At War: American Playwrights Respond to Iraq

Originally presented as a one-night-only, sold-out presentation at the National Arts Club in June 2007, At War: American Playwrights Respond to Iraq is remounted at The Bleecker Street Theatre. The presentation features a rotating repertory of marquis performers, established NYC actors and celebrity hosts including Bebe Neuwirth, Fire Dept company members David Strathairn and Janeane Garofalo, and others to be announced.

Expanded and updated to reflect the ever-changing situation in Iraq, At War: American Playwrights Respond to Iraq explores how our artists are responding to the situation in Iraq, and how their work mirrors and reflects the consciousness of the country. This bold new work paints vivid portraits of diverse people at war, including a soldier in a VA clinic with post-Traumatic stress disorder, an Iraqi émigré professor, an American human rights worker on the field in war-torn Iraq, two soldiers lost in time on a nameless battlefield, a female suicide bomber, an angel, Satan, and a manic vet with shrapnel lodged in his head that picks up Al Jazeera.

Staged as a single cohesive evening, the piece is crafted by Fire Dept Artistic Directors Jessica Blank, Erica Gould, and Audrey Rosenberg from writing by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen (The Exonerated), Bathsheba Doran, Cory Hinkle, Rajiv Joseph, Ryan Kelly, Peter Maloney, Obie winner and Oscar nominee Jose Rivera (Cloud Tectonics, References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot), Lynn Rosen, and Jonathan Schaefer.