JACQUELINE LAWTON: Why was it important for you to be a part of Advocates for Youth’s Out of Silence: Stories from the 1 in 3 Campaign?  
KAREN  ZACARÍAS: I think the right to choose is an essential component of a woman’s human rights. Period.  I have three children, so I know first hand the pleasures and sacrifices of motherhood. I never want my daughters to feel the value of their spirit is trumped by the repercussions of their biology.  Women are not vessels for other people’s politics. We have the right to be captain of our own reproductive journey, whatever that may be.

JL: Tell me about the play(s) that you wrote? What inspired it? 
KZ: I was asked to write a short play that involved a man and a woman discussing the financial repercussions of an unplanned pregnancy. I liked the absurd idea of examining the most personal type of question in a very public and impersonal institution.

JL: What was it like to turn this story into a play? What was your process? What research, if any, did you do?
KZ: It’s very interesting to have to create tension, character and tackle a topic as emotionally provocative as abortion in four pages.

JL: What role does theater have in advocacy work? 
KZ: Theater is an arena for true dialogue…between characters and between the play and the audience. All good plays deal with characters, conflict and choice…and dramaturgically, the issue at hand is all about that.

JL: What are you working on next? Where can we follow your work? 
KZ: I have a number of plays that are set to premiere next season including a Brazilian musical at the Kennedy Center, a Latino comedy with music at a major regional theater, and the adaptation of Ella Enchanted.  Currently, my play The BOOK CLUB PLAY is playing at both The Dallas Theater Center (TX) and the Leshner Center for the Arts (CA) in Jan-Feb of 2015.  For more information please visit: www.karenzacarias.com

JACQUELINE LAWTON: Why was it important for you to be a part of Advocates for Youth’s Out of Silence: Stories from the 1 in 3 Campaign?  
JENNIFER L. NELSON: I believe women have the right to choose what happens to our bodies and our lives and I fear that the current right to life movement may impede access to information, substituting religion-based dogma.

JL: Tell me about the play(s) that you wrote? What inspired it? 
JN: My play is about a young, very low income couple, living in a boarding house as they struggle to finish their educations and make ends meet. When they discover they are pregnant they have consider how they would be able to take care of a baby.

JL: What was it like to turn this story into a play? What was your process? What research, if any, did you do?
JN: Playwriting is storytelling through dialogue. The biggest challenge is making information sound like natural conversation.  I imagine what the characters look like and sound like and that leads to what they say.

JL: What role does theater have in advocacy work?
JN: Theatre—and all the arts--are just other ways to explore and demonstrate how people communicate. Through the deployment of creative dialogue and images, theatre can demonstrate how Issues affect individuals without making any one feel put on the spot.

JL: What are you working on next? Where can we follow your work? 
JN: I am working on two commissions: one is a short portrait of a historically African American community in Falls Church, VA; and the other a full length play for Ford's Theatre that  deals with girls and baseball. Follow me at www.jenniferlnelson.net

JACQUELINE LAWTON: Why was it so important for you to be a part of Advocates for Youth’s Out of Silence: Stories from the 1 in 3 Campaign?
ALLYSON CURRIN: I have always been an ardent supporter of a woman’s right to choose.  As soon as you described the project to me, I was in!  It is urgent to get the stories of brave women told, and to dramatize TRUE stories from these brave women was a project I was eager to join.  And when I was told the names of the other amazing playwrights involved?  I was honored.

JL: Tell me about the play(s) you wrote.  What inspired it?
AC: The play that I wrote is called Ruah, which is the Hebrew word for breath or spirit. The source material – the personal stories – that Advocates for Youth provided for us were amazing.  Each woman was telling her nuanced story so courageously and so unapologetically that it was challenging to pick one to turn into a theatre piece.  I ultimately chose the story I did because it was told with such humor and self-awareness.  I felt an immediate connection to the speaker – she felt a lot like…well…me had I ever found myself pregnant as a college student.  I felt a lot of gratitude for her frankness and I knew that her story was the one I wanted to tell.  I admire her candor.  If I ever got the opportunity to meet her, I just know we would click.

JL: What was it like to turn this story into a play?  What was your process?  What research, if any, did you do?
AC: This play pretty much wrote itself.  Honestly.  Usually when I’m writing pieces like this, I’m in knots.  I sweat, I re-write frenetically, I doubt myself.  But not this time!  Not sure why…I think it was the marriage of my convictions and the truly inspiring source material. 

JL: What role does theater have in advocacy work?
AC: That depends.  I certainly don’t want ALL of my theatre to feel obligated to attach itself to issues.  That being said, theatre is uniquely qualified to act as an advocate and forum for social issues because of its immediacy, and the directness of the sense of community it creates.  I have watched audiences profoundly affected by theatre.  Changed.  I have listened to people from different walks of life, races, experiences, come together to LISTEN when united by their shared experience of a play.  That’s a real, tangible difference that theatre can make in the world.  It makes me so proud to be a theatre practitioner.

JL: What are you working on next?  Where can we follow your work?
AC: Fortunately, a LOT!  I have four world premieres of my work in 2015 – count ‘em, FOUR!  Cincinnati Playhouse commissioned me to write a new play for them, HIGH SCHOOL ALIENS, and I have been working with their amazing artistic team on the play’s development.  It opens in the fall.  In DC, Doorway Arts Ensemble will produce my comedy THE COLONY as a part of the DC Women Playwrights Festival, and I’m working on a new devised piece for Factory 449 that also opens in the fall.  The biggest DC premiere, however, I can’t announce yet!  Stay tuned there… And, as always, I continue my amazing collaboration with my fellow Welders.  Our third production will be Bob Bartlett’s darkly hysterical play DEATH BY HIBACHI at Atlas Performing Arts Center in May, and I am so happy to serve Bob in his capacity as Artistic Director (as he served both me and Caleen Sinette Jennings in our artistic directorships).  You can check us out at www.thewelders.org, and follow my work at www.allysoncurrin.com.

Advocates for Youth will break new ground with Out of Silence: Abortion Stories from the 1 in 3 Campaign. From the halls of Congress to pulpits and court houses around the country, there is so much noise around abortion but it's women's personal stories that have been silenced. In an effort to shatter that silence and de-stigmatize abortion care, Advocates' 1 in 3 Campaign will elevate the voices of hundreds of women with 'Out of Silence'. 

On January 7th at 6:00pm at Primary Stages, Advocates for Youth is welcoming select media for a special preview performance. The plays in Out of Silence are derived from the over 600 stories submitted to the Campaign and represent women from a wide array of situations, ages, and backgrounds. It's the 1 in 3 Campaign's mission: to create a new conversation about abortion and move beyond the political rhetoric and divisive debate to a more personal understanding of the role abortion plays in women's lives. 

With a renowned team including playwright Jacqueline E. Lawton and director Marie Byrd Sproul at the helm of the production; attendees can be sure that Out of Silence will be an enlightening and thought-provoking experience. The plays were written by a diverse set of multi-generational, female playwrights including: Allyson Currin, DW Gregory, Caleen S. Jenning, Nicole Jost, Jacqueline E. Lawton, Kristen LePine, Mary McKeown, Jennifer L. Nelson, Anu Yadav, and Karen Zacarías. The cast includes Zuleyma Guevara, Brandon Jones, Tiffany Rachelle Stewart, Myxolydia Tyler, and Rebecca White. Click here to learn more.

"Plays have a long history of introducing new perspectives and shifting public discourse, while providing audiences with a safe space to grapple with important social issues" says Debra Hauser, President of Advocates for Youth. "We have been honored to receive these stories from women across the country. Each story is unique and brings a fresh perspective to the issue, but what's most remarkable is how the need for safe abortion care is a common thread that runs through all our lives and has done so throughout the generations."

In keeping with the 1 in 3 Campaign's dedication to highlighting and furthering the activism of Millennials to  ensure safe, legal abortion access, the play will be made available, for free via the Campaign's website, for youth activists to stage on their college campuses and in their communities. "We want this play to be a nation-wide phenomenon that starts at the grassroots level, on every campus and community around the country," states Julia Reticker-Flynn, Associate Director of Youth Organizing and Mobilization for Advocates for Youth. "Out of Silence can be the spark that ignites a renewed fire on this issue, bringing an openness to this conversation and empowering people everywhere to stand up for safe, legal and affordable abortion care.

“It’s been an honor working on this project,” says co-producer Jacqueline E. Lawton. “I was deeply touched after reading the stories from the 1 in 3 Campaign, and I feel that Out of Silence creates room for better understanding of the complexities of people’s lives and the need to protect women’s rights.” 

“Bringing this production to the stage has been an insightful experience both personally and professionally,” says director Marie Byrd Sproul. “These stories need to be heard, they need to be brought out for all of us to listen to and respect.”

About the 1 in 3 Campaign
The 1 in 3 Campaign, a project of Advocates for Youth, is a grassroots movement designed to ignite a new conversation about abortion, through storytelling, to end the stigma around abortion care in America. Its mission: to ensure that abortion remains safe, legal, and affordable. For more information, please visit: www.1in3campaign.org. 

About Advocates for Youth
Advocates for Youth champions programs and policies that recognize young people's rights to sexual health information and services. Advocates believes it can best serve the field by boldly advocating for a more positive and realistic approach to adolescent sexual health. For more information, please visit: www.advocatesforyouth.org.

Back in June, Advocates for Youth, a D.C. based nonprofit organization and advocacy group dedicated to helping "young people make informed and responsible decisions about their reproductive and sexual health," contacted me about working with them on a play for their 1 in 3 Campaign. Initially, they asked me to write a one act play, but my schedule wouldn't allow it. Instead, I suggested that we commission local women playwrights to write short monologues and scenes. This way, the stories would come from a rich, diverse perspective and we could champion the voices of local women playwrights. The private reading took place as part of Advocates for Youth Urban Retreat and it was a complete success. Here's more information about the event and the amazing creative team from their press release, which can be read in full by clicking here:

"Today, the 1 in 3 Campaign is proud to announce a transformative theatrical piece that will deepen and expand our understanding of women’s experiences with abortion--Out of Silence: Abortion Stories from the 1 in 3 Campaign.

One in three women will have an abortion in her lifetime, but for too long the culture of shame and stigma have pushed these stories to the fringes, or worse, into silence. The play will feature a series of vignettes written by a diverse set of multi-generational, female playwrights based on the over 400 stories from the 1 in 3 Campaign. The play will be co-produced by Jacqueline E. Lawton and directed by Marie Byrd Sproul.

In the same vein as The Vagina Monologues, Out of Silence: Abortion Stories from the 1 in 3 Campaign will explore a wide range of situations and experiences. The play will continue the 1 in 3 Campaign’s mission to start a new conversation about abortion and move beyond the political rhetoric and divisive debate and will instead highlight the importance of abortion plays in the lives of women.

“Plays have a long history of introducing new perspectives and shifting public discourse, while providing audience with a safe space to grapple with important social issues” says Debra Hauser, President of Advocates for Youth. “We have been honored to receive these stories from women across the country. Each story is unique and brings a fresh perspective to the issue, but what is most remarkable are the commonalities that bind us. It is our hope that after seeing these plays performed, the audience will understand that women who seek abortion are our sisters, daughters, mothers, and best friends. Our voices need to be heard and we are thrilled to bring that to stage for wider audiences.”

In keeping with the 1 in 3 Campaign’s dedication to highlighting and furthering the activism of Millennials on abortion access, the play will be made available, for free, for youth activists to stage on their college campuses and their communities. The script for Out of Silence: Abortion Stories from the 1 in 3 Campaign will be available on the 1 in 3 Campaign website.

The play is comprised of a series of short scenes, monologues and point-of-views all inspired from the stories of the 1 in 3 Campaign. The first private read-through for youth activists took place early September 2014. Creative team included co-producer Jacqueline E. Lawton, director Marie Byrd Sproul, dramaturgs Hannah Hessel Ratner and Laura Esti Miller, playwrights Allison Currin, DW Gregory, Caleen Jennings, Nicole Jost, Kristen LePine, Soo-Jin Lee, Danielle Mohlman, Mary Resing, Noelle Viñas, and Anu Yadav and actors Lolita-Marie, Patricia Dugueye, Amal Saade and Jennifer Speerstra. A fully produced play will be performed for the public in a professional theater in January 2015 around the anniversary of Roe v Wade.

“It’s been an honor working on this project,” says co-producer Jacqueline E. Lawton. “I was deeply touched after reading the stories from the 1 in 3 Campaign, and I feel that Out of Silence creates room for better understanding of the complexities of people’s lives and the need to protect women’s rights.”

“Bringing this production to the stage has been an insightful experience both personally and professionally,” says director Marie Byrd Sproul. “These stories need to be heard, they need to be brought out for all of us to listen to and respect.”

Here are some wonderful photos from the reading by the brilliant Lloyd Wolf.