Amrika Chalo (Destination: USA)

 A past performance of Amrika Chalo can be viewed via HowlRound.

The following related panel discussion was free and unticketed:

Friday, January 23, 2015 at 4 p.m.
LABORATORY FOR GLOBAL PERFORMANCE & POLITICS AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

Politics, Comedy, and the Dangers of Satire

A panel discussion moderated by Professor Derek Goldman, Co-Director of the Lab including

Shahid Nadeem
Executive Director, Ajoka Theatre
and award-winning Pakistani journalist, playwright, screenwriter  

Nikahang Kowsar
Iranian-Canadian cartoonist who fled Iran after he was imprisoned in 2000 in Tehran’s infamous Evin prison for a cartoon mocking a top religious authority

Zarqa Nawar
Author of the best selling comedic memoir Laughing All the Way to the Mosque and creator of the world’s first sitcom about a Muslim community living in the west, Little Mosque on the Prairie

Imam Yahya Hendi
Georgetown University Muslim Chaplain

The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics will host this timely forum, presented in association with the U.S. premiere of Ajoka Theatre of Lahore’s Amrika Chalo (Destination USA). Ajoka Theatre has been the target of violent threats, and Pakistani authorities have banned Nadeem’s Burqavanza for the play’s criticism of a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam. Nadeem himself lived in exile until 1993 because of violent responses to his satirical plays. The tragic incidents in Paris provide a bracing reminder and a highly charged political and ideological context for the complex and essential role satire and freedom of expression play in our society. Presented in partnership with the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs; Bridges of Understanding; and Georgetown University’s Office of the President.

DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE (located on Georgetown University’s main campus)
FREE

Friday, January 23, 2015 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, January 24, 2015 at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Written and directed by Pakistan’s leading Theater artist Shahid Nadeem from Lahore’s Ajoka Theatre, this hilarious send-up of U.S.-Pakistani relations set in an American consulate in Pakistan explodes stereotypes through satire. This workshop production will feature Pakistani artists from Ajoka Theatre as well as guest US professionals and advanced students.

This event is the second of four anchoring events in The Lab’s Myriad Voices: A Cross Cultural Performance Festival. This two-year Festival is a series of performances from leading artists around the world that will be accompanied by convenings, public forums, interdisciplinary courses, and the creation of new work.  

Davis Performing Arts Center, Gonda Theatre
$15 General | $12 Faculty, Staff, alumni, senior | $5 student