From the Middletown Rotary Club.--------------
The Rotary Club of Middletown will be sponsoring an event designed to broaden understanding of
issues faced by refugees once they've arrived in the United States. The inspiring and enlightening play, called “Stories of a New America”, is about refugee resettlement and is based on over 100 interviews with refugees who have resettled in Connecticut after civil unrest in their homelands.
The Rotary Club of Middletown partnered with Middlesex Community College and IRIS (Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services) to retain the Collective Consciousness Theater to perform the play at Middlesex Community College’s Chapman Hall on Thursday, October 26 at 11:00 AM.
The play’s unique format, capturing refugees’ hopes and fears – both past and present – is brought to life by five multilingual artists who portray more than two dozen roles. The diverse stories from Iraq, Afghanistan, Cuba and Congo have attracted local and national media, which have praised the performance as powerful, original and relevant to the world today.
A “Talk Back” will be conducted at the play’s conclusion, during which the audience will be able to interact with the actors, a local refugee, and IRIS Director, Chris George. IRIS is a non-sectarian, independent, nonprofit refugee resettlement agency that has welcomed more than 5,000 refugees to Connecticut since 1982.
Although the Rotary Club of Middletown has focused on the greater Middletown community by sponsoring family and community literacy projects, the Thanksgiving food drive, scholarships and vocational training initiatives, youth leadership, student exchange, hunger and homelessness programs, it is also involved in a number of international projects. Says Co-President Cheryl Duey, “We truly have a broad reach. Issues facing asylum seekers and refugees in Connecticut fit the Rotary International area of focus called Peace and Conflict Resolution.”
Anyone interested in the performance, the Rotary Club of Middletown, or helping refugees in Connecticut is free to contact: Cheryl Duey , Co-President, Rotary Club of Middletown (dueyca@snet.net) or Ann O’Brien with IRIS (aobrien@irisct.org)
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