My Trip to Al-Qaeda

The Culture Project brings back its acclaimed, sold-out production of Lawrence Wright’s My Trip to Al-Qaeda for two encore performances.

The production is directed by Gregory Mosher, and follows in Al Gore’s footsteps by using facts, figures and multimedia to weave the details of a complex global issue ­ in this case the rise of Al-Qaeda ­ into a compelling, dramatic and unquestionably timely story.

Mr. Wright was recently announced as a Pulitzer Prize recipient for his non-fiction book, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, published by Alfred A. Knopf, on which My Trip To Al-Qaeda is based. He will be in New York to accept the J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project Award at Columbia University on Tuesday, May 8 and The Pulitzer Award on Monday, May 21, also at Columbia University.

Before September 11th, 2001, Al-Qaeda was largely unknown to most Americans. But for many members of the FBI, CIA, politicians and intelligence operatives worldwide, it represented a very real, constant and growing threat. In My Trip To Al-Qaeda, Wright utilizes never-before-seen evidence, transcripts and court documents to illustrate how this organization fomented and implemented their attack on America — and became a defining force in America¹s foreign policy and national psyche. Wright’s work is the result of interviews with over six hundred people (including members of Al-Qaeda) throughout the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Sudan, as well as New York and Washington.

What the critics had to say about My Trip to Al-Qaeda:

“An engaging theatrical seminar on the rise of Islamic terrorism…his firsthand testimony will be hard to shake from the memory.”
– The New York Times

“An intensely engaging presentation with an enormously knowledgeable authority on Al-Qaeda.”
– The New York Sun

“Wright has a compelling perspective on an important issue of our time and shows how America’s policy of torture is self-defeating, shocking, immoral and plays into the hands of the people we’re fighting. Worthwhile for anybody with a political conscience.”
– Theatermania.com

“A master class that raises fundamental questions: What is Islam, and what is America?”
– NPR