Community Corner
'Reckoning With Torture' in Dramatic Readings
Interfaith and human rights activists present dramatic program at St. Michael and All Angels Church in Studio City to call attention to acts of torture and abuse.
June is torture awareness month. Not something you want to celebrate with backyard barbecues and free ice cream coupons. June 26 is a day set aside annually by religious and human rights groups to coordinate activities across the country in opposition to torture.
On Sunday, St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Studio City hosted a program of readings from actual government transcripts and documents to call attention to acts of torture and abuse carried out by the U.S. under the Bush administration. The readings of testimonies by torturers and the tortured were performed by well-known local actors, including David Selby, of Dark Shadows fame, and Susan Clark, who co-starred on Webster.
Others in the cast were Andre Sogliuzzo, Jane Edith Wilson, Ed Cunningham, Arlene Binder and Elizabeth Foldes Meiman who, along with her husband Henry Meiman, staged the presentation for St. Michael’s.
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Excerpts of the testimonies, which you can witness in the video, are gripping and disturbing. I also interviewed the organizers and sponsors of the program, interfaith activists from our community.
The idea for the day’s event was conceived by playwright and author Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey, a St. Michael’s member, and Virginia Classick, after hearing about the program from the ACLU's Steve Rohde. All three are active members of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) and Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace (ICUJP).
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The presentation Reckoning With Torture: Memos and Testimonies From "The War on Terror," is a project of the ACLU and the PEN American Center, a New York-based group that advances literature and defends freedom of expression. It was presented as a film screened at the Sundance Film Festival and was also performed live at New York's Lincoln Center. The organizations provide the script to local community activists to bring attention to the torture and abuse of detainees since the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The groups seek to build support for a full investigation of the torture program, and to ensure that such atrocities are not repeated.
At St. Michael’s, the readings were part of a program that also included screening of a DVD made by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (you can also see that video on this page) and a panel presentation by Rohde, Julie Gutman of Program for Torture Victims, and Aryeh Cohen of American Jewish University.
Sponsors of the Studio City event were Los Angeles Region Religious Campaign Against Torture, a Regional Partner of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, ICUJP, ACLU-Southern California, Progressive Christians Uniting (PCU), Rabbis for Human Rights-North America, Program for Torture Victims, American Friends Service Committee-Pacific Southwest Region and St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church.
