans. All rights reserved.