Clinton, Dreyfuss, Goldblum, McDermott, Tomei, et al. Set for Culture Project’s Impact Festival 2006

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and actors Richard Dreyfuss, Jeff Goldblum, Charles Grodin, Dylan McDermott, David Straithairn, and Marisa Tomei will be among the participants in the Culture Project’s Impact Festival 2006, September 12-October 22.

Focusing on human rights, social justice, and political action, the festival will encompass more than 50 events at such New York City venues as the Culture Project, the Knitting Factory, The Town Hall, Chelsea Piers, and the New York Public Library. More than 7,500 free tickets will be given away to non-traditional audiences.

The festival will open with the premiere of Eve Ensler’s new play The Treatment, a two-character drama about an encounter between a traumatized soldier (played by McDermott, Ensler’s stepson) and a female psychologist, (played by Portia). The show will be directed by Leigh Silverman, who most recently helmed Well. Ensler’s previous works include The Vagina Monologues and The Good Body.

On October 6, Clinton will be the guest of honor at an invitation-only reading of Ariel Dorfman’s stage adaptation of the book Speak Truth to Power: Voices from Beyond the Dark. That special event will benefit the Kennedy Center; additional readings of the piece will be open to the public.

Other events include the U.S. premiere of 6 Actors in Search of a Plot, by the Palestinian writer Mohammed El-Thayer and the American choreographer Billy Yalowitz; Rob Urbanati’s Voices of a People’s History of the United States, adapted from the anthology by Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove; the world premiere of Elizabeth Swados’ A Political Cabaret; and a Concert to Close Guantanamo. For further information, call 212-253-0717.