Nottage's Pulitzer-winning play Ruined is set in the DRC and concerns women as human battlefields in civil war.

Nottage will be speaking at a public reception, sharing her experience researching and writing the play. She traveled to Africa twice to interview victims of violence, and used some of the material to inform her work, which was co-produced by Goodman Theatre in Chicago (fall 2008) and Manhattan Theatre Club (early 2009).

Bernstine will deliver a monologue from Ruined that describes the violence that occurred against her character, Salima.

The reception will immediately follow a United States Senate Foreign Relations joint subcommittee hearing dubbed "Confronting Rape and Other Forms of Violence Against Women in Conflict Zones," with case studies on the DRC and Sudan.

Other speakers at the reception will include Ron Haviv and Marcus Bleasdale (award-winning photojournalists who are part of an exhibition entitled "Congo/Women Portraits of War: The Democratic Republic of Congo"); and Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA). The reception will be held in Washington D.C. in the Russell Senate Office Building, Hearing Room 332.

The joint hearing of the Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Democracy, Human Rights and Global Women's Issues and the Subcommittee on African Affairs will be chaired by U.S. Senators Boxer and Russ Feingold (D-WI).

Ruined continues to June 28 at Manhattan Theatre Club's Off-Broadway home at New York City Center Stage I.

Visit manhattantheatreclub.com.