Department of Performing Arts

THEATER OF THE VOICELESS

At various venues around Washington, including events at Georgetown University’s Davis Performing Arts Center, a symposium (June 17) and festival (June 16-19) titled “Theater of the Voiceless” will bring together leading playwrights, artists, political and cultural experts from the United States and German-speaking countries to discuss, perform, and celebrate the international power and vitality of documentary theater, an art form which responds to issues of pressing political import and social justice.

Highlights include workshop performances and readings of non-fiction plays addressing issues including global migration challenges, government-sponsored genocide, terrorism and other manmade disasters that permanently alter our world view; a presentation about the power of documentary theater to affect social change by Ping Chong, one of the United States’ foremost practitioners of documentary theater; panel discussions; performances of devised theater works specifically inspired by the symposium content; and a screening of one of Europe’s most famous documentary theater pieces.

June 17 events at the Davis Performing Arts Center include the symposium from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. and the reading of “Hate Radio” by Milo Rau at 7:30 p.m., directed by Prof. Derek Goldman, with Georgetown University students’ participation in the cast, along with leading professionals including Rick Foucheux, Caroline Clay, Michael Anthony Williams, Kenyatta Rogers, Erika Rose, and Crashonda Edwards.

A panel discussion moderated by Prof. Cynthia Schneider and featuring Ping Chong, “Hate Radio” dramaturg Eva-Maria Bertschy, as well as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Michael Pelletier will follow the reading.

“Theater of the Voiceless” events are produced by Zeitgeist DC (Austrian Cultural Forum Washington, Goethe-Institut Washington and the Embassy of Switzerland) and the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University, a joint initiative of the Theater and Performance Studies Program and the School of Foreign Service. Many events are free.

Read more about the symposium and festival.

NEW STUDENTS

Welcome, new students!  Fill out the performing arts interest form by June 14; indicate also whether you'd be interested in participating in the choir or orchestra for Academic Convocation during New Student Orientation. 

Read more. 

Backstage selects Georgetown University's Theater and Performance Studies Program as one of the top five college theater programs outside of New York!  Read more.

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