Location: Merrick Barn

The Chloe Center for the Critical Study of Racism, Immigration, & Colonialism is co-sponsoring a “talkback” panel discussion about Passage with the actors and director Annalisa Dias.

Chloe Center affiliates may request a free ticket for the performance and discussion by e-mailing ricjhu [at] jhu [dot] edu by Nov. 8.

Christopher Chen’s Passage asks about the possibility of friendship in a world distorted by power and dominance. When one country has colonized another, when one group has taken for granted its social and economic superiority, can anyone, the colonizer or the colonized, find a path toward better human relations? And how does it feel when you cannot tell the colonizer from the colonized? Reimagining E.M. Forster’s Passage to India as a confrontation between people from “Country X” and from “Country Y,” Chen invites us into a remarkable political space that quiets our tendencies to take sides. First performed in the polarized America of 2019, this is an even more necessary play in the fall of 2024.

For questions about this play or other performances, email [email protected]. The full list of performances can be found at JHU Theatre Arts & Studies.

About the director:

Annalisa Dias is a Goan-American transdisciplinary artist, community organizer, and award-winning theatre maker working at the intersection of racial justice and care for the earth. She is a Co-Founder of Groundwater Arts and a Co-Director of HERE Arts Center.

Prior to joining HERE, Annalisa was Director of Artistic Partnerships & Innovation at Baltimore Center Stage for 5 years. Before that, she was a Producing Playwright and Acting Creative Producer with The Welders, a DC playwright’s collective; and a Co-Founder of the DC Coalition for Theatre & Social Justice. Artistic credits include: WRITING: 4380 Nights, the earth that is sufficient, One Word More, The Last Allegiance, A Legacy of Chains, Crooked Figure, Consider the Dust, Matanuska, Coal, and Servant of the Wind. DEVISING: Wit’s End Puppets: Malevolent Creatures; banished? productions: Tyger; Theater Alliance: I Love DC. DIRECTING: Source Festival: Dust to dust to dust and Dressing Bobby Strong; The Salima Project (film). Annalisa’s work has been produced or developed by Mosaic Theater, Rep Stage, The Welders, Theater Alliance, Signature Theatre (DC), Arena Stage, the Phillips Collection, The Gulfshore Playhouse, the Mead Theatre Lab, The Hub Theatre, Spooky Action Theater, Tron Theatre (Glasgow), and OverHere Theatre (London). Annalisa frequently teaches theatre of the oppressed and decolonization workshops nationally and internationally and speaks about race, identity, and performance. She is a TCG Rising Leader of Color.