IMPACT Artists in Residence Works in Progress: Heather Raffo, Joanna Settle & Nicole Goodwin

During their week-long residencies, IMPACT 2012 Resident Artists discuss, create, and rehearse new work surrounding the week’s topics. Each week will culminate in a free public presentation of the new works-in-progress.

On August 11th, Heather Raffo will present a reading of her new libretto, Fallujah, directed by Joanna Settle, commissioned by the Annenberg Foundation / Explored with music by Tobin Stokes. Fallujah (working title) is a contemporary libretto that excavates the human and social effects of the legacy of the Iraq war. Through youth on both sides of battle, we follow mothers and sons reconciling with a war that changed their relationships forever. It exposes a daily fight for identity and belonging where PTSD is not experienced by a select few. It is lived by everybody involved: each marine, their mothers, their medics, and the Iraqis they are both fighting and protecting.

In a war where every heart is blown open, Fallujah questions who we become when bearing witness to violence and what relationships piece us back together. More information on Fallujah is available at HeatherRaffo.com.

The reading will be preceded by an excerpt from Iraq War Veteran Nicole Goodwin’s autobiographical monologue, After The Green, which is being developed with five Veteran women as part of the residency.