THE STORY: A collaboration of seven award-winning women playwrights, SEVEN is based on personal interviews with seven women leaders of the Vital Voices Global Partnership network who have triumphed over huge obstacles to create major changes in human rights in their home countries. In the seven interwoven stories we see the commonality of challenge and of bravery, and in the individual monologues that follow, we experience each fascinating whole true story.
SEVEN WOMEN / SEVEN PLAYWRIGHTS:Hafsat Abiola, NigeriaHafsat Abiola, an advocate for human rights and democracy following the murder of her activist parents, founded the Kudirat Initiative for Democracy, which provides skills-training and leadership opportunities for young women across Nigeria. She now helps build bridges between African and Chinese women, as China increases its engagement in the African continent.
Anna Deavere Smith, Playwright Anna Deavere Smith is an actor, teacher, playwright and creator of unique one-woman plays based on interviews. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her play FIRES IN THE MIRROR, Ms. Smith is founder and director of the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue at New York University.
Full BioFarida Azizi, AfghanistanFarida Azizi became an activist fighting the marginalization of women under Taliban rule in her native country. Because of threats on her life, she has gained asylum and now lives in the United States with her two children and works on women's rights and peace-building in Afghanistan.
Ruth Margraff, Playwright Ruth Margraff is an alumna of New Dramatists, an active member of LPTW and Theater Without Borders/Brandeis Coexistence International, and Associate Professor of Playwriting at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Full BioAnnabella De Leon, GuatemalaAnnabella raised herself and her family out poverty by getting an education. She has been a congresswoman since 1995 and has received death threats because of her fight against corruption and for the rights of the poor, particularly women and indigenous peoples.
Gail Kriegel, Playwright For her prize-winning play ON THE HOME FRONT, Gail Kriegel received a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, One World Arts Grant, NYFA grant, the Ruby Lloyd Apsey Award and was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. A member of the BMI Musical Theater Workshop, her work has been published by Smith & Kraus, Heinemann Press and is included in the Archives at Lincoln Center.
Full BioMarina Pisklakova-Parker, RussiaAgainst tremendous odds in 1993, Marina Pisklakova-Parker founded the first hotline for victims of domestic violence, which has since grown into Center ANNA, part of a coalition that has provided crisis and counseling services for 100,000 Russian women.
Paula Cizmar, Playwright Paula Cizmar's plays have been produced off-Broadway, in London, and in regional theatres from Maine to California. She has been selected for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and Sundance Theatre Lab and is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts playwriting grant and a residency at the Rockefeller Foundation's study center in Bellagio, Italy.
Full BioMukhtar Mai, PakistanMukhtar Mai was gang raped by four men and forced to walk home almost naked in retribution for an alleged "honor crime." Ms. Mai and her harrowing story grabbed headlines across the world. Instead of taking the traditional "women's" route of committing suicide, she brought her rapists to justice, built schools to improve the condition of women, and became an advocate for education in her country.
Susan Yankowitz, Playwright Susan Yankowitz is a playwright, novelist and librettist. Her best-known plays include PHAEDRA IN DELIRIUM, TERMINAL1969, TERMINAL 1996, (collaborations with Joseph Chaikin's Open Theatre), A KNIFE IN THE HEART, and NIGHT SKY. Her work has been honored by the NEA, Guggenheim, Rockefeller and NYFA foundations, among others.
Full BioInez McCormack, Northern IrelandInez McCormack is an activist for women's and human rights, labor, and social justice and a former President of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. Ms. McCormack played a critical role in the 1998 Good Friday Peace Accords and continues to advocate for equal rights and fair labor practices for women and minorities. Ms. McCormack currently serves as chair of the Participation and the Practice of Rights Project (PPR), a program that helps the disadvantaged access resources and services in Ireland, both North and South. In 2008 she received the prestigious Irish Tatler Woman of the Year Award.
Carol K. Mack, Playwright Carol K. Mack's plays have been produced Off-Broadway and in regional theatres across the U.S. Awards include Stanley Drama Award, Julie Harris/Beverly Hills Theatre Guild Award and a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship.
Full Bio Mu Sochua, CambodiaMu Sochua is the former Minister of Women's Affairs in Cambodia (one of only two women in the cabinet), she was co-nominated in 2005 for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work against sex trafficking of women in Cambodia and neighboring Thailand. MP Mu Sochua, after door-to-door visits to 482 villages, won a seat in Parliament in July 2008.
Catherine Filloux, Playwright Catherine Filloux is an award-winning playwright who has been writing about human rights and social justice for the past twenty years. Her plays have been produced in New York and around the world. She has received awards from the O'Neill, Kennedy Center, Omni Center for Peace and New Dramatists.
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