Arts Professional Story: Stuart Carden, Silk Road Theater Project

The Silk Road Theater's production, OUR ENEMIES, written by Egyptian-American playwright, Yussef El Guindi, is important because Arab-American literature is important. And because Arab-America needs to find its place on America's stages. In an age characterized by conflict between the United States and the Arab World, Arab-America needs to be woven into our national tapestry (and consciousness). We at Silk Road Theatre Project believe strongly, believe passionately in fact, that this weaving, this becoming American, is best served through cultural production.

Like so many twenty-first century "hyphenated" Americans, Yussef embodies that transnational spirit of hailing from both here and there, belonging to both us and them. When we consider that the population of the United States is expected to increase by over one third in the next forty years, an increase driven largely by immigration, then bridge voices like Yussef's become our cultural interpreters. And plays like OUR ENEMIES, that reveal the complexities, joys, and contradictions of Arab-Americans become invaluable points of reference in our cultural evolution.

How does your theater's participation in ThinkTank hope to motivate social change?

(ThinkTank is a month-long program that unites several local theater companies around a theme, this year's being immigration, and is organized by Remy Bumppo Theatre Company.)

The debate about immigration and the integration of diasporic communities into the fabric of this society is one that is absolutely driven by our massive and pervasive media machine. Pundits, talk-show hosts, publishers and publicists drive the discussions and have more political impact than our politicians. OUR ENEMIES lays bare the challenges, unspoken prejudices, and internal conflicts that arise from a few voices representing many. It also poses, compellingly, the question: who is representing whom and what does it say about the rest of us?

Whether or not our participation in ThinkTank motivates social change, I'm not sure. But our hope is that the play will encourage audiences to think more deeply about how minority populations are represented in the media while revealing a more dimensional (and thus humanizing) portrait of Arab-America.

What is the most important message you try to instill in your audiences?

We are all inextricably and beautifully interdependent.

How important is your mission statement to the direction your company takes over time?

Silk Road Theatre Project is the only theatre company in the United States with a commitment to showcasing playwrights of Asian, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean backgrounds, writing plays that feature protagonists of Asian, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean backgrounds. That playwright/protagonist imperative is the glue that binds our mission to our vision and thus our reason for being. In using the historic Silk Road, a territory that stretched from China to Italy, as both a geographic guide and metaphor for cross-cultural exchange, we have emerged as the nation's first-ever theatre company dedicated to representing such diverse groupings of peoples and cultures. At the moment we are working hard to establish this new and unique model of "multi-ethnic" theatre in Chicago's critical, grant giving and theatrical communities. This will take some time. In the future, I imagine our mission will continue to act as a compass, guiding our play selection, partnerships and growth as well as our daily interpersonal interactions. I can imagine a time where we might want to expand the boundaries of the Silk Road to engage even more of the world's stories and voices, but for the moment we'll stick to the twenty-nine countries and two-thirds of the world's population that comprise the Silk Road.

Stuart Carden is a free-lance director, instructor, Viewpoints specialist and the Associate Artistic Director of Silk Road Theatre Project. For SRTP he directed the Midwest Premiere of David Henry Hwang's GOLDEN CHILD and After Dark Award Winning productions of resident playwright, Yussef El Guindi's TEN ACROBATS IN AN AMAZING LEAP OF FAITH and BACK OF THE THROAT. Elsewhere in Chicago he has worked with Victory Gardens, Steppenwolf, The Chicago Cultural Center, Remy Bumppo and Strawdog Theatre Company. Outside of Chicago his credits include Actors Theatre of Louisville, The City Theatre, SITI Company, Open Stage Theatre, Shurin Theatre (NYC) and Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre. Stuart studied Viewpoints with Anne Bogart and the SITI Company, Grotowski with the Mossoviet Theatre in Moscow and received his MFA in directing from Carnegie Mellon University. He has taught or served as guest director at Carnegie Mellon University, Loyola University, the College of DuPage, Northeastern Illinois University, Beloit College and University of Wisconsin. An Artistic Associate with Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre, Stuart has made the questionable decision to summer in Pittsburgh and winter in Chicago.