Theater Artists Adapt DAMASCUS. IT'S IN SYRIA For An Instagram Audience

Originally staged as a solo show and performed at Dixon Place in 2018, DAMASCUS. IT'S IN SYRIA. has been re-conceived as a digital play for Instagram which will launch on Saturday, September 26 at www.instagram.com/d.iis._a_play_for_ig/. For Instagram users, simply search for @d.iis._a_play_for_ig. The play will be released in segments over the course of a month. Followers will be able to view the play as it unfolds, as well as after the entire play is posted.

Blurring fantasy and reality, DAMASCUS. IT'S IN SYRIA. is the video diary of a woman traveling back in time and imagining what her life would have been if she had moved to Damascus for a guy who didn't love her in the year before the Syrian Civil War.

DAMASCUS. IT'S IN SYRIA. is written by Kate Mulley, directed by Sharone Halevy and performed and filmed by Marlowe Holden, featuring sound design by Alek Deva and lighting design by Marika Kent. The play was rehearsed, filmed and designed entirely remotely from three different states.

The play will be free to view for audiences, but the artists request that, in lieu of buying tickets, audience members make donations, if possible, to one of the featured charities spotlighted on the Instagram account. DAMASCUS. IT'S IN SYRIA. was written and developed in part at a FORGE Fuel Writers Retreat, a year-round program for artists of all kinds provided by FORGE, LLC. For more information, visit forgenyc.org.

"At the beginning of 2020, we were planning to stage the play as intimate immersive performances in New York City apartments," Kate Mulley said. "In mid-March, when we realized that indoor performances would be impossible, we started to think about how to adapt the text for digital theatre. For such a personal, confessional text, the intimacy of Instagram felt like the right medium to retain the theatrical quality of liveness."

The artists hope that this play, which explores how the political can become personal, can also amplify and support charitable organizations. "Adapting the show to Instagram feels right since social media is how we're all seeking connection right now - it's how we're processing this period in our history," Marlowe Holden said. "Donating all proceeds to charity is a natural extension of the piece and the current moment. It's a relief to find a way to use our art to directly support causes we love."

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