Monday, August 12, 2013

INTERNATIONAL JOURNALISM SEMINAR | Global journalists and human-rights advocates crack open the world of international LGBT issues

Are you hungry for a career in global news? Would you like to travel and report on some of the world's most important and exciting LGBT stories? Could you see yourself breaking international stories from a newsroom in London, Hong Kong, Boston, New York or Washington, D.C.?

I have been hard to work organizing an "International Journalism Seminar" in Boston. It features our country's leading global U.S. journalists and human-rights activists. The seminar takes place August 22 in Boston. Read here for information about what to expect and how to sign up for it.


A group of leading global U.S. media companies, human-rights activists and international journalists will crack open the world of international journalism as part of "Boston: Uncommon" 9th LGBT Media Summit, organized by the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) on Thursday, August 22, 2013  at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers.

Entitled "International Journalism Seminar on LGBT Issues and Story Coverage," the convening assembles The Global Post, PRI's The World, The Ground Truth Project, Critical Stages, In the Culture of One World, The Journalist.ie, the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission, and 2013 NLGJA Journalist of the Year Award winner Michael Luongo.

The seminar will feature KEVIN DOUGLAS GRANT, a founding member of The GroundTruth Project and the Deputy Editor of Special Reports at GlobalPost; MICHAEL LUONGO, a freelance journalist and author of "Gay Travels in the Muslim World" and "Frommer’s Buenos Aires"; CHARLES M. SENNOTT, the Vice President, Editor-at-Large and co-founder of GlobalPost; BRUCE SHAPIRO, executive director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University (still pending); JEB SHARP, producer of the public radio program PRI’s The World, a radio news magazine; and ROBERTA SKLAR, a veteran of social justice media campaigns and the Communications Director and Press Secretary of the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission.

I will serve as moderator for this seminar. For details, visit the NLGJA website here: http://www.nlgja.org/2013/international-story-coverage.

More than 350 journalists and communications professionals from across the US are expected to come to "Boston: Uncommon," the NLGJA National Convention and 9th LGBT Media Summit.  The four-day assembly, taking place from August 22 to 25, will begin with the LGBT Media Summit on August 22. Since 2004, the LGBT Media Summit offers special emphasis on the challenges faced by LGBT Media outlets. This one day conference serves as the opening forum for the National Convention.


The "International Journalism Seminar on LGBT Issues and Story Coverage" will put forward and explore practical information and theoretical knowledge essential for a career in the demanding, ever-changing field. My aim for the seminar is to emphasize opportunities and strategies for the LGBT Media here in the U.S. to cover international issues and human-rights concerns that affect LGBT communities around the world. LGBT journalists have had few opportunities to work as foreign correspondents. That’s especially the case in today’s media environment, with sharp cutbacks by many news outlets in their international coverage.

At the same time, LGBT communities outside of the U.S. rarely receive coverage of global issues that directly affect their lives, from anti-gay violence and transgender rights to the status of LGBT marriages and the impact of social media on the international LGBT coverage. This program aims to offer tools and basics on international LGBT reporting in our increasingly globalized world. It offers cases studies on how LGBT journalists based in the U.S. can play an important role in covering and advocating for international developments. It will delve into how to acquire the skills, resources and digital tools to produce global stories, making them more competitive in the newsroom.

In addition, I prepared an "International LGBT Journalism Resource File and Tool Kit." This PDF file explains how to get advanced training and experience so that journalistic reports can bring fresh perspectives of the LGBT world to U.S. audiences. It also outlines some of the best international LGBT reporting that have been done so far. To download this "Resource File and Tool Kit," visit the link posted here:
http://www.academia.edu/4241272/International_Journalism_Seminar_on_LGBT_Issues_and_Story_Coverage.

Founded in 1990, the NATIONAL LESBIAN & GAY JOURNALISTS ASSOCIATION (NLGJA) is an organization of journalists, media professionals, educators and students working from within the news industry to foster fair and accurate coverage of LGBT issues. NLGJA opposes all forms of workplace bias and provides professional development to its members. Its "Boston: Uncommon" convention will also include Connect - the NLGJA Student Journalism Project, the Women's Networking Dinner, NLGJA's Excellence in Journalism Awards and numerous other learning and networking opportunities for members. Visit nlgja.org.


FULL BIOGRAPHIES

KEVIN DOUGLAS GRANT is a founding member of The GroundTruth Project, a foundation-supported initiative dedicated to training the next generation of foreign correspondents in the digital age. He is also the Deputy Editor of Special Reports at GlobalPost, where he oversees foundation-supported reporting series from around the world. A native of Chicago, he holds an M.A. in Online Journalism from the University of Southern California's Annenberg School, where he was a Dean's Scholar, and is the former Operations Director of Web news enricher Inform.com. He was the founding Executive Editor of Annenberg's thriving 24/7 news site NeonTommy.com. Grant also holds a B.A. in International Studies from DePaul University and has been published by Salon.com, American Public Media, Religion News Service, Huffington Post, LA Daily News, Columbia Journalism Review and Truthdig.
GROUND TRUTH PROJECT is a foundation-supported initiative dedicated to training the next generation of foreign correspondents in the digital age. It is focused on the issues of social justice including human rights, freedom of expression, emerging democracies, the environment, religious affairs and global health. GroundTruth seeks to foster dialogue and engagement about these issues, with the aim of finding solutions as well as exposing injustice. It also seeks to build the capacity for freedom of expression in developing countries around the world by helping to train a new generation of correspondents who can work together across different media platforms and cultural backgrounds.
- See more at www.thegroundtruthproject.org/

MICHAEL LUONGO is a freelance journalist, editor and photographer and New York University adjunct professor teaching travel writing. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Bloomberg News, CNN, National Geographic Traveler, Gay City News, the Advocate, Conde Nast Traveler, Travel+Leisure, Details, Man About World and other publications, with most of his travel writing and international correspondence work concentrating on the Middle East and Latin America. He is the recipient of the 2013 NLGJA Journalist of the Year Award, the 2011 Sarah Pettit Memorial Award for the LGBT Journalist of the Year and the 2010 Grand Prize in Travel Writing Award Winner for NATJA (North American Travel Journalist Association). His 2010 Gay City News piece on the killing of gay men in Iraq won several awards and was nominated for a Pulitzer. He has received awards from SPJ’s Deadline Club New York Chapter, ASJA, IGLTA and was a finalist in the 2010 London Foreign Press Association Awards. Michael is also NLGJA’s Travel Writers Caucus Chair.
Luongo's BOOKS include Gay Travels in the Muslim World, originally published when he was the imprint editor for Haworth’s Out in the World series on gay travel literature, and the only gay-themed American book published in Arabic; Gay Tourism, the first academic book on the gay travel industry; and Frommer’s Buenos Aires, written during his years living part time in Argentina. His most recent book is Sensual Travels, an edited collection published in June of this year by German publishing house Bruno Gmunder.
- See more at: www.michaelluongo.com
- See more at: www.misterbuenosaires.com
- See more at: www.photosofafghanistan.com

CHARLES M. SENNOTT is the Vice President, Editor-at-Large and co-founder of GlobalPost. An award-winning foreign correspondent with 25 years of experience, Sennott has reported on the front lines of wars and insurgencies in at least 15 countries, including the 2011 revolution in Cairo and the Arab Spring. He was among the first journalists on the ground in Afghanistan in the aftermath of the September 11th and has continued reporting there throughout the last decade. He covered the war in Iraq from the invasion through the surge to the beginning of the drawdown of troops. Before joining GlobalPost, Sennott was a longtime foreign correspondent for The Boston Globe. He served as the Globe's Middle East Bureau Chief based in Jerusalem from 1997 to 2001 and as Europe Bureau Chief based in London from 2001 to 2005. He is the author of two books, "The Body and The Blood" and "Broken Covenant," and a co-author of a third.
GLOBAL POST is the award-winning world news site with outstanding original reporting from country-based journalists in all regions of the world. Noted by The New York Times as “offering a mix of news and features that only a handful of other news organizations can rival,” GlobalPost offers fresh, in-depth perspective on the changing global picture that affects us all by combining traditional journalistic values and the power of new media.
- See more at: www.globalpost.com/

BRUCE SHAPIRO is executive director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, encouraging innovative reporting on violence, conflict and tragedy worldwide from the Center’s headquarters at Columbia University in New York City. An award-winning reporter on human rights, criminal justice and politics, Shapiro is a contributing editor at The Nation and U.S. correspondent for Late Night Live on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Radio National.
The DART CENTER FOR JOURNALISM AND TRAUMA, a project of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, is dedicated to informed, innovative and ethical news reporting on violence, conflict and tragedy. Whether the topic is street crime, family violence, natural disaster, war or human rights, effective news reporting on traumatic events demands knowledge, skill and support. The Dart Center provides journalists around the world with the resources necessary to meet this challenge, drawing on a global, interdisciplinary network of news professionals, mental health experts, educators and researchers.
- See more at: dartcenter.org

JEB SHARP is producer of the public radio program PRI’s The World. Before taking on her current position she was a longtime correspondent for The World, focusing on U.S. foreign policy and human rights. She has reported from Europe, Africa, and the Middle East as well as the U.S. Her work has won awards from the Overseas Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University. She was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 2005-2006. Sharp studied history at Cornell University and the University of York in England. She has a master’s degree from the Graduate School of Journalism at U.C. Berkeley. She began her radio career at KCAW in Sitka, Alaska and also worked at WBUR in Boston before joining the staff of The World. She lives in Cambridge, Mass.
PRI’s THE WORLD is a one-hour, weekday radio news magazine offering a mix of news, features, interviews, and music from around the globe. Launched in 1996, PRI’s The World, a co-production of WGBH/Boston, Public Radio International, and the BBC World Service, airs weekdays on over 300 stations across North America. Theworld.org is an online home for the radio content where you can also find additional multimedia offerings such as blogs, photo galleries, and podcasts produced by The World’s team.
- See more at: www.theworld.org

ROBERTA SKLAR is the Communications Director and Press Secretary of the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission. A leading communications strategist, a media relations’ specialist, and a veteran of social justice media campaigns, she has worked to advance LGBT civil rights, sexual and reproductive health rights, and global female empowerment. Sklar is the former communications director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and Empire State Pride Agenda. During her tenure, the Task Force re-established itself as a leading national voice for LGBT rights. At the Pride Agenda Sklar conducted media campaigns supporting the delivery of groundbreaking statewide nondiscrimination law, a hate crimes law, and NY’s first state funding for LGBT health and human services. As a consultant, she worked with NYC Anti-Violence Project, Freedom to Marry, the National Sexuality Resource Center, National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance, NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, Queers for Economic Justice, and others.
The INTERNATIONAL GAY AND LESBIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION (IGLHRC), founded in 1990, is a leading international human rights organization dedicated to improving the lives of people who experience discrimination or abuse on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. IGLHRC is dedicated to strengthening the capacity of the LGBT human rights movement worldwide to effectively conduct documentation of LGBT human rights violations and by engaging in human rights advocacy with partners around the globe. IGLHRC holds consultative status at the United Nations as a recognized Non-Governmental Organization representing the concerns and human rights of lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender people worldwide.
- See more at: www.iglhrc.org

Friday, August 2, 2013

LISTEN TO THIS | Speaking about Bradley Manning verdict on Ireland news radio Newstalk 106–108 fm



DUBLIN and NEW YORK CITY |  Yesterday I provided live radio commentary and news analysis on the Bradley Manning verdict on Ireland's news radio Newstalk 106–108 fm.

The Dublin-based producer of "Davenport After Dark" contacted me after reading my news story about the Manning trial and verdict on TheJournalist.ie, a daily news site on current affairs and politics to which I have been contributing. The site is founded by Derek Bowler.

Dublin-based host Fionn Davenport was particularly interested on whether Manning achieved a moral or ethical victory. I said no, not really.

You can listen to the interview by clicking to on the link below. The interview I gave starts from about 40 minutes in.




The Irish host Fionn Davenport looked briefly at the background of the Manning story, the verdict and the sentencing hearing. They mostly wanted commentary on the sentencing hearing, implications for future whistleblowers and the reaction to the trial in the US.


Newstalk's "Davenport After Dark" is an hour-long radio show in Ireland. It describes itself as "an alternative and opinionated look at everything that informs, infuriates and entertains us. From the boardroom to the bedroom, Davenport After Dark will cover it all; every Thursday night from 10 PM. It's a little bit dangerous."

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

PARTY | Here Lies Talent: Celebrating the Fil-Am cast of HERE LIES LOVE

NEW YORK CITY: Let's toast these amazing actors and performers: Renée Albulario, Carol Angeli, Melody Butiu, Nathaniel P. Claridad, Natalie Cortez, Debralee Daco, Joshua Dela Cruz, Jose Llana, Kelvin Moon Loh, Jaygee Macapugay, Jeigh Madjus, Ruthie Ann Miles, Maria-Christina Oliveras, Clint Ramos, Conrad Ricamora, George Salazar, Trevor Salter and Janelle Velasquez. These Fil-Ams are the talented stars and crew of HERE LIES LOVE, the immersive musical event by David Byrne and DJ Fatboy Slim, currently performing at the Joseph Papp Public Theater.

Filipino Mundo-NYC, Filipino American Press Club of New York and Ugly Kitchen are honored to recognize and celebrate the Filipino-American theatre artists whose ensemble commitment has made HERE LIES LOVE the most acclaimed musical production of the season.

On Saturday, July 20th, from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm, these Filipino-American musical performers will gather for an afternoon of drinks and conversation at the Ugly Kitchen restobar (located at 103 1st Ave  New York, NY 10003). This Kapihan is called "HERE LIES TALENT: Celebrating the Fil-Am cast
of HERE LIES LOVE."

HERE LIES LOVE at the Public Theater through July 28th
"This gathering is not a panel discussion. It is a Kapihan, a coffee break," says Randy Gener, an award-winning editor/writer, curator/organizer of Filipino Mundo-NYC and the only Asian-American recipient of George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. "This afternoon event takes the form of a long table, using the intimate form of a klatch as a structure for public conversation. Aspiring young actors and musical performers are most especially welcome to come. It is a unique opportunity to meet the show's original cast and to share professional experiences with these amazing Fil-Am performing artists* before the Public Theater's engagement officially ends on July 28th."

What's on the menu? Marcos history. Theatrical performance. Cultural legacy. Philippine pride. Filipino food house specialities served from Ugly Kitchen restobar. What does it mean to be a Fil-Am musical actor performing in this season's most culturally significant event about Philippine history? What can these Fil-Am talents share with us about what they know, remember or have learned about the past and the Marcos legacy? What is it like to perform nightly in an immersive theatrical musical where audiences stand, dance and move with the actors?

Click on the names of these performers to visit their websites and articles written about them:
1) Renée Albulario
2) Carol Angeli
3) Melody Butiu
4) Nathaniel P. Claridad
5) Natalie Cortez
6) Debralee Daco
7) Joshua Dela Cruz
8) Jose Llana
9) Kelvin Moon Loh
10) Jaygee Macapugay
11) Jeigh Madjus
12) Ruthie Ann Miles
13) Maria-Christina Oliveras
14) Conrad Ricamora
15) George Salazar
16) Trevor Salter
17) Janelle Velasquez

RSVP is a must. RSVP on the website of Filipino Mundo-NYC located at http://www.meetup.com/FilipinoMundo-NYC/events/128902652/.

*Participants are subject to change. Please come on time. Although free appetizers will be served, be prepared to pay if you decide to eat a full meal.

The men of HERE LIES LOVE
Filipino Mundo-NYC is a meetup group of young professionals and visual/performing artists socializing and creating art and performances in changing Manhattan venues. The group aims to cultivate a connected Filipino community; to enrich our experiences as global citizens enhancing, defining, and enriching the Filipino voice in harmony with the chorus of its surroundings -- and at the same time to give voice, venue and appreciation to new generations of Filipino and Filipino American artists, musicians and performers whose lives, creativity and work provide a rich contribution to our American present. Visit www.meetup.com/FilipinoMundo-NYC

Filipino American Press Club of New York is the first organization for Fil-Am journalists in New York. Its members are traditional and online journalists as well as bloggers. It was created in September 2011, and one of its activities is a monthly Kapihan where they facilitate a dialogue between leaders and personalities and members of the community.

Now fully owned by Filipinos, Ugly Kitchen is re-launching this month (July 2013) as permanent bar/restaurant in the East Village. It is the brainchild of Chef and Owner Aris Tuazon who was most recently the chef at Krystal's Cafe 81. Tuazon established the popular Filipino pop-up venue Bar Kada, which had taken up a Sunday residence at Ugly Kitchen. Having now changed its menu, Tuazon serves a fusion of Filipino American food everyday. Visit theuglykitchen.com

The women of HERE LIES LOVE
HERE LIES LOVE received the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical; an Obie Award for Outstanding Music and Lyrics; Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Music, Lighting Design, and Projection Design; and Theatre World Awards for Ruthie Ann Miles (as Imelda Marcos) and Conrad Ricamora (as Nonoy Aquino).  Within a pulsating dance club atmosphere, composers David Byrne and Fatboy Slim deconstruct the astonishing journey of Filipina First Lady Imelda Marcos retracing her meteoric rise to power and subsequent descent into infamy and disgrace at the end of the People Power Revolution.

HERE LIES LOVE is neither a period piece nor a biography, neither a play nor a traditional musical but an immersive theatrical event combining songs influenced by four decades of dance music, adrenaline-fueled choreography, and a remarkable 360-degree scenic and video environment to go beyond Imelda’s near-mythic obsession with shoes and explore the tragic consequences of the abuse of power. HERE LIES LOVE has set design by David Korins, costume design by Clint Ramos, lighting design by Justin Townsend, sound design by M. L. Dogg and Cody Spencer, and projection design by Peter Nigrini. Alex Timbers is the director. Annie-B Parson is the choreographer.

“Staged with INFINITE INVENTIVENESS and INSIDIOUSLY INFECTIOUS songs.”
–The New York Times

“Eye-popping, head-bopping and immersive – THE MUST-SEE EVENT OF THE SEASON!”
– New York Observer
The staff of UGLY KITCHEN


Friday, June 28, 2013

CAUSES | Professor Emeritus Jake Highton creates scholarship endowment for journalism students

Professor Jake Highton

Why you should donate to the Highton Scholarship Endowment for students
Professor Emeritus Jake Highton has established a scholarship endowment in his name to support journalism students at the Donald W. Reynolds School of Journalism and Center for Advanced Media Studies.

Jake arrived at the University in 1981, taught for three decades and was a four-time Senior Scholar mentor. He spent 15 years in newspapers and was a reporter for the Baltimore Evening Sun, copy editor for the Los Angeles Times and Detroit News, editorial writer and columnist for the Detroit News and book reviewer for the Detroit Free Press. He has also written a history of Nevada journalism, textbooks on reporting and editing, and 16 books containing 25 years of his columns for the Sparks Tribune. Highton writes cover articles for the Reno News & Review and still speaks at media conferences.

To learn more about supporting the Jake Highton Scholarship Endowment or to support the Reynolds School of Journalism, please contact Kristin Burgarello, director of development, (775) 784-4471 or kburgarello@unr.edu


Link to donation page (click the drop-down for Jake's endowment): https://supportnevada.unr.edu/sslpage.aspx?pid=353

How I got Jake'd
In an interview I gave for my alumni magazine, the editors of Nevada Silver & Blue asked: Which University of Nevada-Reno faculty inspired you the most/made the most difference in your becoming the successful writer that you are today?

It was the perfect moment to share what I really felt about Jake — to out Professor Softie who teaches under the guise of the Toughest Grader of the Wild Wild West.

His name is Jake Highton. A longtime journalism professor, he is my teacher, friend, adviser—and fellow letter-writer. I took every course Jake taught. I was not scared of Jake's reputation as a tough, pugnacious and fiery taskmaster. He was the professor to avoid if you were looking for an easy A.

Noting that he seldom gives A’s, Highton said, “A means excellent. I have few students that are excellent.”

Jake was so hard-line measly at giving A's that when he retired someone created a Facebook support group for those who got "Jake'd"!

There's a spot-on blog post, "The Jake Effect," which made me laugh when I first read it. It made me realize that I belong to an unofficial club: Those Who Survived a Class with Jake. The blogger Amy Minor wrote:
"The club was made up of stressed-out students comparing equally bad grades. The amount of his hastily-penned — perhaps even violently-scratched — red-ink corrections caused almost everyone considerable anxiety. The harsh feedback I received remains etched in my memory, like the beautifully alliterative: “WOEFULLY WEAK.” But as time goes by, a sense of pride sneaks up on you as you say, “Yeah, I had Jake, too.”
To this day, I follow the Highton Style of Attribution: It’s so-and-so SAID! Not said so-and-so. Reading other journalists' articles, I frown when I see how they always attribute quotes with ‘said’ in the wrong place. Usually at the very end of an over-long quote.

Full confession: Jake violently scrawled red-ink notes and corrections over the articles I banged out in class. Nevertheless he gave me straight A's in all his classes.

Maybe I am biased. As a former student said: "If they every make a movie about Jake, they should get Johnny Depp to play him. No one else could capture that swashbuckling yet sensitive bird-watching French-infused hard-hitting journalist thing he has going on."


One day Jake struck up a conversation with me. He invited me to his office. He said that he had been avidly reading my movie columns in the Sagebrush, the college newspaper. He wondered why I did not sign up to major in print journalism.

Fortunately, Jake did not judge my wrong-headed academic choices. He did not push me to switch majors. He mostly encouraged me to study investigative reporting and editing, which I did. His media-law and ethics classes fired my passion for First Amendment absolutism, progressive politics and the Supreme Court. His classes on the history of New York newspapers spurred me to take that first cross-country ride in a Greyhound bus from Reno to New York.

I have a vivid recollection of that May evening when I drove up to Jake’s old apartment in my secondhand Toyota. I showed up at his door to take my leave. I told him I was moving to New York for good.

Jake and I have kept in close contact over the years. Every time I visit Reno, we always have lunch at Archie's. He was one of the first people I informed after I received on Thanksgiving Eve a phone call from the chair of the Nathan Award who informed me that this year’s judges selected me as the winner of the George Jean Nathan Award for dramatic criticism.

A few days later, an envelope appeared in the mail. It contained Jake’s clippings, I assumed (rightly), from the morgue he fastidiously keeps. Over the years Jake would randomly send me clippings of articles he's read, usually with felt-pen markings on them. The articles explained everything about the noted drama critic George Jean Nathan, the journalist-critic H.L. Mencken (whose gleeful barbs Jake quotes by heart), and the two ferociously funny New York magazines they had founded called The Smart Set and The American Mercury. But I digress.

In classes and in his columns, Jake styles himself as vivid anti-establishment voice — a rebel. There are strong political reasons he slapped the titles No! and Wrong on his most recent books. This thorn-on-the-side-of-mainstream attitude harks directly to the first book I read of his, The Spirit That Says No.

But let me clue you into a big secret: Jake is actually a guy’s guy with an enormous heart.

From the very beginning, Jake pushed me to think bigger — to test my mettle in a bigger pond. “Discipline, discipline, discipline,” Jake frequently avows.

Look, the guy has financially supported me. When I attended Bard College to study film criticism and social-issues reporting (under New Yorker writer George W.S. Trow, New York Magazine film critic David Edelstein, New York Review of Books author Sue Halpern, and the great environmentalist Bill McKibben), Jake donated funds to help pay for my transportation. The time I spent at Bard College changed my life.

When I settled in New York City and began writing for the Village Voice, Jake made me the subject of one of his Daily Sparks Tribune columns. Who does that?

I think of Jake as a wild cat–dreamer — a closet Romantic. He puts on a fierce demeanor. Yet hard-hearted Highton cares. He inspires his students to aspire to be the greatest journalists of our generation.

The Jake I know is the spirit who consistently said Yes. — rg



Tuesday, June 11, 2013

SYMPOSIUM ON DOCUMENTARY THEATRE | Austria, Germany, Switzerland, U.S. artists stage "Theater of the Voiceless"

WASHINGTON, DC |  At invitation of the Austrian Cultural Forum, Goethe-Institut Washington, Embassy of Switzerland and Georgetown University’s Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, I will participate in two panel discussions in an international symposium on documentary theater, taking place Monday, June 17th at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

I will moderate a panel on creative approaches to documentary theater as performance and will speak on the implications of documentary theater for government policy and post-conflict reconciliation.

Called “Theater of the Voiceless,” this festival and symposium runs June 16 to June 19. The symposium offers a unique opportunity for U.S. artists, critics and documentary-makers to compare creative approaches among leading practictioners of the genre in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and the U.S.

RSVP here: www.theaterofthevoicelesssymposium.eventbrite.com

Without question, documentary theatre has become all the rage in Europe and the United States. The modern practice called documentary theatre emerged from the aspirations and practices of the historical avant-garde. Most critics presume that documentary approaches are realist in their practice and aim. But in fact the word "documentary" is problematic. Its treatment of source materials, documentary theatre itself follows the same avant-garde practices as collage, montage and assemblage. The current belief that the real can be reliably documented is something of a fantasy. The idea that the resulting documentation can be objectively interpreted by trained professionals (journalists and historians, for example) is fundamentally a modern idea.

Swiss playwright Milo Rau's Hate Radio, part of "Theatre of the Voiceless" in Washington, D.C.

What is exciting about "Theater of the Voicesless" is that it is a multi-stakeholder project by representatives of German-speaking nations (Austrian Cultural Forum, Goethe-Institut Washington, Embassy of Switzerland).  Although in the U.S. and in the Eastern parts of Europe, the dramaturgy of the real is seen as "new," the key figures in the development of documentary theatre actually go as far back as Germany and Austria. "Theater of the Voiceless" is trans-national in its approach: U.S. vs. Germany vs. Switzerland vs. Austria vs. Bangladesh vs. Africa.

The Symposium will begin with a presentation by Ping Chong, an internationally acclaimed director, playwright, video installation artist and a 2013 recipient of the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. He will be accompanied by Bruce Allardice, managing director of Ping Chong + Company. Together, they will speak about the power of documentary theater to affect social change.

In the afternoon, I will lead and moderate a panel discussion, “Documentary Theatre: Creative Approaches,” featuring U.S. and European creators who will discuss the research, creative process and staging of documentary plays and their many forms. It will be a special privilege to share the stage with Doug Wager, artistic director and head of directing for Temple University. Wager adapted and directed In Conflict, based on the book about Iraq war veterans speaking about their experiences. He also worked on a multimedia ensemble docudrama Shot! about gun violence, which got produced at Kennedy Center.

Chris Jennings (Managing Director, The Shakespeare Theatre Company) and David Snider (Director of Artistic Programming, Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater) will also share their most recent docu-projects. Konradin Kunze (Playwright, a small, small world) will discuss his own German approach.

The evening will be devoted to politics. After the staged reading of the Swiss play Hate Radio by Milo Rau, there will be another discussion, entitled “Documentary Theatre: Implications for Policy and Post-Conflict Reconciliation," focusing on how theater and performance can serve as tools for diplomacy. This panel features, among others, policy expert Michael Pelletier, who is Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs in Bureau of African Affairs in the U.S. Department of State.

Swiss playwright Milo Rau's Hate Radio, part of "Theatre of the Voiceless" in Washington, D.C.

Rau, the director and playwright, was born in Switzerland in 1977, and shuttles between Zurich and Berlin at present. His interest is dealing with the aesthetic of re-enactments. In addition, he is the director and founder of the International Institute of Political Murder (IIPM), an organization established in 2007 for the purpose of promoting and bringing forth the re-enactment of traumatic historical events by means of theater, film, fine arts, and research. One of IIPM’s latest projects, the re-enactment The Last Hours of Elena and Nicolae Ceausescu (2009-2010), has been performed in Romania, and is considered a great step forward towards that country’s coming to terms with its past.

Hate Radio re-enacts hate speech in Rwandan media. On April 6, 1994, the airplane of the Rwandan President, Habyaruman, was hit by two missiles as it tried to land. This event signaled the beginning of the most brutal genocide since the end of the Cold War. In the months of April, May and June 1994, the Central African state murdered an estimated 800,000 to 1,000,000 of its Tutsi minority and thousands of moderate Hutus. The tools used to humiliate and kill people of all ages and genders were simple: machetes, sticks, and a few guns. In addition, the most powerful instrument of the genocide was the “Radio-Télévision Libre  des Mille Collines” (RTLM). Central to the project is the re-enactment of an RTLM show, run by its hosts -- three Hutu extremists and the white Italian-Belgian Georges Ruggiu. How racism functions is the subject of Hate Radio: how human beings are “talked out of” their humanity. --rg





Austrian Cultural Forum, the Goethe-Institut Washington, the Embassy of Switzerland
and the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University
Host

“Theater of the Voiceless:
International Symposium and Festival of Documentary Theater
Washington, DC
June 16 - 19, 2013

In partnership with Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, Forum Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Studio Theatre, and Taffety Punk Theatre Company

Participants include Eva-Maria Bertschy, Ping Chong, Randy Gener, Derek Goldman, Konradin Kunze, Cynthia Schneider, Sophia Stepf, Doug Wager

WASHINGTON, D.C,|  Documentary theater possesses a unique ability to respond to issues of pressing political import and social justice, and provides a platform and voice for the dispossessed. “Theater of the Voiceless” — an international symposium and festival produced by Zeitgeist DC (Austrian Cultural Forum Washington, Goethe-Institut Washington and the Embassy of Switzerland) and the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University — takes place June 16 - 19, 2013 at various venues around Washington, DC.

A centerpiece of “Theater of the Voiceless” — led by festival artistic director Gillian Drake — is a daylong symposium that will be held from 11 am to 10 pm on Monday, June 17th 2013 at Georgetown University, Davis Performing Arts Center (37th and O Streets NW, Washington, DC).

To RSVP and for more information, visit www.zeitgeistdc.org.

The symposium will begin with a presentation by Ping Chong and Bruce Allardice of Ping Chong + Company, from its Undesirable Elements series of community-based oral histories.

Global migration challenges, government-sponsored genocide, terrorism and other manmade disasters that permanently alter our world view — these universal topics are addressed in non-fiction plays by playwrights interested in using their art for social change: Konradin Kunze and Sophia Stepf (Germany), Milo Rau (Swiss founder of the International Institute of Political Murder), and Kathrin Röggla (Austria).

Two panel discussions featuring artistic leaders, artists, and cultural and political experts  from the United States and Europe will focus on the power of documentary theater to effect social change. The afternoon panel discussion, “Documentary Theater: Creative Approaches, will be moderated by Randy Gener, the Nathan Award-winning editor/writer of Critical Stages and founder of TheaterofOneWorld.org. It will include Doug Wager (Artistic Director and Head of Directing for Temple University), Chris Jennings (Managing Director, The Shakespeare Theatre Company), David Snider (Director of Artistic Programming, Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater), and Konradin Kunze (Playwright, a small, small world). They will discuss the research, creative process and staging of documentary plays and their many forms.

In the evening, after the staged reading of Swiss playwright Milo Rau’s Hate Radio, Professor Cynthia Schneider, Co-Founder of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University, will moderate “Documentary Theater: Implications for Policy and Post-Conflict Reconciliation," a panel focusing on how theater and performance can serve as tools for diplomacy. This panel features, among others, policy expert Michael Pelletier (Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs in Bureau of African Affairs in the U.S. Department of State) and Eva-Maria Bertschy (Dramaturg, International Institute of Political Murder).

The staged readings of a small, small world will be directed by Serge Seiden (The Studio Theatre), and include cast members Maboud Ebrahimzadeh and Jonathan Feuer.

The staged readings of Worst Case will be directed by Jenny Lord (The Shakespeare Theatre Company), and will include cast members Gabriela Fernandez-Coffey, Heather Haney, Joe Mallon, Max Reinhardsen, Michael Rudko, and Emily Townley.

The staged reading of Hate Radio will be directed by Derek Goldman (The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University), and will include cast members Caroline Clay, Crashonda Edwards, Rick Foucheux, Kenyatta Rogers, Erika Rose, Joshua Street, Baakari Wilder, and Michael Anthony Williams.

Details and Reservations: www.zeitgeistdc.org

FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
Sunday, June 16, 7 pm
Goethe-Institut Washington (812 7th St. NW, Washington, DC)
a small, small world 
(with Konradin Kunze and Sophia Stepf, Germany)
Staged reading directed by Serge Seiden (Associate Producing Artistic Director, The Studio Theatre)

Monday, June 17, 11 am – 10 pm
Georgetown University, Davis Performing Arts Center (37th and O Streets NW, Washington, DC)
Theater of the Voiceless Symposium

11 am – 12:15 pm Presentation: “Undesirable Elements: Real People, Real Lives, Real Theater”
Ping Chong and Bruce Allardice (Ping Chong + Company)

  1 – 2:30 pm a small small world (Germany)
Staged reading directed by Serge Seiden
(Associate Producing Artistic Director, The Studio Theatre)

  2:45 – 3:15 pm Artistic response by Forum Theatre

  3:30 - 4 pm Reading of excerpts from Worst Case (Austria)
Staged reading of excerpts
Directed by Jenny Lord
(Resident Assistant Director, The Shakespeare Theatre Company)

4 – 4:30 pm “This Really Happened”
Artistic response by Taffety Punk Theatre Company

4:45 – 6:15 pm "Documentary Theater: Creative Approaches"
Panel discussion moderated by Randy Gener (Critical Stages and  TheaterofOneWorld)
Panelists: Colin Bills (dog & pony dc), Chris Jennings (The Shakespeare Theatre  Company), Konradin Kunze and Sophia Stepf (a small, small world), Jocelyn  Prince (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company), David Snider (Arena Stage), Doug  Wager (Temple University)

7:30 - 9:15 pm Hate Radio (Switzerland)
Staged reading directed by Derek Goldman (Director, Georgetown University’s  Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics), in partnership with Arena Stage  at the Mead Center for American Theater

9:15 - 10 pm "Documentary Theater: Implications for Policy and Post-Conflict Reconciliation"
Panel discussion moderated by Cynthia Schneider (Co-Founder, Laboratory for  Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University)
Panelists:
Eva-Maria Bertschy (International Institute of Political Murder), Ping Chong,  Randy Gener and Michael Pelletier (Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for  Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, US Department of State)

Panelists for "Implications for Policy and Post-Conflict Reconciliation"
Tuesday, June 18, 7:30 pm
Embassy of Austria (3524 International Court NW, Washington, DC)
Staged reading of Worst Case (Austria)
Staged reading directed by Jenny Lord (Resident Assistant Director, The Shakespeare Theatre Company)

Wednesday, June 19, 6:30 pm
Goethe-Institut Washington (812 7th St. NW, Washington, DC)
Screening of the film of the groundbreaking Rimini Protokoll documentary theater piece Soil Sample Kazakhstan (Bodenprobe Kasachstan)

PRESS CONTACTS:
Gillian Drake, Festival Artistic Director
gilliandm@gmail.com

Norma Broadwater, Goethe-Institut Washington
nbroadwater@washington.goethe.org

###