NEW YORK -
Nov. 21, 2013 -
PRLog -- NEW YORK, NY―
Dialogue with Three Chords presents a special staged reading of “Mohammed’
s Radio” to students of the Macaulay Honors College at The City University of New York. “Mohammed’
s Radio,” from playwright Stephen Gracia and directed by Michael LoPorto, follows the intertwined lives of several generations of families living in the insular community of Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn. Traditions of profession and religion are passed down along with bigotry, sexuality and violence. How will the community react when a teenage girl attempts to break the chain by adopting a different belief system? The performance is by invitation only and starts at 8pm on Thursday, November 21, at The Macaulay Honors College main offices, 35 W 67th Street, NYC 10023.
“Mohammed’
s Radio was inspired by a young woman I met while working as a college registration counselor,” Gracia explains. “She was in her early 20’s, in full burqa, and 100 percent Brooklyn Irish. I couldn’t stop thinking about what that decision must have been like: the personal reasons for the conversion and the family reaction.” The play is set in Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn-a small community near the Sheepshead Bay area. “I chose to set it in Gerritsen Beach because it’s one of the oldest, most tight-knit Irish Catholic communities in Brooklyn,” Gracia says. “It’s a neighborhood that’s just off a major avenue and has just one main way in and out.”
“Mohammed’
s Radio” revolves around the Corny family, whose oldest daughter Kelly converts to Islam. “The play became less about politics, rebellion, religion, or ethnicity; it became about closed systems and how poisonous it can be to just stick with the people and places you know,” Gracia remarks. “It became about the way we treat women and female sexuality. The key to this change, I think, was reading stories by and about women who choose to cover, who see it as not just a part of their religion but as something empowering.”
A talkback will follow the performance. For more information, visit: www.dthreec.org
“Mohammed’
s Radio” features: Fiona Criddle, Maia Ermanson, John Harlacher, Anton Koval, Connor Sheridan,Connor Sullivan, John Weisenburger, and Jennie West.
Dialogue with Three Chords was founded by Stephen Gracia and Michael LoPorto and applies the do-it-yourself philosophy of punk to the stage and features short plays and live music. Their work has also been produced at Sargent Theatre, Makor Theater, DUMBO Theatre Exchange, Levenson Hall at Brooklyn College, and the Theaters at 45 Bleecker.
