The Activists
The Playwrights
Marina Pisklakova-Parker,
Russia: a pioneer in the struggle to eliminate domestic violence and human
trafficking, often at great personal risk. In 1993, she started the first
domestic violence crisis center in Russia. Center ANNA was the only avenue
of assistance for battered women at a time when there were neither shelters
nor laws prohibiting domestic abuse. Ms. Pisklakova-Parker has since expanded
ANNA to include many other advocacy and awareness programs, including
psychological and legal counseling programs and ensuring just representation
of domestic abuse victims in court. Ms. Pisklakova's work with Center
ANNA is now part of a broad network of emerging women's rights advocates
and agencies, which spans to over 120 government and public sector agencies
throughout Russia and Eurasia. She has received awards from Human Rights
Watch, the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Foundation, and Vital Voices
Global Partnership, among others. Paula
Cizmar's plays have been produced off-Broadway, in London, and
in regional theatres from Maine to California--including Portland Stage,
American Place Theatre, The Women's Project (NY), San Diego Rep, Passage
Theatre (NJ), Playwrights Arena, Jungle Theater (Minneapolis), and (short
plays) at Actors Theatre of Louisville. She has attended the O'Neill National
Playwrights Conference and Sundance Theatre Lab. Among her many plays
are: Street Stories, Candy & Shelley Go to the Desert, Still Life
with Parrot & Monkey, The Death of a Miner, Venus in Orange (written
with Laura Shamas), and Bone Dry. Also a screenwriter, Paula was a staff
writer for two seasons on the PBS series “American Family.”
For more info, please visit www.paulacizmar.com
Sochua Mu,
Cambodia: a social activist and one of only two female cabinet ministers
of the 2nd Royal Government of Cambodia from 1998-2004. She is considered
the principal founder of the women's movement in Cambodia. She led the
march with thousands of nuns and monks to call for peace and non-violence
during the UN sponsored election in 1993. She was co-nominee for the Nobel
Peace Prize in 2005. Catherine
Filloux's recent plays include: Lemkin’s House (McGinn-Cazale
Theatre, 78th Street Theatre Lab, NYC & Kamerni Theatre, Sarajevo);
The Beauty Inside (New Georges/InterAct); Eyes of the Heart (NAATCO);
Silence of God (Contemporary American Theater Festival); Mary and Myra
(CATF & Todd Mountain); Photographs From S-21 (shown around the world).
Filloux has received awards from the O’Neill, Kennedy Center, Omni
Center for Peace and New Dramatists. Her libretti include: The Floating
Box (Composer Jason Kao Hwang), New World Records and Where Elephants
Weep (Composer Him Sophy), Cambodian Living Arts. Plays published by Playscripts,
Inc. and others. http://www.catherinefilloux.com
Annabella De
Leon, Guatemala: raised herself and her family out of poverty
by educating herself. She has been a Congresswoman since 1995 and, despite
death threats (she has 6 bodyguards appointed by Human Rights Watch),
is a fearless fighter against corruption and for the rights of the poor,
particularly women and indigenous people. Gail
Kriegel: Artist-in-Residence at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center,
2005-6. She is presently developing her musical, SWEETIE, and a children’s
operetta, RAINBOW JUNCTION. Gail has been widely produced. Her film FRAGMENTS won top awards at five film festivals. For her prize-winning play ON THE HOME FRONT she 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. Gail was Visiting Artist at The American
Academy in Rome, 2005. 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
Inez McCormack, Northern Ireland: is a women's and human rights activist and former President of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions who has been honored throughout the world for her contribution to peace-building. She became active in the Northern Ireland civil rights movement in the late 60s—as a result, she became a labor union activist in the early 70s, campaigning to organize and revalue the work and contribution of the 'forgotten' workers in the public sector, most of whom were women who received low pay for their part-time work. In 1998, she led a successful campaign for inclusive, innovative and transformative equality and human rights provisions in the Good Friday Agreement. These enable the participation of women, ethnic minorities and those with disabilities and the most disadvantaged within both communities in shaping the new future. McCormack is also a well-known broadcaster and writer.
Carol Mack's
plays have been produced Off-Broadway, in Scotland and at many regional
theaters across the U.S.A. A recipient in 2005 of a grant from the National
Foundation for Jewish Culture, she has just completed THE VISITOR. Premieres
include: THE ACCIDENT, American Repertory Theatre; IN HER SIGHT and AFTER,
Actors Theatre of Louisville. Awards include the Stanley Drama Award,
Julie Harris/Beverly Hills Theatre Guild Award, Playwright Forum Award
and a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship. Her plays have been selected
for three editions of Best Short American Plays. For more information
visit: www.carolkmack.com
Farida Azizi,
Afghanistan: a founding member of Afghan Women's Network and the Corporation
for Peace and Unity, 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
Ruth Margraff (playwright) has been recently commissioned by the Rockefeller, Fulbright & McKnight Foundations, and is collaborating with PAJ/TCG, Romanian Cultural Institute, Brandeis' Coexistence International, Hourglass, BAM/Apollo/Big Red Media (NYC); Overtone Industries and Theater of Note (Los Angeles), etc. Her other work has been presented nationwide and in Serbia, Croatia, Russia, Czech Rep., Hungary, Slovenia, Romania, Greece, Turkey, India, Great Britain and Canada. Ruth is Associate Professor at School of the Art Institute in Chicago. www.RuthMargraff.com
Hafsat Abiola,
Nigeria: from a family of courageous fighters for freedom and justice,
her parents both lost their lives in the struggle. She has founded and
directs KIND (Kudirat Initiative for Democracy) that aids women in their
attempts to advance democracy in Africa and has created skills-training
opportunities for young women across Nigeria. Anna
Deavere Smith: an actor, teacher, playwright and creator of unique
one woman plays based on interviews, Anna Deavere Smith has won two Obie
Awards, two Tony nominations for TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES, and a MacArthur
Fellowship. 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. As an actress she has appeared in many
films and on the television series WEST WING. Her new book, LETTERS TO
A YOUNG ARTIST, has recently been published by Anchor Books. www.annadeaveresmithworks.org
Mukhtar Mai,
Pakistan: gang raped by four men and forced to walk home almost naked
in retribution for an alleged ‘honor crime,’ this harrowing
story grabbed headlines across the world. Rather than commit suicide,
Muktar decided to bring her rapists to justice and improve the condition
of women by building schools and becoming an ardent advocate for education
in her country. Susan Yankowitz
is a playwright, novelist and librettist. Her best-known plays include
PHAEDRA IN DELIRIUM, TERMINAL, 1969 TERMINAL 1996, (collaborations with
Joseph Chaikin’s Open Theatre), A KNIFE IN THE HEART, and NIGHT
SKY, which has been performed throughout the U.S. and in translations
world-wide. In music-theatre, she is bookwriter/lyricist for TRUE ROMANCES
with Elmer Bernstein, SLAIN IN THE SPIRIT with Taj Mahal and CHÉRI
with Michael Dellaira. She is a 2006 resident artist at HERE with her
mixed-media play, THE LUDICROUS TRIAL OF MR. P. Her work has been honored
by the NEA, Guggenheim, Rockefeller and NYFA foundations, among others.
For more information please visit www.susanyankowitz.com