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Arrivals, a play on Extraordinary Rendition

brian | 10.03.2007 01:26

A play on Extraordinary Rendition(aka torture outsourcing) has been created by canadian playwright David Gow, performed in the US and been ignored by the theatre critics, similar to the reception of My Name is Rachel Corrie.


 http://www.arrivalstheplay.com/

Actor interviewed on Democracynow:

'You’re performing this at the Bank Street Theatre, Michael. It is a powerful production, yet I’ve heard very little about it.

MICHAEL GABRIEL GOODFRIEND: It’s been very frustrating. We had a terrific producer. We had a terrific producer, Jay Harris, who won a Tony Award for Side Man. We have an Obie Award-winning director, Dan Wackerman. And we have a terrific cast. And the playwright David Gow is one of the leading playwrights from Canada. Yet with the staunch and relentless effort of our publicist, Gary Springer, we still were not able to attract members of the press. The New York Times did come opening night, but did not write a review.

AMY GOODMAN: A reporter and a photographer?

MICHAEL GABRIEL GOODFRIEND: Yes, that’s correct, a critic and a photographer. And we stayed after the show. They wanted photographs. We staged some photos and never saw a review. And then, finally we’re told by the critic that she was going to write a feature on political theater, in which we would be mentioned. That never happened. And then she later told the reviewer -- or, I’m sorry, the publicist that she was simply not going to write a review, because she didn't care for the play. We weren't able to attract the Village Voice even until a week ago, and we’re set to close tomorrow. So it’s been very frustrating.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And how long has the play been running?

MICHAEL GABRIEL GOODFRIEND: It’s been running for four weeks. And, you know, the word of mouth has been fantastic. We have played to full houses. It’s clearly that the American public and that the New York theater-going public cares deeply about and wants to talk about, but it’s been just like being in an echo chamber of our own, as far as the press is concerned. We haven't been able to attract -- until Democracy Now! came, we were not able to attract any of the more leading members of the press.
etc

 http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/09/1443251

brian