Coming To Newark Dec. 2-6, Thanks To RU-N and NJIT: The World Premiere of a Real-Life Drama About Desperate Migrants in Search of a Home
Almost daily, it seems, the evening news brings us images of refugees taking to the seas to flee wars in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa. All aspire to find a new life and hope, but so many find themselves unwanted, dispossessed and lost in bureaucratic in-fighting.
The play will be performed Dec. 2, 3, 4, 5, at 7 p.m. and Dec. 6 at 2:30 p.m. at the Jim Wise Theater, Kupfrian Hall, on the campus of NJIT. (Kupfrian Hall is handicap-accessible.) General admission tickets: $15; directions: http://www.njit.edu/about/visit/gettingtonjit.php).
Numbers is directed by Maria Aladren and was translated from the original Spanish by William Gregory.
The play is a perfect fit for two universities that are among the most diverse in the United States, with large numbers of students who are either immigrants or children of immigrants. In fact, “There are students on our campuses from all of the countries represented by the immigrant characters in the boat in Numbers,” notes Tim Raphael, director of the RU-N Center for Migration and the Global City (CMGC), which focuses on the impacts of global migration, especially on the Newark region and the state of New Jersey. “Embodying historical events through theater, and the performing arts in general, can be a particularly resonant teaching tool for leveraging and representing the extraordinary ethnic and global diversity of our students,” he says.
Toward that end, CMGC is hosting a special forum following the Dec. 3 performance, an open discussion between the audience, cast and a panel consisting of director Maria Aladren, playwright Gómez Glez, and two faculty members with personal insights into the plight of refugees: Sadia Abbas, associate professor, RU-N Department of English and Program in Women's and Gender Studies, and RU-N’s Mohamed Alsiadi, an Arabic lecturer in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies and a graduate student. Abbas spent the last two summers working with migrants in Greece, and saw first-hand the struggles of boatloads of immigrants. Alsiadi has been working in the cultural and political arenas to draw attention to the more than 2 million Syrians who have been displaced since 2011.
Numbers was published by the Spanish Institute of Performing Arts in Spanish, and received the 2011 Calderon de la Barca Theater Award. In 2012 it was selected for public readings in New York City, first in Spanish at Repertorio Español and then in English during the PEN Festival 2013. NUMBERS was published in English in the anthology “New Plays from Spain: Eight plays by seven playwrights,” and in 2014, it received a public reading by The Vagrancy at Theater Asylum in Hollywood.
For more information on the story behind this production, please go to (URL for web story). Media contact: Carla Capizzi, capizzi@rutgers.edu, 973/353-5263
PHOTOS: Left, Mar Gómez Glez; right, Maria Aladren
POSTER DESIGNED BY NJIT STUDENT REBECCA JEAN CORTÉS, SAYREVILLE, NJ
CAST NOTES
Panagiotis Pete Tsivis, “Skipper;” NJIT; hometown: Lakewood, New Jersey
Darian Capellan, “Cook,” NJIT, hometown: Hillside, NJ
Devin Mattheson, “Sailor,” NJIT, hometown: Brick, NJ
Casey Chartier, “Carmen,” NJIT, hometown: South River, NJ
Rianna Evita Ronquillo, “Ambassador,” RU-N, Hometown: Woodbridge, NJ
Brian O’Mahoney, “Minister,” NJIT, hometown: Piscataway, NJ
Eric Holzer, “Mediator,” NJIT, hometown: Middlesex, NJ
Allison Mitchell, “Port,” RU-N, hometown: Somerset, NJ
Keith Moran, “Policeman,” “Journalist #2,” NJIT, hometown: Jackson, NJ
Alicia Kaur, “Embassy Worker,” “Journalist #1,” RU-N, hometown: Monroe Township, NJ
PRODUCTION CREW
Jasmine Freeman, assistant director, RU-N, hometown: Danville, VA
Bruno Ferreira, assistant stage manager, RU-N, hometown: North Arlington, NJ
Michelle Cairo, props master, RU-N, hometown: North Bergen, NJ
Nya Knight, lights, dramaturgy, RU-N, hometown: Newark , NJ
Riley Stein, sound, RU-N, hometown: Dunellen, NJ
Austin Gilker, sound, RU-N, hometown: Kearney, NJ
Lea Burlew, projection, NJIT, hometown: Avenel, NJ
Rebecca Jean Cortés, graphic designer, NJIT, hometown: Sayreville, NJ
Carlton Hurdle, projection, NJIT, hometown: Piscataway, NJ
Vipin Kannekanti, projection, NJIT, hometown: Edison, NJ