2008 Embassy News
“When Worlds Collide” Performance in Dushanbe
Dushanbe, Tajikistan. An American storyteller and four residents of Dushanbe shared their personal stories at the Padida Theatre in Dushanbe Aug. 12 as part of a U.S. storytelling project, The Moth, sponsored by the U.S. Embassy Dushanbe. The two-hour performance entitled, “When Worlds Collide,” featured Mike Daisey, a master storyteller from New York, along with Bruce Woolman from the United States, and Malika Khakimova, Anaid Rakhmatyllaeva, and Dmitry Yegarmin from Tajikistan.
Mike Daisey and Moth producer Catherine Burns traveled to Tajikistan and spent one week learning about the storytellers’ lives, helping them shape their personal experiences into compelling stories, and preparing them for performing on stage. Daisey regaled the audience with a tragic-comic tale of his first job cleaning floors in a home for the mentally ill. Daisey has performed his monologues around the world to great acclaim.
Other stories included two recollections from the civil war in Tajikistan: one a zookeeper’s love for the animals in the Dushanbe zoo who tragically perished, and another about how a music professor saved her pianos from destruction by playing Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” for masked soldiers. Two other stories were based in the United States: one a recollection of a drug counselor being robbed at gunpoint by a drug addict in need of cash, and a lighter story about the culture shock a young Tajik exchange student experienced during her year living in Orlando, Florida, the home of Disney World.
The Moth, a New York-based non-profit arts organization dedicated to the art of storytelling, features simple, old-fashioned storytelling on thoroughly modern themes by people from all walks of life. Each show is cast with five carefully selected individuals, who have been coached to share tales from their lives with no script and no notes. Past storytellers at The Moth have included Pulitzer-prize-nominated writers and celebrated actors, among many others.
The Moth’s visit, its first-ever to Tajikistan, was sponsored by the Public Diplomacy Section of the U.S. Embassy Dushanbe. Along with cultural events and visitors, the section offers a variety of educational and professional exchange programs. For more information about embassy programs, visit the embassy website at http://dushanbe.usembassy.gov. To automatically receive information about our programs, send a blank e-mail message to usembassydushanbeprograms-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.