Watson Events

In the infancy of the war, Iraq is already filled with ghosts. The lives of four U.S Marines, a French reporter and four Iraqis are forever changed after an errant mortar round kills a child during the rush to Baghdad. Phantoms haunt the people of a burning Baghdad, trying to prevent the bloodletting to come, and as Sadaam’s statue falls in Firdos Square, the Marines and Iraqis are forced together in a moment which will test their humanity, empathy and potential for forgiveness.

The play was written by Maurice Decaul, and will be directed by Ashley Teague.

There will be a talk back after the show featuring Catherine Lutz, Thomas J. Watson, Jr. Family Professor of International Studies, Professor of Anthropology, and Co-Director of the Costs of War Project, Brown University, Yvonne Masakowski, Professor, College of Operational & Strategic Leadership, Naval War College, and Qussay Al-Attabi, Department of Comparative Literature, Brown University.

Ashley Teague (Director) Teague strives to create socially relevant theater that uplifts the issues of our time and celebrates the human spirit. Her work connects with its community in a deeply personal way and endeavors to push the boundaries of what that connection can do. Recently a staff member at Cornerstone Theater Company, she conceived of and produced Cornerstone's Talk It Out series, which travels throughout California creating community-engaged theater that aims to change public policy around issues of school pushout. Most recent directing credits include Bean Hollywood Fringe Festival (Best of), Jesus Hopped the A Train Lyric Theatre, Willful California State Capitol, Ajax with Theater of War Productions (featuring Iraq and Afghanistan veterans), Healthy Richmond East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, The Shadow Box Collective Studio: LA, The Book of Liz Bedlam Theater, Halfway Home The Blank Theater and Parallel Lives Cabaret Theater.

Maurice Emerson Decaul, a former Marine, is a poet, essayist, and playwright, whose writing has been featured in the New York Times, The Daily Beast, Sierra Magazine, Epiphany, Callaloo, Narrative, The Common and others. His poems have been translated into French and Arabic and his theatre pieces have been produced at New York City’s Harlem Stage, Poetic License Festival in New York City, Washington DC’s Atlas Intersections Festival in 2013 and 2014, l’Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe in Paris, The Paris Banlieues Bleues Festival, The Middelhein Jazz Festival in Antwerp, The Avignon Theatre Festival in France and Détours de Babel, The Grenoble Festival, Grenoble France, Arizona State University Gammage Memorial Auditorium, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, The David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center and the Park Avenue Armory in NYC. Forthcoming productions include The Mary L Welch Theatre at Lycoming College in Pennsylvania The Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Brown University. His album, Holding it Down, a collaboration with Vijay Iyer and Mike Ladd was The LA Times Jazz Album of the year in 2013. Maurice, a Callaloo and Cave Canem Fellow, is a graduate of Columbia University [BA], New York University [MFA] and he began his MFA in playwriting at Brown in fall of 2015.

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Co-sponsored by the Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies, the Dean of the College, the Office of Veteran's Affairs, and the Security program and the Costs of War project at the Watson Institute.