Theatre

Festival Playhouse of Kalamazoo College Presents

BACK OF THE THROAT by Yussef El Guindi

--Michigan Premiere--

April 9, 2012: Kalamazoo (Mich.) - Festival Playhouse of Kalamazoo College will produce BACK OF THE THROAT by Yussef El Guindi, April 26-29 in the Dungeon Theatre, in the basement of the Light Fine Arts Building.

A chilling black comedy, BACK OF THE THROAT tells a Kafkaesque story of two mysterious government agents who visit the apartment of Khaled, an Arab-American writer, for some routine questioning. What begins as friendly and humorous becomes uncomfortable, then menacing, and finally violent. “For the longest time Arab issues or Muslim issues just had not been on the radar," says playwright Yussef El Guindi. "The subject was just "too edgy.” Then came 9/11. Suddenly there were calls for plays.”

Senior Theatre Arts Major, Hutch Pimentel, will direct this full-length one-act play. The third production of Kalamazoo College’s Theatre & Social Justice season, BACK OF THE THROAT, draws back the curtain on America’s political and religious Islamophobia, racial profiling of Arab-Americans and dubious interrogation/torture policies in the years after September 11^th. “I am continually shocked when I see stories day after day in the news about physical, religious and legislative violence against Arab-Americans and Muslims in America,” says director Hutch Pimentel. “Especially horrific,” he continued, “was the murder of Shaima Alawadi, the Iraqi-American woman who was found beaten to death in her home after she found a note on her door that said, ‘This is my country. Go back to yours, terrorist,’ recently.”

The set, designed by Jon Reeves, is “based on the works of Francis Bacon and his caged deteriorating images of the pope including a single bare light bulb.” With the intrusion of the government agents into his apartment, Khaled’s life is irrevocably transformed, which is reflected in Reeve’s design.

All performances are in the Dungeon Theatre in the Lights Fine Arts Building on the Kalamazoo College campus, April 26-29, 2012. Thursday’s performance begins at 7:30pm (there will be a talk-back following this performance), Friday and Saturday’s performances begin at 8pm, with a 2pm matinee on Sunday. Thursday night is “pay what you want.” Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, all tickets are $5.00. The box office will open one hour prior to each performance to purchase tickets and it will be festival seating (first come). For more information visit www.kzoo.edu/theatre or call (269) 337-7333.