Ovation Fellows are current students or recent alumni from Los Angeles area universities. Fellows are paired with a Mentor, currently serving as an Ovation Award voter, and see productions and meet artists around Greater Los Angeles throughout the year. Their articles, posted on LAStageBlog, are intended to be their personal responses to their experiences, and not as critical reviews or representing the views of LA Stage Alliance.
Ashley Walden is an Ovation Fellow from the California Institute of the Arts.
Since seeing the production of Shaheed: The Death and Dream of Benazir Bhutto at the Stephanie Fuery Studio Theater, I have been unable to articulate how I feel about the piece, not because of any insufficiency of the production but because I have been overwhelmed with emotion. I was deeply moved by the production and the images have haunted me since. I have thought about Benazir for days and mentioned her in my conversations. Her energy and legacy have invaded my person.
The piece provides much information about Benazir and those in her public and personal life including her niece Fatima Bhutto, international journalist and friend Daphne Barak, Professor Cussem, United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a Rehri driver Shamsher and Afshan, a student from Islamabad.
The play has made me hungry to find out more about Benazir and the mystery surrounding her in life and in death. My interest had been peaked in Pakistani culture and political occurrences in the Middle East.
Shaheed did what theater is supposed to do: educate and move people, inspire them to investigate their thoughts about an issue in a way they never have. My inability to critique or praise the piece to its death reminds why I became involved with theater. My own interests lie in socially relevant theater that educates people and serves often marginalized and underprivileged communities. This piece achieves all of these goals.
Additionally, Shaheed showcases that the most important elements needed to produce theater are the story and the performance. Shaheed is a one-woman show, written and performed by Anna Khaja with minimal scenic, lighting and costume elements and your focus is zeroed in on the story and the acting. In each moment, I was engaged in a story that was suspenseful yet witty and funny.
I thoroughly enjoyed Shaheed. It challenged me to expand my mind on an issue and to re-think my own theater-making practices and what is really necessary to produce an inspiring piece of theater. Shaheed has been well-received and was extended for an additional week. I am sure you will see this piece remounted in the near future and you should definitely see it when it returns.
