Voices of Peace and Dissent

Voices of Peace and Dissent features a rotating cast of Actors, Activists and Celebrities performing excerpts from plays, literature, letters, comedy and up-to-the-minute news relevant to the war in Iraq and the upcoming Presidential election.

Participants scheduled to appear include Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning playwright David Henry Hwang, Mario Cantone, Brian Murray, Marian Seldes, Brendan Sexton III, The Moonlight Room Lucille Lortel nominees Mark Rosenthal and Kathryn Lang among many others.

Voices of Peace and Dissent began on April 7, 2003 and ran for nine Mondays at The Tribeca Playhouse through mid-June 2003. It started as a response to President Bush’s pre-emptive declaration of war in Iraq. It featured such actors as Kathleen Chalfant, Clare Higgins, T. R. Knight, Andrea Martin, S. Epatha Merkerson, Denis O’Hare, Brenda Wehle, among many others. These three shows will bring “VOICES” up to date and focus on the issues of importance in the upcoming election, including the current state of affairs in Iraq.

Worth Street Artistic Director Jeff Cohen stated, “The urgency of voicing dissent has never been more important or more patriotic. Since last year, the situation in Iraq and in the world has worsened. When the United States is seen to have tortured Iraqi prisoners and suspended the constitutional rights of its own citizens, we have an obligation to speak out as loudly as we can.”

A portion of the the net proceeds will go to MoveOn.org.