The Playwright’s Response to Conflict & Social Crisis

The inaugural festival of The Artist’s Path sought to raise awareness of the place of the playwright in shaping our perception, opinions, and actions as well as examining some of the pressing issues of our time.

Path 2011 produced 3 plays, The Guys, The Syringa Tree, and SEVEN all dealing with themes of peace and social justice, from 9/11 to apartheid to women fighting for justice around the world. Five New plays had public readings with themes of alienation, racism, economic disparity. Two public lectures examined the geo political place of Afghanistan in US foreign policy and aid. Paula Cizmar one of the seven playwrights from the play SEVEN spoke on The Creation of SEVEN.

It was in particular the play SEVEN that received support from the Puffin Foundation.

“In 2006 Vital Voices Global Partnership, an international non-governmental organization, dedicated to supporting women’s leadership worldwide, connected seven award-winning female playwrights with seven women from its Global Leadership Network. In the following months, the playwrights collected personal interviews and oral histories from each of these extraordinary women. Inspired by their tales of triumph, the playwrights gave voice to these women’s experiences, collaboratively working together to produce the documentary play, SEVEN.” from Vital Voices Website.

The video below is from the Vital Voices New York production. Please watch.