The Chicago Reader: International Voices Project opens The Shroud Maker

International Voices Project opens The Shroud Maker

The first full production in IVP’s history joins other SWANA works on Chicago stages; Color Club Comedy aims for something completely different.

Written by Kerry Reid for The Chicago Reader on Jun 11, 2021. View the original article here.

Roxane Assaf-Lynn plays the title role in Ahmed Masoud's The Shroud Maker at International Voices Project. | Credit: Scott Dray

Since founding the International Voices Project in 2010, Patrizia Acerra and her artistic associates have brought playwrights from around the globe to the attention of Chicago audiences. The annual International Voices Project Festival presents staged readings (often in partnership with other cultural institutions and consulates) that introduce writers who are largely unknown in the U.S. 

During the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown, the festival went virtual; as Acerra (who serves as executive director for IVP) noted to Reader contributor Catey Sullivan at the time, the silver lining was “For the first time our global work can have a global audience.” IVP has also partnered with other companies in the past to coproduce full runs; in fall of 2019, they collaborated with Silk Road Rising on the latter’s production of Fouad Teymour’s Twice, Thrice, Frice . . ., directed by Acerra. 

Now they’re presenting a full production of their own. Ahmed Masoud’s The Shroud Maker, directed by Marina Johnson, opens this weekend at Chicago Dramatists. Loosely based on the real story of a still-living woman in Gaza who makes shrouds for those killed in the ongoing conflict with Israel, Masoud’s solo play stars Roxane Assaf-Lynn as 80-year-old Hajja Souad, who grew up as the adopted daughter of Palestine’s British High Commissioner in the 1940s and has lived through decades of subsequent turmoil, violence, and oppression. 

The Shroud Maker: 3/16-4/8

Previews: Thu-Fri 3/16-3/17 7:30 PM
Opens Sat 3/18 3 PM; then 3/19-4/8 Fri-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM
Chicago Dramatists, 798 N. Aberdeen, ivpchicago.org
Previews: $10, regular run $20 ($15 senior, $10 students based on availability)