Smoke & Mirrors to Stage Reading of Zoey Martinson's OLITYELWE

OLITYELWE (The Forgotten) comes to Washington D.C. after performing off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters in New York and touring internationally in partnership with the US State Department in South Africa and to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe at Summerhall.

Using music, dance and the sounds of Soweto, South Africa, OLITYELWE asks do you have the right to choose your own death? How does religion and culture own your morality? Heartbreaking and hilarious, the play centers on the emotional resolve of Thandi, a college graduate living with HIV, whose controversial decision to end her life has moving repercussions for her devoted friend Mandisi. As aspirations and disappointments surface inside Thandi's tiny shack the play explores issues of poverty, religion, distribution of wealth, politics and health care in modern South Africa.

Zoey Martinson wrote OLITYELWE after working as a humanitarian aid worker at a refugee camp in West Africa and then traveled to South Africa to interview people living in the informal settlements around Soweto.

IF YOU GO:

OLITYELWE

Written by Zoey Martinson
Directed by Awoye Timpo
Inspired from a 10min play by Ivan Suazo

Monday, June 26th, 2017 at 7:30pm
At Edlavitch DCJCC's Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater (1529 16th Street, NW Washington, DC)

The event is free and open to the public.

The production stars Jonathan David Martin (Bway: War Horse - Lincoln Center, Leonore Annenberg Foundation Fellowship for the Arts), Zoey Martinson (The Public, Shakespeare in the Park, TBS Sitcom: Are We There Yet), and Yusef Miller (Classic Stage Company, Lila Acheson Wallace Playwright Fellow).

The production features choreography by Sduduzo Ka-Mbili and Cuereston Burge, original music by Spirits Indigenous, musical direction by Tuelo Minah.

New York based Smoke & Mirrors Collaborative was founded by Zoey Martinson and Jonathan David Martin over a shared passion for creating art around social justice issues.

Smoke & Mirrors Collaborative (Producer) is a nonprofit Production Company that creates original works for theater and the web that combine socially relevant themes with an ambitious, multi-disciplinary approach to storytelling. Our intent is to a give voice to unfamiliar and underrepresented stories in the most relatable, entertaining, and idiosyncratic way possible while challenging our audience's assumptions about the world around them. We have produced theater Off-Broadway, festivals, internationally, and media for the web. Our work is created through extensive research and partnerships with our community, artists of all mediums and backgrounds, and other nonprofit advocacy institutions. Visit www.smokemirrors.org for more information.

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