Banned Theater Week 2024
We bring you three stories from across the world
that highlight the undeniable dangers of censorship.
Obel is a dancer, artist, and producer from Nairobi, Kenya who is dedicated to telling LGBTQ+ stories because they believe everyone deserves to be represented. This interview was recorded this past fall when Obel was preparing to stage a series of play readings by LGBTQ+ writers and actors. Obel discusses the intersection of art and politics in Kenya, the laws against being a homosexual, and the very real consequences of producing work with gay and lesbian themes. At Obel’s request for anonymity, we recorded an audio-only version of the interview and are not sharing personal details.
Achiro P. Olwoch is a Ugandan writer, playwright and screenwriter currently living in exile in New York City. In this video, Achiro shares the story of her assault and ultimate decision to leave her family and move to New York City. Achiro also shares how her writing has changed and what she looks forward to in her career.
-
Achiro P. Olwoch is a Ugandan writer, playwright and screenwriter currently living in exile in
New York. She tells stories that start conversations, often writing about subjects that her part of
the world calls forbidden. A former air hostess who hates flying, Achiro knows full well how to
turn uncomfortable situations into a story.
The name Achiro is short for Achirochan which means ‘the resilient one’. This best describes
Achiro who was born in exile and when they returned lived in exile within her country because
of the ongoing civil war in her homeland and now finds herself in exile. Regardless she keeps
going and turns every trial and triumph into a story.
When she is not writing, Achiro is reading. Like her favorite authors, Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa
Thiongo and her late father, she delights in writing history and present day politics in story.
Fouad Dakwar is a Palestinian-American musical theater writer. He describes his work as “punk-rock”. He also has a deft hand at blending humor and politics in his art. “There is power in laughter,” Dakwar says. In this interview Fouad describes his time in the New York theater industry; the difficulties he’s faced when sharing his work, the supportive community he’s found, and the hope he has for the future.
-
Fouad Dakwar is a multimedia storyteller and performer whom Playbill aptly describes as "a darkly comic pop-punk composer on the rise." His semi-autobiographical musical, 'Fouad of Nazareth,' was developed in Berklee NYC's Writing and Production for Musical Theater Master’s program and premiered at Joe’s Pub to two sold-out concert fundraisers followed by a 29-hour reading presentation in Noor Theatre’s 2024 Highlight Reading Series.
Fouad has been a featured artist on the Playbill Songwriter Series, was a 2023 Jonathan Larson Grant finalist, and is a proud 2024-25 Dramatist Guild Foundation Fellow.
You can find Fouad on Instagram and TikTok (@notfouad) where his satirical content has garnered over 5 million likes.
Banned Theater Week 2023
An Anti-Censorship Podcast directed by four-time Tony Award-nominee Raúl Esparza
Hosted by Lydia Diamond and Cheryl L. Davis
Banned Together
Podcast Hosts: Lydia Diamond and Cheryl L. Davis
Directed by: Raul Esparza
Music Direction by: Greg Jarrett
Recorded at John Marshall Media in New York City
Audio Engineering: John Marshall Media
Produced by: John Weidman, Raul Esparza, and Amy VonMacek
Banned Together: The Anti-Censorship Cabaret podcast is a production of the Dramatists Guild of America and the Dramatists Legal Defense Fund
“We are no longer dealing with one off cancellations driven by the squeamishness of a particular high school principal,” said Dramatists Legal Defense Fund President John Weidman. “We are dealing with deliberate, orchestrated efforts by institutions, from local school boards all the way up to state legislatures, to dictate the ideological boundaries within which theater will be permitted, the space within which the unique, idiosyncratic voices of Americans writing for the stage will either be tolerated or suppressed.”
The right to free speech is being threatened, now more than ever; schools, libraries, religious organizations, and other community groups are banning books, plays, and musicals for purely partisan reasons. The Dramatists Legal Defense Fund (DLDF) and The Dramatists Guild of America announces the second edition of Banned Together: An Anti-Censorship Cabaret Theatre Podcast.
To raise awareness regarding the societal dangers of censorship in the theatre industry, and at large, the Dramatists Guild will be presenting the first annual Banned Theatre Week from November 6 through November 12, 2023. Just as Banned Books Week calls out the perils of censoring books, Banned Theatre Week will address the dire consequences that can arise from banning plays and musicals.
Banned Together is an initiative that the DLDF began in 2016. When theatrical works are banned in one community – whether removed from a classroom, a library shelf, or a stage- it is a constitutional infringement upon the opportunities, livelihoods, and rights of dramatists, including playwrights, composers, lyricists, and librettists everywhere. According to the Educational Theatre Association’s 2023 annual play survey, 85% of the 2,300 teachers surveyed were concerned about censorship, with 67% of those teachers sharing that these concerns would influence their selections for future productions. Community concerns over language, lyric,s and content are on the rise, matching a wave of book bans and restrictive legislation that affects what can be taught in public schools across the country about LGBTQ rights, racial justice, and other social issues.
The cornerstone of Banned Theatre Week, the Dramatists Legal Defense Fund presents season 2 of Banned Together: An Anti-Censorship Cabaret Theatre Podcast, which features excerpts from recently banned, cancelled, or protested plays and musicals including Indecent, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Parade, and more.
The two episodes will feature performances from Tony Award-winners Danny Burstein (Pictures from Home, Moulin Rouge), Gabriel Ebert (Passing Strange, Matilda), Nathan Lane (Pictures from Home, Angels in America), Audra McDonald (Ohio State Murders, Shuffle Along), Daphne Rubin-Vega (Miss You Like Hell, Rent), and Brandon Uranowitz (Leopoldstadt, American in Paris), with Ephie Aadema (Funny Girl), Courtnee Carter (Parade), Claybourne Elder (Company, Sunday in the Park…), Adam Chanler-Berat (I Can Get It For You Wholesale, Peter and the Starcatcher), Judy Kuhn (I Can Get It for You Wholesale, Fun Home), Douglas Lyons (Parade, Chicken and Biscuits), Javier Muñoz (Hamilton, In the Heights), the Stonewall Chorale, and more. DLDF board members Lydia Diamond (Stick Fly, Smart People) and Cheryl Davis host the podcast, which is directed by four-time Tony Award-nominee Raúl Esparza (Oliver, Leap of Faith), with Greg Jarrett (Assassins, Cradle Will Rock) serving as music director.
The plays featured on the podcast will include The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman and the Tectonic Theater Company, Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz, Angels in America by Tony Kushner, Indecent by Paula Vogel, and Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress. The podcast also includes performances of songs from musicals Fun Home by Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron (“Ring of Keys”), Parade “Rumblin’ and a Rollin’” by Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry, Spelling Bee (“Woe is Me”) by Rachel Sheinkin and William Finn, Hairspray (“Timeless to Me”) by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman and Rent (“Seasons of Love”) by Jonathan Larson.
