March 23, 2016

Granoff Center, Martinos Auditorium

A reading of a new play by Maurice Decaul MFA ’18. Directed by Ashley Teague, MFA ’17.

In the infancy of the war, Iraq is already filled with ghosts. The lives of four US Marines, a French reporter, and four Iraqis are forever changed after an errant mortar round kills a child during the rush to Baghdad. Phantoms haunt the people of a burning Baghdad, trying to prevent the bloodletting to come As Saddam’s statue falls in Firdos Square, marines and Iraqis are forced together in a moment which will test their humanity, empathy and potential for forgiveness.

The play is situated in the first weeks of the Iraq war and this reading took place during the anniversary week of the beginning of the war. This was the 13-year anniversary. Decaul’s work gives us an opportunity to reflect on the war but also to consider where we are as a nation and a world in a post Iraq war landscape.

The play was sponsored by TAPS, the Dean of the College, Office of Veterans Affairs, and the Security Program and the Costs of War Project at the Thomas J. Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.

A post-show talk featured:

• Catherine Lutz, Thomas J. Watson, Jr. Family Professor of International Studies, Professor of Anthropology, and Co-Director of the Costs of War Project, Brown University,
• Yvonne Masakowski. Professor, College of Operational & Strategic Leadership, Naval War College, and
• Qussay Al-Attabi, Department of Comparative Literature, Brown University.

Maurice Emerson Decaul ’18 MFA, a former Marine, is a poet, essayist, and playwright. His writing has been featured in the New York Times, The Daily Beast, Sierra Magazine, Epiphany, Callaloo, Narrative, The Common and others. His poems have been translated into French and Arabic and his theatre pieces have been produced at New York City’s Harlem Stage; Poetic License Festival in New York City; Washington DC’s Atlas INTERSECTIONS FESTIVAL in 2013 and 2014; l’Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe in Paris; The Paris Banlieues Bleues Festival; The Middelhein Jazz Festival, Antwerp; The Avignon Theatre Festival, France; Détours de Babel; and the Grenoble Festival, Grenoble, France. Forthcoming productions include: Arizona State University Gammage Memorial Auditorium; The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; The David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center; The Mary L. Welch Theatre at Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pennsylvania; and The Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Maurice is a graduate of Columbia University (BA) and New York University (MFA).

Ashley Teague ’17 MFA strives to create theater that uplifts the issues of our time and celebrates the human spirit. Her work connects with its community in a deeply personal way and endeavors to push the boundaries of what that connection can do. As a staff member at Cornerstone Theater, she developed and produced their Talk It Out series, which travelled throughout California creating community-engaged theatre aimed at changing public policy. Prior to that she worked as a producer for theatrical creative content on films such as Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, Tyler Perry’s For Colored Girls, John Madden’s The Debt, Paul Haggis’ The Next Three Days, and Gus Van Sant’s Promised Land. Most recent directing credits include Bean (Hollywood Fringe Festival, Best of), Jesus Hopped the A Train (Lyric Theatre), Willful (California State Capitol), Healthy Richmond (East Bay Center for the Performing Arts), Ajax (Theater of War Productions), The Shadow Box (Collective Studio: LA), The Book of Liz (Bedlam Theater), Halfway Home (Blank Theater), and Parallel Lives (Cabaret Theater).