 Hi. Good evening. Welcome. Oh wow, there's lights and sound. Amazing. Hi. My name is Derek Goldman. It's really special to be here on so many levels and to look around and see an incredible community of friends here. I'm here with like so many hats. It feels like so many parts of worlds converging. And you guys are all looking around. So many of you are such a big part of that. I'm a founding co-director of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. I appreciate you guys spending a chunk of Friday night of TCG conference with us. There are an awful lot of things happening around. And so you being with us means a lot. I appreciate that there are people on live stream via our friends at HowlRound around the world watching tonight. Our performance of I Pledge Allegiance. This is a really special piece. I'm going to tell you just a little bit about it and then you'll see it. It's about a 40 minute play and then we'll have a chance to talk about it. This is the fourth time it's being performed over the course of it premiered just under a year ago at the International Theater Institute World Congress in Segovia, Spain. The lab at Georgetown, our mission is to harness the power of performance to humanize global politics. I co-founded it with Ambassador Cynthia Schneider. And it's unusual, I think, as a theater based arts based initiative that's housed at Georgetown in the School of Foreign Service, housed in the School of International Relations, even though I'm a theater maker and a professor there in theater and performance studies, it's a very consciously cross disciplinary and also kind of cross cultural initiative. And this piece feels to me kind of profoundly emblematic of and the students that you're going to meet who I'm incredibly proud of. Four of them are actually now alums of our program thriving out in the world and one of them is still a student at Georgetown. But they, like many of their peers, feel like extraordinary intersectional cultural workers with the work that they're doing through performance. The lab does a lot of things. We've left some leave behinds for you. I won't go into huge detail, but we create and develop original work. We present work from around the world, including festivals. We'll be launching a DC-wide festival called Cross Currents this spring that is an attempt to highlight a lot of the work that the lab has been involved with in different parts of the world, but to kind of localize that within DC in a very partnership based way. It builds on festivals like our two-year festival, Myriad Voices, which engaged with Islamophobia. But I feel like our greatest efforts are working to try to foster and amplify the work of change makers like these five young artists who are working at the intersection of theater and social justice and politics through, for example, our Global Fellows Program, which is funded by the Mellon Foundation. Two of these performers are among our fellows, but our fellows come from Syria and Palestine and Zimbabwe and Cambodia and Colombia and other parts of the world. The lab, part of what's special about being here is I've had many hats within TCG over 25 years, first as an artistic director of a TCG member theater and now as a board member. But the lab is a partner with TCG in the Global Theater Initiative, which strengthens, nurtures and promotes global citizenship and international collaboration in the U.S. professional and educational theater field. And we have a core team that includes TCG leadership, the amazing Amelia Cachapera who's here and has been a fan and supporter of this project since its onset in Segovia and Teresa Eyring and Kevin Bitterman and our team, myself and our amazing managing director Jojo Roof indeed and the newest member of our team, Teddy Roger, our communications and global connectivity manager. So we are a kind of core that is the Global Theater Initiative, but many of the people in this room are the Global Theater Initiative. It's really attempting to amplify a whole range of work that is happening in the field and we'll have a session tomorrow at 11 a.m. to come and learn a little more about the Global Theater Initiative, but also to hopefully share and hear what you're all doing in the field. So just a little bit more about this piece, a tiny bit of context and then a special surprise introduction. So the piece was co-created by these five students as writers, divisors responsible for its content, not as part of a class, but for this particular festival that launched the network for higher education in the performing arts as part of the ITI World Congress last summer in Segovia. So they gathered with more than a dozen other universities or schools that are part of this network from Bangladesh, the Philippines, China, South Africa, Slovenia, an extraordinary range of places with an extraordinary range of kind of cultural practices. And they wanted to make a piece that I think defied people's expectations of what Americans would bring in this moment in light of the current administration and the kind of questions about America that people might face. And they built the piece through conversations, interviews, personal writing, a really beautiful process to watch. And it's really, really very much a piece of living theater. This is our fourth performance of it and every time it's different because they come back to it and examine the moment that they're in and things change and we have discussions about that. And it's also been consciously built. It very much belongs to these five performers, but it's been very consciously built to be a catalyst for discussions, workshops, other folks bringing their stories and journeys into the piece. And ultimately we hope to be a piece that, while we always want these five to be with it, that is built to have component pieces. So as these people, as they already are, are going on in the world and doing extraordinary things, if we're invited to perform as we have been in some sites where one person can't make it, another person can create a track and come into the play and sort of write their path through their own personal journey. So when we talk, when we have the discussion afterwards, I'm eager to hear from the brain trust in this room about thoughts about where the piece might go. The last thing I want to share, which feels meaningful to me to share at TCG, where we're having so many powerful conversations about our field right now, who's training for what practitioners, what it means to be a practitioner in our field. It's just a little bit about these five, not to embarrass them, but I think they're an unusual set of five when we think about a group of students coming to a theater conference in terms of how they're training and what they're doing out in the world. Devika Ranjan is a martial scholar just completing a year at Cambridge doing migration and refugee studies and about to enter a year in the UK doing devised theater and performance. And she's been working among other things with women on the India-Pakistan border using forum theater techniques and things like them around domestic violence issues. Benjamin Lillian is a double major in history and cognitive neuroscience and thinking about the way the brain works for artists and also who's been active working in Georgetown Slavery Archive as Georgetown comes to terms with the legacy of the sale in 1838 of 272 slaves on our campus. Maria Cristina Ibarra is an extraordinary playwright whose award-winning play about her, inspired by her family and culture in the Philippines was performed at the Kennedy Center this past fall. Vilani Diba is a graduate of our School of Foreign Service who is now in the prestigious MFA directing program at Columbia University and doing extraordinary intersectional things there and Ali Pajwani is a campus leader very involved on our campus in campus ministry and all kinds of social justice work. All of them are put performance at the center of their practice they see themselves as they are true performance makers and performance workers but they're as invested I think in what performance is and can do for the world as in how to do it well and I think they make they're an interesting quintet for us to think about in a context like TCG as we think about you know just being inspired by Michelle Hensley's work this morning as we think about like the work that theater does out in spaces and out in the world. So that's already a lot to say but as I said the piece runs 40 minutes I'm going to ask you now if you could since we're live streamed and everything to turn your cell phones off and things like that and we will have a chance for a discussion with the cast afterwards. But before we begin I have a very special guest here who I hope some of you have already had a chance to meet and the rest of you I hope will who asked to say a few words and this is a it's a great honor to have him in St. Louis he's a longtime friend of TCG and of our global theater initiative and a huge part of our lab at Georgetown and this is the extraordinary Ali Madi from the Sudan UNESCO Artist for Peace Founder of the Extraordinary Al Bugha Theatre and the Festival in Cartoon and Ali does some of for me the most inspiring and life-changing work at the intersection of theater and conflict in both conflict and post-conflict situations working with perpetrators with war orphans using theater as an extraordinary tool to form community and he's brought that work to the U.S. on many occasions to workshops at Georgetown to Lamama to other spaces he was with us he's my colleague in ITI as vice president and he was with us in Segovia and he wanted to say a few words to you and then we'll go right into the piece so join me in welcoming Ali Madi thank you. Good evening during these two days I talk too much I'm sorry yeah I should dance more than that it is true I have a very old and very strong relation with TCG it's more than 12 years I'm too young when I know them I am young still I'm young and away it was great that TCG having all these branches not only in the States around the world and this is how I understand the cultural diversity and how we are sharing the difficulties and find a solution sometimes you find it sometimes it's difficult but at the end you can imagine in Sudan 10 years ago maybe yes with that difficulties political difficulties the security also and everything we have a performance from from here in Elbuga festival in the other hand the artist goes with the Sudanese artist to very difficult places I myself I can't go but they go and they are sharing the food with the with the peoples and this is how I understand the art that it's not here only in our nice places with this nice color and weather I believe that the art should go to the people as I said before and our theater not bringing the people to the theater to the venue we should go to them and our audience are partnership they are not audience because they are writing with us the performance during the performance itself we do some change on that that definitely is a different method I know TCG and we are exchanging a lot of activities there they are in Sudan three times with two or three performers they are leading they are leading a very good workshop the last one is about how to management the cultural groups or theater groups we tell treasurer that we will have only 15 member in the workshop but when we start they are 57 which is good and she accepted and and and they are so happy with that by my I'm so happy with this performance because of this young generation today's we're talking about change change those that are going to change the world we did our best I'm over 60 I don't know when I'm going to resign as an artist I will never resign but as a management definitely when I go back I have no office for definitely it is enough but those people those young generation can make change yesterday yesterday it was for me it's a very important turning point you can imagine in a conference here in USA they are celebrating Ramadan and they give me the chance to pray that was change that that is the change we look at that is how we are accepting each other this is the art I know the politician they can do this very difficulty for them but yesterday it was very very simple and it's very short but it gives a lot of meaning I'm sure that the people sooner or later it will be around the world is that the American conference of TCG they're starting the conference with a prayer for Ramadan and what we did two minutes it is good this performance came to the general assembly of ITI I was so happy that they are there the young uh actor actress and the place where we are paying for the performance you know everywhere there is some difficulty with facilities but it was full we didn't find a seat and the people are so exciting we are planning with TCG to bring this performance last March to Khartoum to Al Bug'a and before we bring a professional actor and musician but now we have this new generation that will give a different meaning but something happened we'll do it next next March inshallah I don't want to talk too much I want to keep the distance between me and the performance very short but I'm really I'm so happy that I am here I'm so happy that now the relation between TCG and African country and Arab country out of the USA is going in a good bridge the bridge mean going and come this is the meaning of the bridge so by your heart of course by your understanding to the meaning of cultural diversity now the bridge is strong I'm sure that one day you will have one from Uganda one from Egypt one you know we have to be it will remain a national conference but attended by international community and that is how the people will work in the future I always keep working with peace with TCG we work very much in building peace because I believe very much the role of the artist is the peace building the dialogue stopping the war whatever this is how we work in the conflict zone and I believe very much yes I am here but in the other some of my groups doing good things in the difficult places and I also after this nice three days in a very nice place I will go again to the desert working with them taking your feeling taking your pray for them to have peace inshallah say amen amen inshallah amen I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all where are you coming from how long were you there why were you there for so long were you born there you don't sound like you were born there I see that you have spent an extended amount of time outside of this country have you visited any of the countries on this list in the past six months Sudan Somalia Syria Libya Yemen Iran Iraq why did you hesitate what languages do you speak what languages do your parents speak what languages do your grandparents speak what languages do your great grandparents speak why didn't they teach you weren't they proud of their heritage where are you coming from good morning sir uh mr ma'am good morning officer I am coming from the Gambia but I was born in America I was visiting for three years I know it's a long time my grandmother was sick I love this country I love this country where are you coming from the Islamic state of the Gambia uh uh the Gambia I mean just the Gambia how long were you there three years are you aware there's a travel warning issued for the Gambia by the State Department I why were you there for so long my grandmother was sick did you have any close contact with foreign nationals while abroad anyone who's a member of a terrorist organization well my family but they're not are you Christian well I'm not so you're Muslim I'm not Muslim but my family is to whom do you pray what do you pray every day do you pray on your knees uh why are you returning to the United States of America for university what cities are you planning to visit uh Washington D.C. New York City did you watch the Twin Towers fall what did you watch the Twin Towers fall yes and how did it make you feel sad and angry for us or for them for us are you a patriot uh do you love this country yes can you recite the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America uh how many representatives sit in Congress uh 352 532 are you politically active yes what organizations are you affiliated with organization I mean I vote are you a member of any anti-government organizations no do you eat pork yes do you drink alcohol yes have you ever committed federal offense no any smaller crimes no where are you coming from I already told you the Gambia are you a patriot yes do you love this country yes can you recite the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands my grandmother one nation Cecilia Cialata Vea Kapusi Honolulu 1973 my uncle asks me how I'm doing I told him I quit my job at the pineapple factory because they wanted me to work from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. and only paid me a dollar an hour even though I was the best pineapple packer they ever had I told them where they can go and shove their pineapples my uncle also tells me I need to learn to be a lady because my 13 siblings are relying on me but I don't like to wear moos they're uncomfortable and they make my legs cold instead I wear these man pants called clam pickers I just need to sneak out of the house in the morning when I wear them otherwise my uncle gets so mad that poor man he got me a new job nannying for this family so I can learn to cook to clean to make my bed the family is nice and their daughter seems sweet but I don't see much of this land of opportunity I was told about I didn't want to come here and to this strange country with strange people speaking a strange language I was sent here to pave a way for the others and now with a little one on the way I need to start thinking about her future and not just mine they say there's great education here they say here you can build a better life for later generations we will see the united states of America pledge allegiance to the republic for which it stands for which it's liberty and justice and justice benjamin lillian my great grandfather ellis island 1911 ah we my mother gittl and I we left bolshovitz to join my father in new york city why I didn't have much vote in the matter I was 15 at the time Europe was dirty at least our Europe was we lived in the poorest part of it galicia the world over here looked better easier we tired of chewing on life as tough as boxer I left we left because we couldn't live live the plain and simple life we wanted our meals kept burning down we arrived in the floods of people on ellis island the grounds were different but the game of hunger stayed the same in new york in brooklyn we did whatever we could to stand above the masses your great grandmother gitto tried to use her diploma from the imperial academy of midwifery but nobody would let a greenhorn touch a baby greenhorn that's what my wife would call me three they were so proud to be born in this land always turning her nose up at me the greenhorn immigrant I worked in a factory with my father and uncle a factory it was a room on fifth avenue with three sewing machines we made ties neck ties fancy choking neck there of lace and cotton for businessmen we named our store Parisian neck there made them buy them ah the silly pats though is wanting something from the old world they never been there I don't know why my grandmother took me just me her youngest son benjamin but I'm grateful I'll never return across the Atlantic and neither will my blood now the world over there the dirty world looks small I can forget it and here there's a chance for a new life ah Frieder me still call me a greenhorn yes but my kids my kids will not be so my father los angeles california 1989 you know beta back in pakistan we had a tough time we were a middle-class struggling family and if it wasn't for your grandparents support we wouldn't be here where we are now we're a lot of compromises and sacrifices that we made in the last 30 or so years but even though we went through a lot of struggles we still feel fortunate to be here now but even though this is our home now we still have strong roots and feelings of back home we still feel connected to and recall the rainy season back home the tv programs the movies the food the culture the games the festivities that we used to enjoy together I still have fond memories of my elementary school friends that I used to play in the streets with that went through medical college with me even the professors and though we still have a community here that can do some of those same things being back in pakistan was different and being here completely different change but regardless beta America is our country now this is our homeland because it's brought us so many opportunities this is a land of opportunity lesser corruption imagine that and the chance at a better quality of life we just hope and pray that you alisha and serena will bear the fruits of our struggles and pass it on to your own children thank you and god bless america to the united states one nation to the united states of america of the united states of america for which is my grandmother one nation cecilia espirito guillermo san francisco california i maria christina i do not want them to hear my accent my english is not that good so america so america i work to support my family in the philippines there is no need for me to work your lolo could work and support the family so i volunteered in four areas with the beggars and all that because i didn't need my help i was a midwife there there i i saw life enter this world that world in the united states i had to work i had to work to support my six children your daddy maria christina and my husband a lady who supports her husband her husband to run away i was a vocational nurse in san francisco i worked in the assisted living veterans hospital i worked the graveyard shift i do not know why they call it the graveyard shift that's what your daddy calls it but there there i i saw life leave this world this world where where a lady can support her husband and then both a lady can vote me a nurse from the philippines who cannot speak very good english i can vote i can make a change in this country with my vote hey what was the question again to be an american to be an american is about finding your hang god your your your purpose what keeps you to go mine mine was a my my family to help the sick in the dying because this is what god wanted for me and even though even though maria christina i i carry a heaviness in my heart because i got i got to serve my family i got to see my children grow and i got to make you my apple my granddaughter maria christina republic to the flag for which it stands my mother she'll be renjan denver 1997 do you need to make it look positive have a sense of not belonging because it's like i don't belong to any place right because even if i go back to india i i i will always feel displaced because i will always try to be try to be try to try to fit in which i'm already doing here you know you have to preach you have to be an ambassador for your country you have to prove yourself constantly even though you you you can't you technically shouldn't be trying to fit in because this is america right but you're always you're always the new kid on the block and the opportunities that this country gave for you for papa for devanchu none of you would have got right so the opportunities that this country gave because we are here that is big where i am concerned i don't know i think i lost everything like the luxuries family my culture just alone expectation that you will do do become a maid you know it's always it's always a given date what is it that you're willing to sacrifice to get something it's it's never just there but you know in the bigger picture you but we knew we knew what we had to give up good evening maria christina welcome back to facebook what's on your mind feeling excited second week on my full bright scholarship capetown is absolutely beautiful miss you all post status new message from mary johnson can't wait to hear about your time in south africa how's it going hey uh it's super fun it's a new city so it's hard to get used to and it's great i'm having a great time send katelyn marshal just posted for the first time in a while check out her post now oh my god we're engaged so happy to be spending the rest of my life with the person that i love hashtag bride to be congratulations like see this memory with uncle bill from five years ago so proud of our niece maria christina for a high school graduation this girl's gonna make our family proud uncle bill miss you a lot i wonder what uncle bill's been up to bill mcpherson shared an article more than 30 dead after us let airstrike hit schools sheltering families near rucka i read about that that's awful 12 comments god bless america may those terrorists rot in hell they were not innocent civilians they were supporters of the isis they're just as guilty as the terrorists exactly when obama killed them they were called the radicals or isis but when trope kills them the bias media wants you to think they were good little boys and girls studying biology and physics hashtag make america great again you know what they should be grateful we're not just defending american freedom we're bringing american freedom and security to the rest of the world send our troops in peace right you know our american army can destroy those radical islamic terrorists put boots on the ground boots on the ground what's that supposed to mean send our soldiers in honey yeah boots on the ground yeah boots on the ground i don't want to see this right now show me something else faith porter has just checked into washington dc national airport say it loud say it clear muslims are welcome here say it loud say it clear muslims are welcome here trump calls them shithole countries but true americans value all immigrants hashtag resist trump hashtag justice for all anabelle just posted cnn's video to your wall hey maria christina what is happening in your country what do you have to say about this play video cnn breaking news after a long court battle in trellis hill virginia a kkk rally has been approved for july 17th despite many protests against the white supremacist groups hateful rhetoric courts have allowed the rally citing the constitutional right of freedom of speech the rally will play take place in the town center on thursday yikes um hey animal thanks for sharing it's kind of hard to explain you see in the u.s free speech is really important like even in the constitution because the government is not supposed to censor its citizens not to say that i agree that people should say racist things but in the u.s it's kind of allowed to say whatever common anabelle's reply to your comments but your court support this racism i mean it sounds like your time in south africa might be pretty close to home yeah well i guess incoming call from hello hey how are you doing great how are you oh i'm good i'm at the airport right now protesting the muslim band oh that's awesome yeah it's it's i've never felt more like i'm part of the resistance that's really beautiful i wish i was there i just said i wish i was there hey i'll talk to you later okay i see you've been searching for new summer dresses new from zara get 20 off your next you assume they're innocent they live with the isis supported the isis and got killed like the isis good riddance bomb them back to the stone yeah so what if it was a school yeah put boots on the ground boots on the ground boots on the ground boots on the ground fox breaking news active shooter in midtown elementary school in midtown minnesota oh my god get more on this breaking story tell me more 52 comments how tragic sending prayers to the students of midtown elementary senseless gun violence continues oh hey one of them is your uncle bill sounds like a hoax to me what uncle bill it's just fake news the media will make any excuse to take our guns oh my god no it's not the us is the country with the most gun violence in the world there have been 80 school shootings since sandy hook in 2012 okay i know that but when when the government start protecting our students put armed security at every word guns that is not the solution well clearly gun free schools aren't working if there are more guns there will just be more shootings no if there are more guns then people will be able to protect themselves more and our children look okay what about freedom boots on the ground where are you coming from i see you have changed your location are you interested in any of flights to these destinations sudan samalia syria libya yemen iraq iran why did you hesitate what language did you speak what's on your mind join the movement hashtag resist trump what is happening in your country say it loud say it clear boots on the ground what's on your mind i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all good morning woodbridge woodchucks as you may have seen on the news yesterday three students lost their lives in a tragic incident at our pen pal school midtown elementary in midtown minnesota if you need to talk to someone please know that your teachers are always here for you we are committed to keeping this school safe for everyone please remain standing for a moment of silence to honor the victims of yesterday's tragic events let me stay up and watch the news last night i'm too okay well mine even let me watch a video of the shooting hey we're in school you're not allowed to say the word shooting what about the shooting i don't got to see that video yeah they said it was too gross to show on tv i don't know why they said it was too gross to show on tv it happens all the time the building looked a lot like woodbridge all schools look like that thank you a reminder that today is culture day thanks to all of you who brought food from your homes it is even more important for us to celebrate each one of you because of yesterday's tragic events we are proud to create a welcoming and respectful community here at woodbridge elementary make it a great day or not the choice is yours then would you bring for culture day nothing oh i'm sure you have a culture my parents say i don't need to do culture day because it's just the school's way of proving it's not racist i heard the shooter did it because he's racist what's americans oh i heard the shooter did it because he's a muslim he wasn't muslim do you think the shooting could happen here too they said it was safe didn't you see the security guards in the lobby today yeah one of them even gave me a high five my dad said if this keeps happening i might have to leave where he says i'm gonna have to go to private school because it's not safe here yeah my dad said that i'd have to leave too back to islam islam isn't a place stupid how was i supposed to know that but you are a muslim aren't you yeah and so where do muslims come from i don't know i'm from texas so then where are you going to go my parents said if the school shootings keep happening i'm gonna have to go to private school oh hey like me yeah what's so good about private school well private schools are more exclusive what's exclusive mean stupid it's pronounced exclusive what does exclusive mean it's like exclusive you know we're bad people can't get in so you're saying we are bad people no people like the shooter he means people like muslim that's racist ibasamo what'd you say what's ibasamo what languages do you speak english the gallo mandarin spanish what languages do your parents speak what languages do your grandparents speak the gallo where are you from today for culture day i brought chicken adobo it's made with chicken the soy sauce vinegar garlic pepper and bay leaves and sometimes people add coconut milk chicken is english for chicken and adobo is spanish and the gallo for marinate english and the gallo were my first languages i used to sing this song in the gallo that would name fruits and vegetables and it would go like and then my mommy would go guling the monitor would clap like this um but when i turned three my parents enrolled me in mandarin classes because they said that mandarin would be a really important language for me to know someday and that's when i started to forget a lot of the the gallo guy knew so he was going to put your short john oh ying yu and and then i started taking spanish classes he ablaria in espanol or engles today i can understand nearly all of the gallo but when other filipinos ask me mononomot the gallo i can only reply conti lang just a little bit so english and the gallo were my first languages but somewhere along the way i lost a lot of the gallo guy knew and and sometimes that makes me feel like i lost a little bit of myself but one day i hope to study the gallo again and learn it all and then maybe i can find that little part of myself and that song i sing is called bahay gubo which translates to straw house it is a song about home my name is lani i look like i'm just black i mean african-american but i'm really from two very different places my dad is from west africa and my mom is from polynesia i brought hawaiian pizza for my culture day project because it's a fusion of cultures kind of like me it's pizza made with pineapples and ham it's not really sweet and it's not really salty but i like it because it reminds me of how sometimes things don't always fit into just one culture sometimes it's confusing because i don't know whether or not i'm supposed to be polynesian or west african sometimes my cousins will make fun of me for being too dark and they'll call me black girl i wanted to talk to my mom about it but she's not black so i don't know if she really understands sometimes i have nightmares where i wake up in a time where blacks and others can't spend time together and in the dream they won't let me see my mom but my brothers understand me because they're a new culture like me and this pizza is something just like us hello my name is devika today for culture day i brought paneer that my mom made last night paneer is my favorite food it's kind of like cheese but better and we eat it with gravies like balik which is spinach and spinach is sometimes yucky but not the way my mom makes it and actually my name is pronounced devika i i know i told you it was devika that's because it's easier for you to say devika in english but actually it's devika like my parents say it um but i don't i don't want you to think that i lied to you or or make fun of me it's it's just hard to fit in hard to be like everyone else and and and be myself my name is ali and i'm from carleton texas and today for culture day actually i don't really know what my name is uh sometimes it's ali uh like my friends from texas call me um and other times it's ali like ugly without the g that's what my parents call me and other times it's ali which is the arabic way of saying it and i don't know like my name in some sort of ways it's kind of like my identity in that it goes in all of these weird little directions but anyways hi uh my name is ali ali or ali um and today for culture day i brought a hamburger and fries yes i know from the color of my skin it doesn't look like these foods are the most representative of my culture my dad grew up in pakistan and my mom grew up in india but i was born here i've been american in texan my whole life i mean i like other foods like devika's paneer and my mom's kari kausa uh but the fact that i like hamburger and fries doesn't put restraints on my identity i can be american and south asian i can be american and muslim and the fact that i like red meat with lots of hot sauce doesn't change that can i go thought you said you didn't bring anything i didn't bring anything special but i still have a culture i think thank you ali today in my lunchbox my mom packed chips gefilte fish an apple and a bottle of advil um oh hi my name is benjamin um i'm actually not from here i grew up my whole life in france and it's weird because although i grew up french my parents are american so i didn't belong to the us but maybe that's why i always loved it so much and the back of my head i always thought i would go back to america back as if i knew what america was i would always visit and only visit america on during summer vacations so my american dreams were things i could cling to in a suitcase you know Reese's peanut butter cups lucky charm cereal twizzlers the occasional root beer um i would also visit america every year now and then to see the all the rest of my family sisters cousins grandparents everyone else but me now i live here because my parents and everyone else said america is the place to be for school if you can it was a little hard at first of course i mean people speak strangely here they say how's it going to say hi and let's grab lunch to say goodbye they don't really ever say what they think so it was hard because i grew up in two cultures divided by an ocean but i'm also really lucky because i can say i'm from here when i'm there or i'm from there when i'm here but anyways now it's been four years i've got to say this place is really cool i've met some really amazing people some people i want to keep with me forever only i don't know where to stay now hello this is your fault hello this is your friend right you coming from you were supposed to be home right after school your son stole a sandwich from my shop today right in front of me a sandwich mom it's not a big deal not a big deal your son stole a sandwich i i don't understand look i know you're new here but my family had to learn this too and we made it i'm so sorry how much was it the sandwich is five dollars enough no no he's okay when you come in a cup of chai i'm just if he keeps going like this he could get into trouble with the law i could have called the police at least come on i'm so sorry please take the money i'm just trying to help if you're not going to do it for yourself do it for her huh you help your parents where do you think you're going i don't want to talk about it oh well you should have thought about that before you stole a sandwich it's not a big deal it was just a sandwich not a big deal what if we taught you nothing you bring such shame to this family especially in this new neighborhood where nobody knows us i wasn't this is the reputation you want us to have a beggars and thieves i wasn't thinking oh you weren't thinking of course you weren't thinking and and what about your lunch huh it's not enough for you it's not that it's not what i'm trying to say more i can make me right no rashid i it's just i you love paneer and you haven't touched it and you go out and steal a sandwich it just smells kind of you know it smells smells like what like paneer i don't know some people just say it smells weird okay are you ashamed ashamed of who we are no no of course not but like i i who are ashamed after all we've done for you this is how you repay us so ungrateful it's not about you mom it's just hard to fit in hard to be like everyone else you wouldn't understand you don't think i would understand i gave up my family and my language and my culture we gave up everything to become citizens of this country for you now you you throw away paneer you know we raised you to be indian to respect our values and culture and eat our food and and and you don't even call me a mama anymore huh just mom mom fine fine throw away paneer throw it all away so you can fit in with the americans i don't understand why you can't be both i'm trying mom amma i hereby declare i hereby declare on oath on oath that i give up all allegiance to any country that i give up all allegiance to any country to which i have been a citizen to which i have been a citizen i will support and defend the laws i will support and defend the laws of the united states of america of the united states of america against all enemies against all enemies so help me god so help me god welcome home and god bless america like you all my grandmother came to this country 60 years ago with six children to raise on her own and she naturalized and voted every year and now you all have the same opportunity as we give each one of you a citizenship card and a an american flag we invite you to say a few words tell us all why are you grateful to be an american sicilia silata vea kafusi as a mother of five who came to this country from the kingdom of tonga many years ago i am grateful to be in a country where i can provide for my children and for my family veniamin liliam i'm grateful for the openness this country has given me my mama took us away took me away from the pogroms in ukraine and we found a new life here a second chance got a her family mill had just burned down but here i got a roof i met a wife but more importantly i have kids that will outlive me which is more than any of my brothers back home can ask for she'll be run gen i am grateful for the opportunities that this country has given to my family health care for my son who is disabled and schooling for my daughter who is eager to learn i will always be indian at heart but i love watching the leaves turn red in the autumn mehmood bather alip panjwani i came to america leaving behind my whole family my parents my brothers my sister all to find us a better life here though it took us a while to get up off of our feet if it wasn't for this country we wouldn't be here where we are now we are proud and excited to welcome you to the melting pot of the united states of america each day in america over 60 million students like your children recite the pledge of allegiance i invite everyone in the room to stand and place their hand over their hearts please repeat after me i pledge allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag to the flag of the united states of america of the united states of america and to the republic and to the republic for which it stands for which it stands one nation one nation under god under god indivisible indivisible with liberty and justice for all with liberty and justice i pledge allegiance for the food that comes from my mother's kitchen to the home of hindi music that drifts through the rooms of our house all day i pledge allegiance to slow mornings chipping chai from oversized mugs and paneer in our lunchboxes i pledge allegiance to the red pine forest to road trips with my sisters through monument valley to celebrating the fourth of july with french red wine to chess players in the street and to a liberal arts university i pledge allegiance to misusing idioms to the sound of cicadas in massachusetts and manila and to the silipino gay men and drag queens i gave my mother a place to go i pledge allegiance to my dad's awkward questions at restaurants i'm sorry uh can i please get that steak between medium well and well done and my mom's beautifully imperfect english to my dad's motto don't worry be happy and my nanima's joyful songs i pledge allegiance to patchwork families to sleeping on the floor at family reunions to being from everywhere and from nowhere at all we pledge allegiance to never fitting in to contradictions we embody simply by being alive to that to that to that to that i pledge also thank you to james and tom on audiovisual i think we have time for some uh for some discussion can we maybe pull some chairs quickly onto the stage thanks for being such a generous audience it's so we've had to get such radically different audiences to share this piece with from an international audience in sygovia to an audience on campus as part of a symposium uh that very kind of lefty activist kind of energy symposium of fellow students and faculty to a uh event in seattle a month or two ago with georgetown parents and donors and a much you know so just in terms of the spectrum and one of the things that's been um just really moving to me you know they just flew in from a bunch of different places they weren't all together and sort of like gathering back to put the piece back and sort of imagine the uh just you know it's sort of new every time and there's a kind of sense of like taking stock of what's inside it for them and then this encounter that we're having with it so it feels you know very new and very live and very fresh and i'm just incredibly proud of this group of folks um so i think we're just gonna um i would i would have them introduce themselves but i feel like that's already happened um so i really just i think we have 15 minutes or so for um an exchange um and uh i hope that i just want to kind of open the floor there joe is there a mic out here or how are we to joe joe has the mic um and i'm gonna i'm hoping to do less of the talking and let the five of you and you're still mic'd up right so maybe we're mic'd up yes we are yes we are just to leave me with the mic right there congratulations didn't make it in because we don't want to share but we can answer that question wait david should you tell the story about um the game show there's game so there's the drone so we had so we this this script underwent a lot of revisions from the first time we wrote it and actually the first time we wrote it we tested in front of an audience and then after that run next to entire scenes so um amongst that i think there was a game show scene there was a date scene um which for various reasons didn't quite fit the arc of the play um they dealt with the same the issues that we wanted to talk about in the play but we um didn't include them because for either tonally they they sort of messed with the the way we wanted the show to flow some of them just sort of pulled attention in a way that was kind of jarring so that's why we either modified them or took them out and the other thing that changed really drastically is the is the tone of the piece so as derrick said we performed at first uh about a year ago um and we wrote and created it just in the wake of the election and the inauguration during which we were all in dc um and the first iteration of this piece was really angry um and it was a reflection of what we were feeling at the time and how we were able to express it um and uh so last summer it had that that rage built into it and we're in a different place now uh in our relation to politics and in our relation to the administration um and this piece uh and so what you've seen tonight is is different tonally in terms of i feel like it's a lot more reverent for the people who have come before us for our ancestors and for activists and for immigrants and i think just uh i go off of that i think like i'm still enraged um definitely but i think that we found a way to channel that rage differently um now that some time has passed um and as denika did mention like we brought in that whole section at the beginning where we had all of our different ancestor monologues we added that in about two months ago three months ago so that part's very recent but it gave us a lot more of a foundation for the rest of the piece um and something at the beginning too when we started the process was like who are the americans whose stories we're going to use we did a lot of interviews we had a lot of different things in there from a variety of different people and through the rehearsal process and with a lot of guidance from derrick we realized wait like we are also americans why don't we tell our own stories and that's kind of how that transformed and i think i mean i speak for myself but maybe also for them when i say that like this show is much more personal and close to us now because we made that shift um i'm not going to add much i just want to say that one of the things also that we didn't include now but that was hypothetically supposed to be included in the coming years of this show hopefully years um is that we did do interviews we canvass a campus and off campus to see how people's perspective of what it means to be american is different and although we are a very different group of people of five even that is not all of america there's still so many opinions that we don't have perspective we can't write and can't imagine or we can write but they won't be true and the whole point of this play is that it's can be kind of a flexible jigsaw and that after some of us transition on to different things or our time we want to be able to bring in different americans who are different kinds of americans other than us and the scenes could then be molded according to those people so what you when you ask like what's not included is stuff that we also have yet to discover because a big point of this piece is to understand the differences that we have after and just to clarify though it is our personal stories not everything we say in the piece is what we believe you do not agree with uncle bill um but it's a variety of different places that these stories tarash i'm curious about the the choice of uh inviting the audience to stand up and pledge allegiance what's the reasoning behind it and what kind of reactions have you seen in the four performances you've had uh yeah sure i can answer that um i don't actually remember where exactly the choice came from um it just during the rehearsal process but like but i think with the number of audiences that we've had it with there's always the responses is always different we've had people who are so proud and like ready to stand up after this entire piece because that comes at the end so there are people who are like yes yeah i'm still all for it i'm so proud and there are some people who stood up because they were so proud of the stories that they heard on stage and they're like oh this is what america means to me or i'm much more i identify with this notion and this experience of america much more than you know what i had grown up to believe when reciting the pledge um and it's always funny to see people who are not americans stand up for it as well um because you know there's that question of audience participation um involved with it and so um what it ultimately comes down to is that this is it's an action that we invite people to take part in and it's an action it's a literal pledge that they are they're making and either pledging to this america which is interesting and definitely i still want to unpack and flesh that out you know and outside of tonight and for the rest of as we continue the process um as to what that really means um but it is it is interesting it is a bit newer i think in the past couple of performances and so well actually the first time we we included the pledge we were performing for an audience in spain of mostly non-americans and so one of the things that we had been talking about and making this play about like a largely about the pledge of allegiance is fact that the pledge of allegiance is something that is sort of uniquely america and different countries have different types of pledges some countries don't have pledges but this specific set of words is something that is if you were to point to one thing that most of the country has sort of agreed on as american the pledge of allegiance is something that's said every single day in schools regardless of your racer at this year gender and so inviting an audience that was not american to stand up and say this pledge there was a bit of uh explanation of what an american is going through because i think for a lot of those people they were like we don't really know how the average american feels about their identity we sort of see you guys as a monolith and so this conflict of like what do these words actually mean we say them because we repeat them after someone but do we actually think about what we're saying and how complicated is that something that we wanted the audience to be able to feel but it was i think it was it was initially because we were performing for people who did were not used to saying that every single day and so to give them a bit of an experience of what that's like after they've seen how complicated american identity was was something that we were really interested in investigating also really interesting light of just current events happening as far as like standing up for the star-spangled banner with con capronik and the nfl's new rules that have come out and just the idea of like do we have to get up like what does it mean to get up um to pledge allegiance or to say the star-spangled banner and what the pressure is like i think in all the shows and i think also this one like a few people stood up first and then everyone else kind of followed suit um so it's interesting to see that dynamic too and when people get up throughout the process is that following someone else or on their own conviction um and that's also interesting just especially with everything happening it's also interesting because the people i think the first people who stood looked at each other first and they're like are we going to do this they're like yeah we're going to do this as long as i got someone else right so that is really the pledge implies unity and indivisible one nation yes but you still knew the words right work but you remember no i had raised my hand eric it was so uncomfortable i haven't done it in so many years and i didn't want to do it and it felt fascist to me for the first time in my life it was really shocking yeah so thank you for that we had a brief conversation and sort of the rehearsal today about that moment um it was actually a real conversation and it's a great question taranj because i think it's like i actually think it's it's a we were talking about even the semantics theatrically of just the moment and like the wording is i invite yeah i invite you all to stand up i said please just that i think what we're trying to act you know sort of like what it is because there is this kind of odd participatory sense of like you know should i would it be hostile not to you know like there's a lot going on in that moment and and our i think goal and i actually think it's a little bit of a matter of craft still for us in that moment of like is wanting to kind of like activate all of those things you're you know sort of like that there's a a choice you know we begin the piece almost as a thesis with like laying out these words that have been you know as for 55 you know that's been sort of sedimented for 55 years and you know that are there and then hopefully complicating what um the question of what pledging you know what one really pledges allegiance to so it's i just think it's an interesting it's like it's a it's a complicated moment uncomfortable yes yeah she's yeah understood yeah that was something in the back of our minds when we first wrote this this was just after the um elections um in november last year and remember one of the things that we were talking about was that it was the inauguration of president trump or something else where he had these two girls dancing with batons and it was clearly like artificially choreographed and there was a lot of comparisons with north korea dancing and so when you say fascist like it's kind of funny but it was also something that was in the back of minds of why we chose to weed this into it because it do get that weird kind of like kind of like seven 1984 type thing ma'am i went in a completely different direction which was hope of what that pledge used to me to me to the point where i almost couldn't because i got oh my god i'm getting emotional saying the pledge of allegiance um the other uh issue uh is how complicated culture is and um i'm i'm i'm deeply into the deaf culture and you cannot do this and do this at the same time so please stand put your hand over your heart is like again and now i can't say it because i i've lost half of my communication tool um so again which language do i choose to do this in and what does it mean to me to do it in english or in sign and it's a very complicated thing to ask people to do the pledge wow thank you thank you for that's a beautiful new resonance for us that's really thank you steven so knowing that you developed us on the campus where many of our future leaders of this country go to school i'm curious about hopefully these five actually right exactly but i'm curious about the people that you got to see this on campus and what kind of reaction you got to the show how was it uh in dc that's in lindy i think one of the great things great things about georgia is that people are like very open about like you know their opinions and willing to engage in dialogue about that so we've gotten a lot of really constructive feedback both of like people of multiple different interpretations of the show which has been great because i think that's something that we really want we love about the show is that people can watch it and for some people it's this sort of reawakening of like what i love about my country and for other people it's this questioning of like what do i you know what what's problematic in my own views of with my own country and things like that um so at georgia and we've really sort of had across the board um you know solid feedback on on how specific moments have like resonated with people that's a big thing is a lot of people connect with a certain part in the play and so they'll say you know i've never really thought of this but like i guess i consider myself to be amer an american because i was born here and maybe that's why first for me certain things about like my my understanding of certain political issues is formed around this is what i consider to be american is where you're born it's not about like you know for other people it's deeply ingrained in you know their culture or their religion or things like that so that's been really interesting to see um uh i want to say just because of a lot of the people that have tended to come have also been our acquaintances and are therefore probably politically aligned a little bit more closer to our own political leanings um you know they've a lot of the feedback has been you know in line with our own political beliefs but i i would say that even people who you know said that they disagreed maybe with our personal views because we sort of have diverging political views amongst ourselves within the group and even people who might disagree with the five of us like any political gleams they could get from the show what they got from it was this central idea that the point of this piece is to be an american is a complicated thing it's not you know one single thing that makes you an american and problematizing that and looking at that is what this piece is all about which is something that we hope continues i will say though however i i still think that as much as we do diverge on political views like it's very subtle and i think that one thing that i've been thinking a lot about just like Derek in the lab is how is a production like this in the conversation like this reaching people who aren't going to come see it when they see it advertised because honestly and very frankly majority of people who see this piece at least somewhat agree with us so how are we using theater as a means to reach across to people who don't see the same as us but also how do we do that like how are we going to convince someone to come watch a show like this and another complicated thing for me as well is like when is starting that conversation and reaching out also not fair to me right if there's someone who says oh like i think that all muslims should die that is at the core of my identity i i personally believe i don't have a responsibility to necessarily engage with that person i in in my head i think that's that's almost legitimizing that as a as a view that is to be contended with as if there are two sides to the fact that muslims are humans too right so something that i've kind of just been conflicted about for a really long time is how are we using theater as a way to talk to people how are we talking to people in such a polarized time but also how are we still standing up for our values and what we believe in and not sacrificing what's at the core of our identity uh jojo says one more um i think we can maybe do if there was someone else we can maybe do two more also i just want to say to that and um the to just say to the the pledge of allegiance choices that we're talking about to offer i so appreciate all that you offered it so beautifully and the questions you're asking about it and that the complexity of how we're responding to that moment with the pledge is such an important invitation to whoever is there to be wherever they are with the title of the piece and a core um obviously a core text of the piece and to reflect very viscerally on our own relationship to it through dozens of choices not just standing but which words do i say do i say any of them why do i say those words and feel okay and not those words and how that makes us reflect on so many of the themes you raise as much as we may feel sometimes like a similar political spectrum there's lots as you know of spectrums within those so you are reaching a diverse group of people even in this room and i think you do you're doing it really beautifully so i just wanted to commend that thank you thanks leila yes uh this is the second time i i saw that uh this is the fourth uh but the second time i saw the show that one in spain and now it's here the issue of uh the the the issue of identity in spain it was very clear the audience are from different places they came to spain with that problem of their identity even in countries like sudan or egypt or these places we have the same problem of identity maybe more complicated than here and now i saw the performance here where the issue of identity is much bigger and i hope this is why i was planned to take the performance abroad to those countries especially the very scene on this policeman talking with the lady coming from this part of africa that will be very interested to them to see how they sing i have problem of identity with my family i mean my my three children are british and they speak all the time english we are arab you know and we are sufi we know we have to speak in arabic at least but all of them they speak english so once i tell them during the time of the food no english at all either arabic no english so never nobody talk so it's a question of identity i feel the identity here and and the problem now the accent how how how my accent is different from now i have five accent and i think this is very good that the sound more than the pictures here you play in the sound you build we always my theory is building the picture in the performance art we try to build the picture picture picture now you are concentrated in the sound so it gives me more meanings when this different accent they talk about it so i'm really it was this is a good example of the new production the new type of production or building performance with this young young nice generation so um we still interest to take this performance not only to sudan even to so much so maybe we can help them to have peace maybe thank you thank you thank you thank you and we'll stick around if there's any more questions yeah no thank you i just want to um i know we're finishing i wanted um acknowledge our our colleagues at tcg um for making this space i mean i feel like we're all part of a family but it's still being able to get these five here and um this is a felt like a really important and special community in which to uh share this on number of levels and i'm really taken you know jan cohen kruz has this beautiful articulation of theater and performance as call and response and this piece to me in these different moments that it kind of flickers up and then creates and generates this conversation the kind of things it's responding to and then the call into our circles and our community for the conversation to continue it's a very young piece of theater actually i feel like but these are really beautiful um forums and um that's so much what i think the work that everyone as i look around this room what we're here doing at tcg what you're doing in your communities and the companies this whole idea of the global theater initiative our partnership what we're trying to do it's really these are um the texture of these calls and responses is very meaningful so you coming out on friday night and meeting these folks and sharing this uh to to the conversations continuing um and thanks to tcg and a special thanks to jojo and teddy our folks at the lab for making everything so thank you oh and to be continued perhaps over drinks and other things thank you everyone thank you thank you for being here