Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ariel Dorfman was inspired to write a theatrical presentation based on interviews with over fifty human rights activists from around the world. The resulting play, Speak Truth To Power: Voices from Beyond the Dark, was presented at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington D.C. in September 2000, and broadcast as part of PBS's The Kennedy Center Presents. The play has been produced across the United States and performed by major actors in Athens, Barcelona, Cape Town, Florence, Geneva, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Madrid, Mantua, Milan, Phnom Penh, Rome, Seoul, and Sydney. Notable was a performance in Doha, Qatar, transmitted live on Al Jazeera and read by ten of the most celebrated actors and singers of the Arabic world. Future productions are planned for Bulgaria, France, Mexico and Zimbabwe. It has also been performed by schoolchildren, college students, local heroes and even prisoners (in a major theatre in Bucharest, after rehearsals in the penitentiary). Below is just a partial list of the actors and actresses who have performed Speak Truth To Power:
Alec Baldwin, Harry Belafonte, Alexis Bledel, Loraine Bracco, Jamie Cepero, Glenn Close, Trevor Donovan, Hector Elizondo, Giancarlo Esposito, America Ferrera, Marcia Gay Harden, Rupert Graves, Charles Grodin, Woody Harrelson, Bob Herbert, Saeed Jaffrey, Kevin Kline, Dawnn Lewis, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, John Malkovich, Julianna Margulies, Matthew Modine, Alfred Molina, Julianne Moore, Rita Moreno, Viggo Mortensen, Bill Nighy, Mandy Patinkin, Sean Penn, Lynn Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave, Gloria Reuben, Rufus Sewell, Martin Sheen, Christian Slater, Paul Sorvino, Juliet Stevenson, Sharon Stone, Meryl Streep, Janet Suzman, Stanley Tucci, Malcolm Jamal Warner, Sam Waterston, Sigourney Weaver, Bradley Whitford, Debra Winger, Alfre Woodard and Robin Wright Penn.
Below is a brief sampling of some of these great performers bringing playwright Ariel Dorfman's play Speak Truth To Power: Voices From Beyond the Dark to life.
