kathleen chalfant
GRITtv: Prophecy: The Human Cost of War
We spoke this week about the actual cost of war as well as the toll it takes on those who participate in it. Now a new play at the East Fourth Street Theater in New York is focusing on the human toll that war takes, not just on those who fight it, but those back at home. Starring Kathleen Chalfant and Najla Said, "Prophecy" is written and directed by Karen Malpede, and explores the themes of transgression and forgiveness. Najla Said and Karen Malpede join us in studio to discuss the play, the role of theater in communicating between people, and why they felt compelled to produce this project.
Email this pageGRITtv: Najla Said: Characterizing Arab Women
Actress and writer Najla Said discusses the Arab characters she plays in the new play Prophecy, and why she was careful to ensure that they were two separate individuals with motivation. GRITtv with Laura Flanders brings participatory democracy onto your computer screen and into your living room, bridging the gap between audience and advocates.
GRITtv: Karen Malpede: Iraq Less Destructive than Vietnam?
Noam Chomsky said that the Iraq war was less destructive than the Vietnam war because of popular disgust for that conflict, according to Karen Malpede, writer-director of "Prophecy", a new play for which Chomsky gave a talk-back. GRITtv with Laura Flanders brings participatory democracy onto your computer screen and into your living room, bridging the gap between audience and advocates.
GRITtv: Kathleen Chalfant: Wall Street Owns the Country
This past year, the History Channel produced The People Speak, a performance of many of the speeches and letters from American history that made up Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, and we could see that issues we grapple with now have been long-standing struggles for the people of this country. Not least of those struggles is the one with Wall Street, of course, and here we have former GRITtv guest Kathleen Chalfant performing a speech from over 100 years ago, "Wall Street Owns The Country."
GRITtv: Guantanamo at Home: The Case of Fahad Hashmi
Fahad Hashmi is an American citizen being held in solitary confinement in Lower Manhattan, facing several years in prison for the crime of providing and conspiring to provide material support and making and conspiring to make a contribution of goods or services to Al Qaeda. The conditions under which he has been held, for two and a half years, are frightening: he is allowed only one visit every other week from one of his parents, and has been punished for shadowboxing alone in his cell. Jeanne Theoharis, associate professor of political science at Brooklyn College, CUNY and Fahad's former professor, wrote of the expansion of Guantanamo-like conditions in The Nation: "Guant?namo is a particular way of seeing the Constitution, of constructing the landscape as a murky terrain of lurking enemies where the courts become part of the bulwark against such dangers, where rights have limits and where international standards must be weighed against national security. It is an outgrowth of a "war on terror" with historical precedents that took root under Clinton (in legislation like the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act), spread like kudzu under Bush and infiltrated the fabric of the justice system. It is a pre-emptive strategy where stopping terrorism has come to mean detaining and prosecuting people who may not have committed any actual act of terrorism but whose religious beliefs and political associations ostensibly reveal an intention to do so." Theoharis, along with actor Kathleen Chalfant and actor, playwright and author Wallace Shawn of Theaters Against War, joins us to talk about Fahad's case, free speech and why we need to speak up for people like Fahad.
GRITtv: Al Rowwad: Blame The Wolf
"Blame the Wolf," a provocative play performed by the Al Rowwad Palestinian youth theater group, revisits the story of Little Red Riding Hood. But this time there's a twist. As the trial unfolds, is the wolf really the one to blame? Dr. Abdel Fattah Abu-Srour, founder and director of the Al Rowwad in the Aida Refugee Camp in the West Bank, says that theater is a way of exploring and challenging the world we live in, the stereotypes and prejudices that often shape the way we see others. He's joined by Kathleen Chalfant, an Emmy-award winning actor and supporter of the center. A few months ago, Chalfant read from Caryl Churchill's new play Seven Jewish Children right here at GRITtv.
GRITtv: Caryl Churchill's Seven Jewish Children
Kathleen Chalfant and others came into the GRITtv studios to read from Caryl Churchill?s new play Seven Jewish Children, inspired by the recent Israeli invasion of Gaza.
GRITtv: August 13, 2009
"Blame the Wolf," a provocative play performed by the Al Rowwad Palestinian youth theater group, revisits the story of Little Red Riding Hood. But this time there’s a twist. As the trial unfolds, is the wolf really the one to blame?
