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SEVENby Paula Cizmar, Catherine Filloux, Gail Kriegel,

Carol K. Mack, Ruth Margraff, Anna Deavere Smith, and Susan Yankowitz

Directed byEmma Kelley and Mehr Kaur

Stage Manager Emma Olson

Lighting Design Costume DesignDavid Wiggall Nancy Horn

CAST

Liz Henle..........................................................................................MarinaFei Wang.........................................................................................SochuaMarleny Heredia..........................................................................AnnabellaShealyn Berube....................................................................................InezSanayah Malik..................................................................................FaridaMicah Collins-Sibley..........................................................................HafsatAanchal Khanna.............................................................................Mukhtar

Poster and Program Art by Evanleigh DavisProgram Design by Nikki Beck

SEVEN is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York

The video and/or audio recording of this performance by any means whatsoever are strictly prohibited.

Saturday, May 31st at 7:30pm (Public Performance)Sunday, June 1st at 3:00pm (Institute Performance)

Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre, Smith CollegeNorthampton, MA

DIRECTORS’ NOTES

In as much as SEVEN is a performance and a project, it has also re-vealed itself over the past weeks as a process. Through the stories of these exceptional leaders, molded by the minds of expert craftswomen, my peers and I are reminded of our power—and responsibility as young female artists—to speak. In our creations, our collaborations, and our communities, we must always find voice. During this breath in the pro-cess, Marina, Farida, Annabella, Inez, Sochua, Hafsat, and Mukhtar call upon us, and every woman, to learn our history and, through that knowl-edge, to manifest our own.

-Emma Kelley

Exploring the world of the play in which these seven women live has led to the discovery of transformation, that each of them encounters. Trans-formation from powerlessness to unwavering strength, from isolation to community, and from suppression to resilience reveal the empowering feeling of hope in the midst of a world masked in ignorance. SEVEN is truly a call to action, both as play and as a process.

-Mehr Kaur

The performance of SEVEN, followed by a talk-back, is part of the curriculum for the Women in Public Service Project Institute “Reconstructing Societies in the Wake of Conflict: Transitional Justice and Economic Development.” The Institute is co-hosted by Mount Holyoke College, Simmons College and Smith College in partnership with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. We are grateful for their efforts in making the Institute and the performance of SEVEN possible. The Institute has also been strengthened by the contribution of many people and organizations who have shared their energy, passion, ideas and expertise. We thank Carol K. Mack (MHC ’60) and Hedda Kraus Sjögren for their participation in this performance. We also thank Jon Western, Carol Hoffman Collins ’63 Professor of International Relations at Mount Holyoke College and the Five Colleges, and Daniel Elihu Kramer, chair of the theatre department at Smith College for organizing this performance of SEVEN. We share our deep apprecia-tion with the student directors and cast for their dedication. Finally, we thank the women who inspired this play and the WPSP delegates who will apply its mes-sage of hope as they seek to promote peace and justice in their home countries.

DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHIES

Mehr Kaur (SC ’16) is a Smith College student pursuing a B.A. in Theatre with a focus in Directing and a minor in Government. Her interests as a director range from the development of new plays and musicals, to political theatre, to productions of classic texts. Currently she serves as the Artistic Director of Two Paths Productions, a theatre and film collective that she co-founded in 2013. Recent directing credits include Kultar’s Mime, a poetic text focusing on the untold stories of the 1984 An-ti-Sikh Pogrom in Delhi, which will be touring to theatres in several cities in the U.S. and Canada in Fall 2014. She devised and performed a piece at the Edinburgh Fes-tival Fringe as part of a young artist ensemble, and has served as a literary intern at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston. Mehr will spend the summer interning as part of the Young American Artist Program at the Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, NY, and train at the National Theatre Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center the following autumn. Upcoming productions include Water By the Spoonful as part of the Smith College Theatre Department’s 2014-2015 season.

Emma Kelley (SC ’14) graduated from Smith College this spring, completing a double degree in Theatre Arts, with a directing focus, and English Language and Literature. Her theatrical interests range from revisited classics to developing new work, applied theatre practices, and arts education. Recent directing credits include Iphigenia and Other Daughters for the Smith Theatre Department’s 2013-14 sea-son, Tis of Thee, Radio Sonata, (Smith Student Theatre Committee), and Polaroid Stories (Young Americans’ Theatre Company). As an actor, she has trained with the British American Drama Academy, UCLA School of Theatre & Film, and the New Generations Theatre Ensemble. She co-founded Seattle’s Young Americans’ The-atre Company, an award-winning collective now in its seventh season. Emma has worked as a teaching artist at the nationally recognized Seattle Children’s Theatre and internationally as a part of her 2013 research fellowship “Applied Theatre Meth-ods at Work in Europe.” During the project, she worked on initiatives funded by the European Union’s Youth in Action Committee and trained with Barbara Santos, a leading Theatre of the Oppressed practitioner, in Berlin, Germany. She is the recent recipient of The Samuel A. Eliot, Jr./Julia Heflin Award for Distinguished Directing and the Bernhardt Brueger Prize for her work in the Smith College Theatre Depart-ment. Emma will be pursuing a Master’s in Women’s Studies at the University of Oxford this fall.

PRODUCTION BIOGRAPHIES

Emma Olson (SC ’16) (Stage Manager) is entering her junior year at Smith study-ing Theatre (with a concentration in design and stage management) and Education and Child Study. In addition to working on the electrics crew, she has stage man-aged multiple student theatre and department shows including, most recently, The Tempest and Light Shining in Buckinghamshire.

CAST BIOGRAPHIES

Shealyn Berube (SC ’15) is entering her senior year at Smith College as a double major in Education and Child Study as well as Theatre, with an emphasis on Acting. She is a member of The Smith College Smithereens, the fourth oldest all-female a cappella group in the country. Shealyn has performed in numerous community the-atre projects as well as Smith College productions, including Marat/Sade, Servant of Two Masters, and Light Shining in Buckinghamshire. She hopes to pursue a career in elementary or music education.

Micah Collins-Sibley (SC ’16J) is double majoring in African-American Studies and Music with a focus on literature and vocal performance, respectively. Through-out her time at Smith, Micah has been very involved with the student-run musical theatre organization, Leading Ladies. With Leading Ladies she has acted in Reefer Madness, Cabaret, and had a leading role in The Drowsy Chaperone. She also served for two years as a Social Justice and Equity representative for her residence at Smith. Micah hopes to pursue an MFA in creative writing after Smith and become a working poet.

Liz Henle (SC ’14) Four years ago, Liz disappeared into Smith College. She re-cently emerged, blinking in the sunlight, with a degree in Italian Studies and Book Studies. She plans on using her various skills to live a life making art and traveling the world.

Marleny Heredia (MHC ’15) is a student at Mount Holyoke College. She is an In-ternational Relations Major and a Theatre Arts Minor. She enjoys writing poetry and traveling. She is planning to join the Peace Corps after college.

Aanchal Khanna (SC ’16) Having grown up around Hindi theatre, Indian classical dance and photography, Aanchal was naturally drawn to arts—performing and visu-al both. They’ve always held a special place in her heart, simply due to their ability to connect to and involve the artist’s emotions. She finds fascinating how acting al-lows her to relate empathetically to the stories of her characters and in that process, allows the audiences do the same.

Sanayah Malik (MHC ’14) grew up in Lahore, Pakistan. She gradutated this year from Mount Holyoke College with a major in Anthropology and is passionate about social justice and chocolate.

Fei Wang (MHC ’16) attends Mount Holyoke College. She is double majoring in Statistics and International Relations, She is very excited to take part in this play as her first theatrical production. She is also the Founder and President of the Chinese Dance Club at MHC, that has performed around the Five Colleges over the past two years.

SEVEN Women and Playwrights

Marina Pisklakova-Parker RussiaAgainst tremendous odds in 1993, Marina Pisklakova-Parker founded the first hotline for victims of domestic violence, which has since grown into Center ANNA, part of a coalition that has provided crisis and counseling services for Russian women.

Paula Cizmar PlaywrightPaula Cizmar’s plays have been produced off-Broadway, in London, and in regional theatres from Maine to California—including Portland Stage, American Place Theatre,The Women’s Project (NY), San Diego Rep, the Jungle Theater, and Playwrights Arena. She has been selected for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference and Sundance Theatre Lab and is the recipient of numerous awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts playwriting grant and a residency at the Rockefeller Foundation’s study center in Bellagio, Italy. She has commissions from Actors Theatre of Louisville (short plays), Cypress College (Venus in Orange, written with Laura Shamas), and Salt Lake Acting Company (Nothing Sacred), among others. Often taking on political and social issues, her many published and produced plays include Street Stories, The Death of a Miner, Candy & Shelley Go to the Desert, Bone Dry, and Still Life with Parrot & Monkey (to be published in the anthology Living and Writing on America’s Left Coast by Lady Murasaki Books in 2009). Also a screenwriter, Paula was a staff writer for two seasons on the PBS series American Family. She teaches playwriting at the University of Southern California.

Mu Sochua CambodiaMu Sochua is the former Minister of Women’s Affairs in Cambodia (one of only two women in the cabinet). She was co-nominated in 2005 for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work against sex trafficking of women in Cambodia and neighboring Thailand. After door-to-door visits to 482 villages, she won a seat in Parliament in July 2008.

Catherine Filloux PlaywrightCatherine Filloux is an award-winning playwright who has been writing about hu-man rights and social justice for the past 20 years. Her plays have been produced in New York and around the world. Filloux is the author of two music theater pieces, Where Elephants Weep, produced in Phnom Penh, and The Floating Box, pro-duced in New York. Her plays are published by Playscripts Inc., and her anthology Silence of God and Other Plays is published by Seagull Books, London Limited. She has received awards from the O’Neill, Kennedy Center, Omni Center for Peace and New Dramatists.

Annabella De Leon GuatemalaAnnabella raised herself and her family out of poverty by getting an education. She has been a congresswoman since 1995 has received death threats because of her fight against corruption and for the rights of the poor, particularly women and indigenous peoples.

Gail Kriegel PlaywrightGail Kriegel was the Artist-in-Residence at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center from 2005-2006. She is presently developing her musical, Sweetie, and a children’s op-eretta, Rainbow Junction. Gail has been widely produced. Her film Fragments won top awards at five film festivals. For her prize-winning play On The Home Front she received a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, One World Arts Grant, NYFA grant, the Ruby Lloyd Apsey Award and was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Gail was Visiting Artist at The American Academy in Rome, 2005. A member of the BMI Musical Theater Workshop, her work has been published by Smith & Kraus, Heinemann Press and is included in the Archives at Lincoln Center.

Inez McCormack Northern IrelandInez McCormack was an activist for women’s and human rights, labor, and social justice and a former President of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. McCormack played a critical role in the 1998 Good Friday Peace Accords and continues to advocate for equal rights and fair labor practices for women and minorities. She now chairs a program, the Participation and Practice of Rights Project, that helps the disadvantaged access resources and services in Ireland, both North and South. McCormack currently serves as chair of the Participation and the Practice of Rights Project (PPR) and in 2008 received the prestigious Irish Tatler Woman of the Year Award.

Carol K. Mack PlaywrightCarol K. Mack’s plays have been produced off-Broadway and in regional theatres across the U.S. Without A Trace had its European premiere at the Tron, Glasgow, 2002 and toured Scotland. Her new play, The Visitor, received a grant from the Foundation for Jewish Culture. Premieres include The Accident, American Reperto-ry Theatre; In Her Sight and After, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Territorial Rites, The Women’s Project. Awards include Stanley Drama Award, Julie Harris/Beverly Hills Theatre Guild Award and a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship. Her plays have been selected for four editions of The Best American Short Plays, Applause Books. Her book, A Field Guide to Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angels & Other Subversive Spirits, was published by Profile Books, London, 2008.

Farida Azizi AfghanistanFarida Azizi became an activist fighting the marginalization of women under Taliban rule in her native country. Because of threats on her life, she has gained asylum and now lives in the United States with her two children and works on women’s rights and peace-building in Afghanistan.

Ruth Margraff PlaywrightRuth Margraff’s new play Harlequin, commissioned by a Playwrights’ Center McKnight award, was just read at Victory Gardens (Chicago) and the New Group (NYC). Her martial arts opera Dragon vs. Eagle marks her sixth collaboration with composer Fred Ho for the Apollo and Brooklyn Academy of Music commissioned by her fourth Rockefeller award. She has toured all over the world with her Café Antarsia Ensemble to festivals and venues throughout the United Kingdom, Cana-da, Russia, Romania, Serbia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Greece, Turkey, Slovenia, Croatia, Egypt (this summer)...signed to Innova Records. Ruth was delegated

to represent the U.S. State Department on a Peaceworks Cultural envoy to Calcutta, India, and received a Fulbright new opera award to Greece. She is an alumna of New Dramatists, an active member of LPTW and Theater Without Borders/Brandeis Coexistence International, Associate Professor of playwriting at the Art Institute of Chicago, and represented by Susan Schulman.

Hafsat Abiola NigeriaHafsat Abiola became an advocate for human rights and democracy following the murder of her activist parents. She founded the Kudirat Initiative for De-mocracy, which provides skills, training, and leadership opportunities for young women across Nigeria. She now helps build bridges between African and Chi-nese women, as China increases its engagement in the African continent.

Anna Deavere Smith PlaywrightAnna Deavere Smith is an actor, teacher, playwright and creator of unique one woman plays based on interviews. She has won two Obie Awards, two Tony nominations for Twilight: Los Angeles, and a MacArthur Fellowship. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her play Fires In The Mirror, Smith is founder and director of the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue at New York University. As an actress she has appeared in many films and on the television series West Wing. Her new book, Letters To a Young Artist, was recently published by Anchor Books.

Mukhtar Mai PakistanMukhtar Mai was gang raped by four men and forced to walk home almost naked in retribution for an alleged honor crime. Her harrowing story grabbed headlines across the world. Instead of taking the traditional women’s route of committing suicide, she brought her rapists to justice, built schools to improve the condition of women, and became an advocate for education in her country.

Susan Yankowitz PlaywrightSusan Yankowitz is a playwright, novelist and librettist. Her best-known plays include Phaedra in Delirium, Terminal, 1969 Terminal 1996, (collaborations with Joseph Chaikin’s Open Theatre), A Knife in the Heart, and Night Sky, which has been performed throughout the U.S. and in translations worldwide. In music theatre, she is bookwriter/lyricist for True Romances with Elmer Bernstein, Slain in the Spirit with Taj Mahal and Cheri with Michael Dellaira. She is a 2006 resident artist at HERE with her mixed-media play The Ludicrous Trial of Mr. P. Her work has been honored by the NEA, Guggenheim, Rockefeller and NYFA foundations, among others.