Relative Theatrics Free Reading of DISGRACED by Ayad Akhtar supported in part by Wyoming Humanities

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With partial funding by Wyoming Humanities, Wyoming Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts, Relative Theatrics presents a free reading of DISGRACED, the 2013 Pulitzer Prize winning play by Ayad Akhtar with a discussion led by Peter Parolin. Thursday February 9 at 7:00pm at the Relative Theatrics Studio in the Laramie Plains Civic Center, 710 E. Garfield St., Room 278 (second floor, northwest part of Civic Center). Refreshments provided.
DISGRACED, a provocative tale of big city aspiration and cultural assimilation, dares to face the truth hiding just below the deception. It is the tale of the stories we tell our friends, the secrets we tell our lovers and the lies we tell ourselves to find our place in the American Dream.
Amir Kapoor is a successful Pakistani-American lawyer who is happy, in love, and rapidly moving up the corporate ladder while distancing himself from his cultural roots. But beneath the veneer, success has come at a price. Emily, his wife, is white; she’s an artist, and her work is influenced by Islamic imagery. When the couple hosts a dinner party, what starts out as a friendly conversation escalates into something far more damaging.
“…a continuously engaging, vitally engaged play about thorny questions of identity and religion in the contemporary world, with an accent on the incendiary topic of how radical Islam and the terrorism it inspires have affected the public discourse. In dialogue that bristles with wit and intelligence, Mr. Akhtar…puts contemporary attitudes toward religion under a microscope, revealing how tenuous self-image can be for people born into one way of being who have embraced another… Mr. Akhtar’s cut-crystal dialogue is so stimulating. Everyone has been told that politics and religion are two subjects that should be off limits at social gatherings. But watching Mr. Akhtar’s characters rip into these forbidden topics, there’s no arguing that they make for ear-tickling good theater.” – NY Times
“…blistering social drama about the racial prejudices that secretly persist in progressive cultural circles…Akhtar knows how to build a scene and maintain suspense, so there’s a sense of inevitability about the damage that’s done over the course of the evening. But because of the artful construction, it still comes as a shock when the two couples go into attack mode.” – Variety
“What makes DISGRACED impressive is that Akhtar, having invented four educated, intelligent adult characters, lets the burgeoning mess articulate itself through their interaction…you rarely feel the playwright nudging them in the right direction.” – The Village Voice
The reading of DISGRACED is part of the free Read, Rant, Relate play-reading program funded in part by Wyoming Humanities, the Wyoming Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Experience a new piece of contemporary dramatic literature every month with Relative Theatrics. Participants will engage directly with modern plays by listening to actor-led readings of the texts, then joining discussions breaking down the thematic elements of the works and their relevance to today's society.