The Ford Foundation will be staging a play titled “The Line in the Sand” this weekend in the SETB Lecture Hall as part of the Difficult Dialogue Initiative. The play portrays a 35-year-old mother of four from Sombrerete, Mexico, who risks everything to be reunited with her loved ones in the U.S.A. Exhibition dates are: April 3 at 7:00 p.m. and April 4 at 2:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
The Difficult Dialogue Initiative is a new program by the Ford Foundation to promote religious, cultural, and political pluralism as well as academic freedom on college campuses. It aims at encouraging students to speak out their minds in order to encourage greater dialogue on controversial issues. The initiative hosts such events as the Free Speech Alley, symposia, theatrical production, research, blogging, and student-produced documentaries.
“We thought we could use this play to start a discussion in the community. It deals with an issue that I personally hope does not materialize into what people [want] to do, and that is to build a wall between the united States and Mexico,” said Sharaf Rehman, associate professor of communication and the play’s director.
“The Line in the Sand” portrays a woman who strives to reunite with her husband and two children who live in Chicago. Like many other illegal immigrants who seek to break the chains of poverty for a better life in the U.S.A, she must withstand hardships and perils in the desert as she travels to accomplish her odyssey.
Students at the College of Liberal Arts department work on flyers promoting The Line in the Sand.
Students at the College of Liberal Arts department work on flyers promoting The Line in the Sand.
