Exeter, NH (April 5, 2007)—On Wednesday, April 11, at 7:00 p.m., Phillips Exeter Academy will present a staged dramatic reading of Speak Truth to Power; Voices from the Dark, adapted from “Speak Truth to Power: Human Rights Defenders Who Are Changing Our World,” a collection of interviews with human rights activists by Kerry Kennedy Cuomo. A question-and-answer session will follow. This event will be held inside the Phelps Academy Center Forum, located on the third floor, on Tan Lane in Exeter. It is free and open to the public. 

In the play, 10 cast members—made up of PEA students, faculty and staff—will offer moving and powerful testimonies of 42 contemporary human rights activists from around the world—including Elie Wiesel, Vaclav Havel, Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama—while two collective characters, representing repressive powers and apathetic onlookers, dramatize their opposition. Photographs of the workers and their environments add to the experience. Since its debut in 2000, the play has been staged more than 100 times, in nine countries.

Sarah Ream, chair of the theater and dance department says each testimony in the play is emotional and memorable: “All of the stories are both uplifting and depressing because they come from ordinary people who find themselves in situations where they had to speak out. Again and again, these persons realized that staying silent would be too costly, and they had no choice but to speak out. But nobody signed up to be a hero. Each person comes to the realization that their biggest fear was not dying or being killed, but to go unnoticed; to die without letting the world know about their injustice,” she says.

The performance will be directed by Ream and produced by Betsey Farnham, an instructor in the religion department. Farnham chairs PEA’s Human Rights Committee. Acclaimed actress and playwright Ellen McLaughlin, who also performed in the New York production, will be on hand afterwards to answer questions about the development of the script and the full rehearsal process.

Seating is limited and guests are encouraged to come early. A complete list of upcoming events is available on the Phillips Exeter Academy public events line at (603) 777-4309 and on our website at http://www.exeter.edu/news_and_events/news_events.aspx. For directions to Phillips Exeter Academy, call (603) 777-4330.

Phillips Exeter Academy is a coeducational, independent preparatory school that was founded in 1781 and originated the system of instruction known as Harkness teaching in 1931. In the spirit of its charter to foster both goodness and knowledge, students come from a wide variety of geographic, economic, racial and religious backgrounds. The diverse student body comes from approximately 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and 26 foreign countries.