Butler Theatre, Phoenix Theatre Present 'SEVEN'
Friday, August 10, 2012
Not long before he left his job as director of Ohio University’s School of Theatre, William Fisher received in the mail a script for a play called SEVEN. Along with it was a letter from playwright Paula Cizmar, asking him to consider producing the play, which she and six others had written about seven women who had made extraordinary contributions to human rights in their home countries.
The script sat on Fisher’s desk for a while – it was one of the last things he packed before he moved to Indianapolis to become Theatre Department chair at Butler in 2010 – and sat on his new desk for a while too.
Then last year, after Butler Theatre produced a staged reading of the play The Exonerated, Fisher took out the SEVEN script and read it through.
“I really liked the idea of doing something current and something about current issues or people or events in this straightforward way,” he said. “This is one of the important aspects of theater to me – doing plays about subjects that matter right now.”
It also coincided with his desire to further connect with the Indianapolis professional theater community, so he approached Bryan Fonseca at the Phoenix Theatre about co-producing a staged reading performed by a company of the Phoenix’s professionals and Butler Theatre students. That staged reading will take place at 8 p.m. Sept. 5-8 at Butler University’s Lilly Hall Studio Theatre. (Tickets are $15 for the public, $5 for students. Call (317) 940-9247 for more information.)
The history of SEVEN is this: In 2006, Vital Voices Global Partnership President Alyse Nelson connected seven award-winning playwrights with seven women from its large international network of women leaders. The woman are: Hafsat Abiola, Nigeria; Farida Azizi, Afghanistan; Annabella De Leon, Guatemala; Marina Pisklakova-Parker, Russia; Mukhtar Mai, Pakistan; Inez McCormack, Northern Ireland; and Mu Sochua, Cambodia – all of whom worked to improve the lives of women in their countries, often against daunting odds.
Their stories were captured and turned into monologues for SEVEN by playwrights Anna Deavere Smith, Ruth Margraff, Gail Kriegel, Paula Cizmar, Susan Yankowitz, Carol K. Mack and Catherine Filloux.
The Butler-Phoenix staged reading will feature what Fisher describes as “a relatively minimal level of production and staging” – perhaps some slides and video. He is bringing in a guest sound designer, Sharath Patel, a former student of his who served as the sound designer of the original production and the international touring productions of SEVEN.
“These are compelling real people and real stories,” Fisher said. “Our aim is to present theater that inspires and moves people, and, as always, to produce a performance that people want to watch. As a department, we are committed to theatre that is steeped in important questions and the actuality of our world.”
The cast:
Brittany Staten as Hafsat Abiola from Nigeria
Bridgette Richards as Farida Azizi from Afghanistan
Veronica Orech as Anabella De Leon from Guatemala
Lauren Albert as Inez McCormack from Northern Ireland
Kate Powell as Marina Pisklakova-Parker from Russia
*Diane Tsao Boehm as Mu Sochua from Cambodia
*Andrea Marie Joseph as Mukhtar Mai from Pakistan
Directed by William Fisher
*Phoenix Theatre actors
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