Ep. 76: Merendiando with Anna Chatterton and Shahrzad Arshadi
September 14, 2022
I really want truths on stage, these are the truths. These women as you see the piece you are gonna hear the voices of these women. And the Actors at the top acknowledge they are the ones saying the stories of these particular women; they are not pretending that they are these women. The actor becomes a vehicle that is being used for these voices to be heard. – Beatriz Pizano
(It was) a very emotional journey to cut down their stories and just scale them down to the genesis of their particular story that we wanted to highlight… it was a challenging, and joyful, and emotional playwriting experience extremely different from fiction.– Anna Chatterton
We have to be united as humans, humanity, to be able to bring the change. Because we can’t do it separately. If this hand with 5 fingers can do something, otherwise is not going to happen we can’t do anything and I think this is the most important conversation for me, that we realize first of all we are not alone, and second that our unity can bring changes otherwise we can’t do anything. – Shahrzad Arshadi
In this episode, we chat with the writers and creators of Children of Fire, Anna Chatterton and Shahrzad Arshadi as they prepare for their upcoming presentation at the Rutas Festival.
Children of Fire is an intimate portrayal of the Kurdish female freedom fighters that hosted Shahrzad Arshadi and Anna Chatterton in the mountains of Kurdistan in 2018. Co-created with a mix of verbatim theater and first-person confessional, this play follows the journey and layered relationship across cultures between Shahrzad and Anna, and asks what is at the heart of living bravely as a woman and an activist.
Our co-host of this episode is Radio Aluna Theatre Co-Producer Lucia Linares. And to help us start this conversation, Beatriz Pizano the director of this show shared with us what conversations she hopes this piece is bringing to the stage.
For more information about the RUTAS FESTIVAL.
All Radio Aluna Theatre episodes are in Spanglish, English, or Spanish. New episodes are released on Wednesdays. Follow and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, and wherever else you get your podcasts.
Radio Aluna Teatro is produced by Aluna Theatre with support from the Toronto Arts Council, The Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Department of Canadian Heritage, and TD Bank.
Aluna Theatre is Beatriz Pizano & Trevor Schwellnus; Radio Aluna Theatre is produced by Monica Garrido and Lucia Linares.
For more about Aluna Theatre, visit us at alunatheatre.ca, follow @alunatheatre on twitter or instagram, or ‘like’ us on facebook.