A 9/11 Gallery - Shahid Nadeem

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Trapped

By Shahid Nadeem

This short play was performed as part of a staged reading of short plays in response to 9/11 on Thursday, Dec. 20, 2001. (See L.A. Times story...)

Levantine Cultural Center sponsored the readings, which took place at Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center in Venice. Directed by Felix Pire, "Trapped" was produced by Jordan Elgrably for Levantine Cultural Center as an evening in a regular monthly series presenting contemporary work of Middle Eastern/West Asian creative artists. This series continues as ArtSalon; see the Levantine calendar for program information.
(To submit program ideas, email the Center.)

Man I was read by Saleem Azouqqa, Man II by Felix Pire, the TV journalist by Susan Johnston and the wife by Bhavana Kundamal.

Click Here To Read Trapped

Shahid Nadeem is a Pakistani screenwriter, journalist, and human rights activist. He spent a season in Los Angeles in 2001, during which time he wrote and submitted his short play "Trapped" to Levantine Cultural Center. From April to December last year he was a Feuchtwanger Fellow at the Villa Aurora.

Shahid Nadeem has worked for Amnesty International since 1980: in London from 1980 to 1988 and in Hong Kong from 1991 to 1993. As a playwright since the 1970s, he has written over thirty plays and six television serials for Pakistan television, many performed all over Asia and Britain. He is the in-house playwright for Ajoka Theatre, Pakistan's leading non-commercial theatre group. As an activist, he has held media seminars on human rights reporting, organized human rights film festivals, and produced two documentaries on human rights campaigning in Asia. As a journalist, he has edited a collection of Punjabi feminist plays (1994) and has published articles in "The Far Eastern Economic Review" (Hong Kong), "The Frontline" (Madras), "The Leveler", "Index on Censorship", and "The Socialist Women" (London). Nadeem was imprisoned under all three past military governments (1969, 1979, 1978) because of his non-violent opposition to military rule and his writings. He has been harassed by the government since 1986 for writing about the Pakistani government's human rights record and for supporting India-Pakistani friendship. In 1998, he was fired after adapting a Brecht play on Hitler, regarded as an attack on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and for openly criticizing government interference in Pakistan Television affairs. In spite of the change of government, he is still banned from having his plays on Pakistani TV and his wife is banned from acting.