October 3, 2013

Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright Donald Margulies is coming to Drexel for a special visit and examination of his acclaimed war drama Time Stands Still, nominated for two Tony Awards for Best Play and Best Performance by leading actress Laura Linney. The Kal and Lucille Rudman Institute for Entertainment Industry Studies and Drexel Pennoni Honors College will host Margulies, along with documentarian Brian Palmer and Al Jazeera correspondent Sheila MacVicar for a presentation on Thursday, Oct. 17 at 7:00 p.m. in Bossone Hall’s Mitchell Auditorium (3140 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA). During this event, Maguiles and fellow panelists will look at the ways in which the depiction of war and its aftermath have played out in media over the centuries. 

In addition to the Bossone Hall presentation, Margulies will be a guest of Theatre Program Director Nick Anselmo for a noon to 12:30 p.m. pizza lunch on Oct. 17 at the URBN Annex Black Box Theater (3401 Filbert St., Philadelphia). Afterward, Anselmo, Screenwriting & Playwriting Prof. Bruce Graham and a group of actors will perform selected readings from Time Stands Still. Those interested in attending the lunch should RSVP to Nick Anselmo at nma28@drexel.edu. 

“When Time Stands Still was first produced, in 2009, the war in Iraq was still surging.  Now, four years later, horrific conflicts in Africa and the Middle East dominate the news, sadly making the play seem as current as when it was created,” says Margulies. “Stories and images from these strife-torn, faraway places are now captured by women and men who – in many cases – have devoted their lives to bringing these events to the world's attention.”   

Palmer, both journalist and filmmaker, directed Full Disclosure, a 2011 film about his time embedded with the U.S. Marine Corps in Iraq. Al Jazeera’s multiple Emmy Award winner MacVicar spent time with ABC News, CBS News and CNN, covering conflicts in Iraq, Bosnia, Israel, Syria, Rwanda, Zaire and other locations. Margulies won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2000 for his play Dinner With Friends (1998). His 2009 play Time Stands Still follows characters Sarah, a photo-journalist, and James, a foreign correspondent, trying to adjust to life after being physically and emotionally scarred covering war in the Middle East. 

The panel presentation is part of the Rudman Institute and Pennoni Honors College’s collaborative Great Works Symposium fall course, titled “Imaging War.” Throughout the year, the course will host speakers, photographers, curators, playwrights, cartoonists, combat artists, journalists and scholars in special presentations covering media imagery, literacy and the creative process.