Dog and Wolf premiered at 59 E 59 Theaters in New York City,
in a sold-out run in 2010. “Dog and Wolf” Community
Outreach Project, an innovative effort by the playwright, also
began in 2010, to bring theater experiences to areas where
theatergoing isn't necessarily part of the everyday culture,
and to focus on the neighborhoods’ feelings and concerns
surrounding issues raised in the play. Readings of Dog
and Wolf took place at Still Waters in a Storm, Brooklyn; St. Rita’s
Refugee Center, Bronx; Culturehub, NYC, with video conferencing
technology linking audiences with Center for Justice and Reconciliation,
Sarajevo, Bosnia; Independence Care System, Brooklyn; YM &YWHA
of Washington Heights (with People’s Theatre Project);
Hour Children, Queens; Isabella Geriatric Center, Inwood (with
People’s Theatre Project), and The Anne Frank Center
USA, NYC. Childcare and refreshments were provided at some
venues. Directed by Jean Randich and performed by a company
of actors including: Snezana Bogdanovic, Aysan Celik, Lynn
Cohen, John Daggett, Daniela Dakic, Elizabeth Hess and Antoinette
LaVecchia. Production manager: Sarah E. Peterson and stage
manager: Jes Levine. Produced by Watson Arts.
In 2011 “Dog and Wolf” Community Outreach
Project traveled to Pillsbury House Theatre in Minneapolis. The play
was read by actors Sarah Agnew, Peter Thomson, and Phyllis J.
Wright, as clients waited at the Pillsbury House Integrated Free
Health Clinic. Other participants were Minneapolis educator,
Sara Nelson from Lake Country School, an independent Montessori
school, and her 7th, 8th and 9th grade Humanities and English
students. Supported by The Playwrights’ Center’s
Core Alumni Fund.
Link to a
short documentary about Dog And Wolf meets the community
DOG AND WOLF
A New Play by Catherine Filloux
"My first response to the issues raised by Catherine Filloux’s
moving play, Dog and Wolf, was to think about the arduous process
of seeking political asylum--what is expected and possibly demanded
of the refugee in a court of law. But as I thought more specifically
about Jasmina, the Bosnian refugee in the play, I realized that
she had a made a series of life choices that also made it impossible
for her to provide simple or clear-cut answers to the questions
posed to her about her identity, religion, marital relationship,
and allegiances. Furthermore, the voices of those she had left
behind haunt her and in many ways thwarted her quest for asylum.
Ironically, the only relief she can find is to return to the
site of the crimes against her mother and sister and confront
their torturer. As I allowed myself to contemplate why Jasmina
undermined her own case, I realized that she did not occupy that
courtroom alone. The voices within made a separate peace impossible.
Performing the play in the Anne Frank House brought other voices
into the room as well, and amplified both the terror in Jasmina’s
thoughts of her mother and sister fleeing their aggressors and
at the same time, the need to confront those who perpetrate these
war crimes and hold them accountable. I kept thinking of Otto
Frank’s efforts to make Anne’s voice heard, and I
believe that the same impulse—to give voice to her sister
and mother--propelled Jasmina’s return."
Sharon Friedman,
Author, Editor, Associate Professor, NYU Gallatin
Literary and dramatic criticism
“The
whisker of difference between domesticity and danger”
Manhattan Times, Written by Laura Gabby
Thursday, November 11, 2010
