It is not often that Grand Rapids gets to welcome a Pulitzer Prize-winning theatrical work to the city.
But, luckily for us, over the next couple weeks you will have a chance to experience the power of this artform to transform our minds through the Actors’ Theatre Grand Rapids’ production of the Ayad Akhtar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play,
“Disgraced.”
This play has been a popular work of art with regional theaters that has garnered both praise and criticism -- all the stuff of good theatre, as it deals with contemporary issues ripped from the headlines and Facebook newsfeeds of our world.
What makes this play so timely is because it is the first theatrical work to hit the mainstream with a frank treatment of Islamophobia in our post-9/11 America.
The production tells the story of two couples, all friends, who while attending a dinner party begin to dive into conversations that center around the nature of faith, race relationships, and those seen as “others” following Sept. 11, 2001.
“At its heart, it is the story of distinctly human characters, each of whom, in today's culture, might be seen as the ‘other.’ To be viewed as different, or confusing, or strange. Or even something to be feared,” says “Disgraced” Director and Founder of Actors Theatre Fred Sebulske, “And yet, each finds his/herself at moments in the play ‘victimizing’ the ‘other,’ as Akhtar reminds us that the emotional terrain that they live in is not as clear as we might wish it. Nevertheless, each is our neighbor, attempting to make sense of a world that makes judgments about others without knowing who they really are.”
Actors’ Theatre has partnered with the Kaufman Interfaith Institute at Grand Valley State University, along with a diverse set of leaders from the West Michigan community, to participate in Actors’ popular community-building talkback sessions immediately following all performances, except the opening night (April 13). Their hope is that through the experience of “Disgraced,” a community dialogue will open up as audience members talk about Islamophobia and the stereotyping of “others” in our own community
Tickets can be
purchased online or through the box office. Talkbacks will occur after every performance other than Thursday, April 13. Student rush tickets, available one-hour prior to each performance, are only $10.