Interact debuts ‘Philly cycle’ about groups underrepresented in the arts, with play on local Muslims

One of the fantastic things about living in Philadelphia is that without being overwhelming our city remains big enough to hold countless worlds there are invariably new people new places new ideas to explore It s the city you know full of entire categories of people you might not For Seth Rozin artistic director of InterAct Theatre Company one of those categories was Black Muslims not Muslims from the Middle East or from Africa or Asia not immigrants or children of immigrants but Muslims born and bred in this city They re home-grown he reported And he noticed their stories rarely show up on stage For InterAct that s changing June as it launches On My Deen about Philly s Muslim locality A world premiere On My Deen is the first of three plays in InterAct s three-year Philly Cycle marketed as The City You Know the People You Don t We realized that there were lots of kinds of people and stories that were rarely communicated if at all and we thought it would be major to find options to tell their stories Rozin noted Seth Rozin right artistic director of InterAct Theatre Company and actor Carlo Campbell at media event for InterAct s next opening On My Deen Courtesy of Christopher Colucci The William Penn Foundation agreed and underwrote the Philly Cycle with a grant so InterAct could connect with three underrepresented groups search for three playwrights to work with people in those communities on plot themes and ideas and conclusively produce the plays one year at a time on stage Next year s Philly Cycle play will focus on Philly s Cambodian Vietnamese and Laotian communities The series will conclude in with a play about nurses Directed by Amina Robinson On My Deen runs through June and is co-produced by InterAct and Theatre in the X a theater group drawing its name from West Philadelphia s Malcolm X Park where it performs Malcolm X a Black revolutionary was an outspoken advocate for Islam within the Black population and a leader in establishing Islam Temple in Philadelphia Philly s Muslims are not invisible Rozin announced You walk almost anywhere in the city you will see people women in head scarves Nobody seemed to know much about this society Rozin commented I wasn t surprised When bulk people think of immigrant Muslims they think of people from the Middle East they think of Arabs If you are on the right you may think of them as a threat or as terroristic If you are on the left you may think of them as being anti-LGBTQ and misogynistic They are a big neighborhood that works hard and lives under the radar but not as a threat he stated They just go about their business living and going about their faith and participating in city life as regular people Estimates vary widely about the number of Muslims in Philadelphia and the region A few say as plenty of as Based on a nationwide survey the Pew Research Center estimates that Muslims comprise about of the Philly Metro area which equates to around people The Philadelphia area Rozin came to learn has been critical in the national enhancement of Islam in the U S and in Philadelphia Starting in and particularly in the s there was a large percentage of African-Americans who were introduced to Islam through the Nation of Islam not Sunni Islam which is practiced throughout the majority of the world noted playwright Antu Yacob The Nation catered to empowering Black people It catered to making them honor their bodies and their minds and looking at themselves as beautiful human beings at a time when no one was saying that about them Over time she revealed there have been shifts within the African-American Muslim area toward Sunni and other Islamic sects The cast of On My Deen Top row from left Satchel Williams Travoye Joyner Najah Imani Muhammad Bottom row from left Evander Duck Jr Kimmika L H Williams-Witherspoon Newton Buchanan Courtesy of Christopher Colucci Specific of that history shows up in the life of the main character Faye Ann Michael the other lead character wishes his friendship with Faye Ann would turn into something more He s her best friend but the questions they ask each other about life love and even God aren t bringing them closer together Will they or won t they be a couple That s a familiar plot question Faye Ann later Fatima comes in to Islam through the Nation of Islam as a young person and she follows each of its changes She lands on Sunni Yacob declared In addition to all of that it s a love story You are tracking her faith journey But it s not like you are watching a history lesson Her best friend is also the love of her life He s opposed to the changes she s making Yacob stated They are navigating what liberation could be as a Black person She finds it through Islam in all its forms and he doesn t Their relationship evolves over decades from to The title of the six-character play On My Deen refers to the religious path laid out by Islam Yacob herself has an evolving religious identity She was born in Ethiopia and went to an Islamic school as a child When her family moved to the U S it joined the Jehovah s Observers Later her mother reverted to Islam giving her children the freedom to choose any faith as long as they developed a relationship with God Yacob who teaches at Rutgers University describes herself as Muslim and a work in progress District outreach To develop the play Rozin and Yacob built relationships with the local branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations CAIR as well as local imams They visited a masjid in Chester and met the imam and his wife The story of their relationship became part of the basis for the play Rozin commented one imam stated him that Muslims encouragement the arts but often don t attend plays because they worry that they ll include offensive language or intimacy Yacob kept that in mind as she wrote the play To accommodate prayer schedules Rozin adjusted the times for the Saturday shows Typically there s a matinee at p m and an evening performance at but for the run of the play Saturday shows will be at a m and p m Our hope is that a lot of people in the public will come to those performances he mentioned We longed to show that we are serious about this and we want them to come and engage with us As is usually the occurrence with InterAct talkbacks and audience discussions follow a multitude of shows The Saturday discussions are more focused on themes in the play Guests on Wednesdays Thursdays and Sundays include members and leaders of the Muslim locality There s a Black affinity night on June and a Muslim Affinity Day on June FYI On My Deen InterAct Theatre Co June - Proscenium Theatre at The Drake S Hicks St Phila - - The post Interact debuts Philly cycle about groups underrepresented in the arts with play on local Muslims appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY