Hollywood's Fountain Theatre — which presented the world premiere of the work — organized the international event with the internationales literaturfestival berlin and the Peter Weiss Foundation for Art and Politics.
The work, based on the Eliot Weinberger article which uses actual quotes about the invasion of Iraq from politicians to soldiers to Iraqi citizens, debuted Sept. 11 at the California venue. Simon Levy directed his adaptation of the galvanizing article which was originally slated to end Oct. 9. Stephen Sachs produced.
In January of 2005, Weinberger penned "What I Heard About Iraq" which ran in the London Review of Books and in Fellowship magazine in the United States. The article which continually repeats the phrase "I heard" uses quotes directly from politicians, military chiefs, U.S. soldiers and Iraqi citizens as does the stage version. The work serves as a commentary on the truth and lies revealed over the course of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
"The play is neither fiction nor speculation; it takes us into the war and confronts us with the human drama, the human toll," said director-adaptor Levy in a statement. "This is not about history or about something going on 'over there.' This is about what's going on here, in America, now."
Among the venues planning to present the work (March 20, unless noted otherwise) are: United States
Albany, NY: Siena College's Foy Theatre, March 20 at 8 PM. (518) 783-4242 or [email protected] Arcata, CA: D Street Neighborhood Center, March 19 @ 4:30 PM. Becky Luening at (707) 826-9197 Atlanta, GA: The 7 Stages Theatre, www.7stages.org or (404) 523-7647 Buffalo, NY: Subversive Theatre, www.subversivetheatre.org Houston, TX: First Unitarian Universalist Church, 7PM, contact [email protected] Indianapolis, IN: The Phoenix Theatre, www.phoenixtheatre.org or (317) 635 PLAY(7529) Los Angeles, CA: The Fountain Theatre, 8PM, www.fountaintheatre.com or (323) 663-1525 Maui, HI: Maui Booksellers, March 19 @ 7 PM, www.mauibooksellers.com New York City, NY: PS 122, March 19, www.thawaction.org New York City, NY: Workshop Theater Company, [email protected] - encore reading 11:30pm at Hammerstein Ballroom Northridge, CA: The Theatre Guild on CSU Northridge campus Oberlin, OH: Oberlin College, www.oberlin.edu Portland, ME: The Portland Stage Company, 7PM, www.portlandstage.com or (207) 774-1043 Purchase, NY: Manhattanville College, 7PM, www.mville.edu San Francisco, CA: Bird & Beckett Books & Records, 7:30 PM, Eric Whittington at (415) 586-3733 Santa Barbara, CA: Center Stage Theatre Paseo Nuevo Center, www.dramaticwomen.org Santa Maria, CA: Allan Hancock College's Severson Theatre, Trystan Reece at (503) 515-8730 Seattle, WA: Poets West at Trinity United Methodist Church (in Ballard), www.poetswest.com Tucson, AZ: Temple of Music, Ken Tesoriere at [email protected] Venice, CA: Arts Center, Eric Vollmer at [email protected] Washington, D.C.: Extreme Exchange at H Street Playhouse, 7:30 PM International (visit www.literaturfestival.com for details)
Amsterdam, Netherlands: Bar Bodega Biblos, 8 PM, RSVP to [email protected], for information write to: [email protected] Athens, Greece: Theater of Neos Kosmos, 8 PM, [email protected] or [email protected] Basel, Switzerland: Literaturburo Basel, 8 PM, [email protected] Berlin, Germany: Sophiensaele, 7PM, Festsaal Sophienstraus 18 Brussels, Belgium: Kaaitheater Calcutta, India: Tritiyo Sutra Performance Center at Gorky Sadan, 6 PM, www.tspc.in Durban, South Africa: Center for creative arts university of Kwazulu-natal, email [email protected] Erlangen, Germany: State Library Frankfurt a.M., Germany: schauspielfrankfurt, 8 PM, email [email protected] Frankfurt a.O., Germany: Writers from Frankfurt and Berlin, 7:30 PM, email [email protected] Liverpool, England: Liverpool Methodist Church, email [email protected] London, England: London Review Bookshop, 6 PM, 020 7269 9030. London, England: Voices in the Wilderness Mobile Street Theatre, www.voicesuk.org or 0207 837 0561 Luxembourg: The Theatre du Centaure, 6:30 PM (French) & 8:30 PM (English), www.theatrecentaure.lu/what.html Magdeburg, Germany: theatremagdeburg, 7:30PM, Studio im Schauspielhaus, email [email protected] Melbourne, Australia: Carlton Courthouse, www.lamama.com.au Nicosia, Cyprus: Theatro ENA, 8:30 PM, 00357 2234 8203 or [email protected] Prague, Czech Republic: divadlo Komedie, March 20-25, email [email protected] Rome, Italy: Café Lo Yeti, www.isolapedonale.net Sydney, Australia: Official Sydney, 7 PM, www.squatspace.com/smic Zürich, Switzerland: Theater am Neumarkt, 6PM, email [email protected] Radio Broadcasts
Everett, Washington: PoetsWest - KSER 90.7, 4:30PM, March 17 & 24 Houston, Texas: Pacifica's LivingArt, 15-minute excerpt performed live, 11 AM, March 17. For more information, visit fountaintheatre.com.