The Road to New York

This powerful and moving presentation is drawn from interviews, letters and essays written by Iraqi civilians and American soldiers serving in Iraq. It was devised by Wilton High School drama students in Wilton, Connecticut, as a class project. When it was deemed too controversial by the school's principal, all performances were canceled. The story subsequently appeared in The New York Times, and the students received thousands of supportive messages--including some from soldiers currently serving in Iraq. Music Theater International recognized the students with its Courage in Theater Award, the first such honor in the organization's history. Many in the theatrical community also offered to help, including the Fairfield Theatre Company in Connecticut, Art Meets Commerce and the Vineyard Theatre, The Public Theater and the Culture Project, all in New York. These organizations will present the first and only public performances of this work.


photo by Jaisen Crockett.
photo by Jaisen Crockett
photo by Jaisen Crockett
photo by Jaisen Crockett
photo by Jaisen Crockett
photo by Jaisen Crockett
photo by Jaisen Crockett
photo by Jaisen Crockett
photo by Jaisen Crockett
photo by Jaisen Crockett
photo by Jaisen Crockett
photo by Jaisen Crockett
photo by Jaisen Crockett
photo by Debra Somerville
photo by Jaisen Crockett

The Press

THE NEW YORK TIMES
Play About Iraq War Divides a Connecticut School
By ALISON LEIGH COWAN
March 24, 2007
Student productions at Wilton High School range from splashy musicals like last year's ''West Side Story,'' performed in the state-of-the-art, $10 million auditorium, to weightier works like Arthur Miller's ''Crucible,'' on stage last fall in the school's smaller theater. For the spring semester, students in the advanced theater class... Read Full Article

PLAYBILL.COM
Public Theater and Culture Project to Perform Connecticut Students' Banned Iraq War Play
By ZACHARY PINCUS-ROTH
19 Apr 2007
The Public Theater and the Culture Project will each host separate performances of a controversial Iraq war play written by Connecticut high school students that was scheduled to be presented at the school, before the principal canceled it. Read Full Article

THE NEW YORK TIMES
Public Theater and Culture Project to Perform Connecticut Students' Banned Iraq War Play
By ALISON LEIGH COWAN
April 12, 2007
Students at a Connecticut high school whose principal canceled a play they were preparing on the Iraq war are now planning to perform the work in June in New York, at the Public Theater, a venerable Off Broadway institution, and at the Culture Project. Read Full Article

THE NEW YORK TIMES
For Student Play About Iraq War, Banned in School, Curtains Finally Go Up in Connecticut
By ALISON LEIGH COWAN
June 7, 2007
Three months after their principal canceled a school production they had prepared on the war in Iraq, a group of Wilton High School students staged a dramatic reading of the play Wednesday night to a packed house at a nearby theater. Read Full Article

NEW YORK POST
Theater of War
By LARRY GETLEN
June 10, 2007
CONTROVERSIAL theatrical work about the war in Iraq, initially intended to be a high school production, has become a national cause celebré, placed one courageous teacher's career in jeopardy and taught her students the true meaning of fighting for freedom. Read Full Article

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
Canceled School Play About Iraq Brings Out Real Drama
By HARRY BRUINIUS
June 12, 2007
Stone-faced and grim, six boys from Wilton High School are marching in formation, stomping out the ominous rhythm of foot soldiers, and saluting from their chests. Together, they stop to shout: "For all the free people that still protest, you're welcome! You're welcome!" Read Full Article

TRUTHDIG.COM
War and Censorship at Wilton High
By AMY GOODMAN
June 12, 2007
Last Sunday night, as millions of Americans tuned in to the two Tonys—the final episode of “The Sopranos,” to see whether Tony Soprano lived or died, and the Tony Awards, celebrating the best in American theater—actor Stanley Tucci (who played “Nigel” in “The Devil Wears Prada") was in an off-Broadway theater, the Culture Project, watching high school students perform a play about war. Read Full Article

THE NEW YORK TIMES
Unwelcome at Home, Student Play is a Hit in New York
By Melena Ryzik
June 14, 2007
Backstage at the Vineyard Theater, Taylor Telyan, 18, was bent over an ironing board, ironing her hair. A few feet away, her friend and castmate Tara Ross, also 18, was applying makeup; outside their door, a couple of boys were sacked out on a couch, studying notes in binders. They had 35 minutes until their Off Broadway debut. Read Full Article

DEMOCRACY NOW
War and Censorship at Wilton High: Connecticut High School Students Perform Play on NY Stage After Ban by Principal
By Amy Goodman
June 20th, 2007
Two weeks ago, audience members packed into an off-Broadway theater here in New York to watch the curtain go up on an unusual production - a high school play about war. The play, called “Voices in Conflict,” was performed by students from Wilton High School in Connecticut. The reason they were performing it on a New York stage instead of the school auditorium? Their high school principal had banned it. Read and Listen to Full Interview

LOS ANGELES TIMES
With Iraq Play, Students Act on Beliefs
By Erika Hayasaki
June 22, 2007
Wilton, Conn. — SHE could not look at her principal. The words coming out of his mouth infuriated her. There would be no play about the war in Iraq, he told the drama class at Wilton High School: The topic was too controversial, too complicated. Read Full Article

PLAYBILL.COM
Banned School Play Voices in Conflict to Make New York Return
by Adam Hetrick
26 June 2007
Voices In Conflict, the controversial play by students of Wilton High School which was banned by school officials, will be revived this summer in New York for three performances only, July 11-13, at The Vineyard. Read Full Article

THE NEW YORK SUN
June 27, 2007
Banned Play Makes City Appearance
A play about the Iraq war that was banned from performance by officials at a Wilton, Conn., high school will enjoy a three-performance run at the Vineyard Theater beginning July 11, theater officials announced yesterday. "Voices in Conflict," created by theater students at Wilton High School and based on books and other material produced by American soldiers who have served in Iraq, was preempted from performance at the school by its principal. The production subsequently received single-evening runs at the Vineyard, the Public Theater, and the Culture Project. Read Full Article

PLAYBILL.COM
BRIEF ENCOUNTER with Douglas Aibel
From July 11 to July 13, you're bringing back Voices in Conflict, the anti-Iraq-war play written by Connecticut high school students, who were banned by their school from performing. What made you want to bring this play to your theatre? Read Full Interview



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Participation

The Ground Truth, a documentary feature film. Material used with the kind permission of Focus Films. (www.thegroundtruth.org)
In Conflict by Yvonne Latty. Material used with the kind permission of the author. www.amazon.com
Stuff Happens by David Hare. Material used with the kind permission of the playwright.
Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq by Riverbend. Material used with the kind permission of Feminist Press. www.feministpress.org
Excerpt from Chasing Ghosts by Lt. Paul Rieckhoff. Material used with the kind permission of the author. www.amazon.com
Excerpt from the essay “I Miss Iraq. I Miss My Gun. I Miss My War” by Brian Mockenhaupt. Material used with the kind permission of the author.
Excerpt from "Two Letters from Two Soldiers: Marc Delgado and Ian Stewart" from Newsweek Special Issue, April 2, 2007
Excerpt from Lt. Melissa Stockwell's interview with CNN Anchor Rob Marciano, June 12, 2005. Read full interview
“Wish You Were Here” by Corporal Joshua Miles and all the boys from 3rd Battalion 2nd Marines, Kuwait. International War Veterans' Poetry Archive
Excerpt from letter home, PFC Daniel Parker, Esquire February, 2004.
"AB Negative (Surgeon’s Poem)" from Here, Bullet by Brian Turner, US Army Infantry Patrol Leader, Iraq War. Used with the kind permission of Alice James Books. http://www.alicejamesbooks.org
Excerpts from letters to Bonnie Dickinson from Col. Chuck “M," Camp Victory, Baghdad.
Excerpts from letter home, Spc. Wilfredo Perez Jr., Norwalk, CT.

Benefits

To the Advanced Theatre Students of Wilton High School:

Music Theater International (MTI) has determined that you, collectively and individually, receive the MUSIC THEATRE INTERNATIONAL COURAGE IN THEATER AWARD. This is the first such award in the 54 year history of Music Theater International.

Schools and Theater Departments with outstanding performances or those demonstrating adventuresome spirit, inventiveness and daring through their stage productions have been recognized in different ways by MTI in the past. However, we are aware that theater is not just about acting, singing , dancing and excelling in performance. It is also about positive risk taking for students, working as a community and utilizing theater skills to present points of view on the stage which comment on the world in which we live. In doing so, they provoke discussion, engage an audience and stimulate their colleagues/fellow students and the audience to reflect on what they saw and heard long after they have left the theater. That, in turn, should result in healthy dialogue of differing points of view.

WILTON HIGH SCHOOL's advanced-theater students' "non-performance" of their original theater piece is unique in our experience of licensing over 500,000 high school performances in the last two decades and deserving of special recognition.

MTI's very first COURAGE IN THEATER AWARD therefore goes to the members of the advanced theater class...not for a performance or a production, but rather in recognition of your actions in having collaborated in the creation of a stage piece on a sensitive but germane subject titled: VOICES IN CONFLICT

Freddie Gershon
Chairman
Music Theater International