The Lysistrata Project: Theater for Peace March 3rd, 2003

"What do we want? Peace and Justice! When do we want it? Now!"

Director Elizabeth Streiff

Twin Cities artists and non-artists all gathered together on March 3rd to create an entertaining peace vigil. Groups in fifteen different locations read Lysistrata, a war protest comedy written by Aristophanes somewhere around 447-385 BC. Lysistrata and her group of women declared "..in the name of Aphrodite, women shall be known as mighty!". They declared that they would withhold sex until men stopped making war.

One reading was at Field school. This group included professional actors and non-actors from St. Joan's and St. Albert. Director Elizabeth Streiff declared at her introduction that her hope was that the audience would outnumber the actors, and it did. The groups was energetic and obviously loved every minute spent on their makeshift stage. There was no walking on the stage, all actors sat in chairs in a semi-arc facing the audience. However the animation was tremendous.

"No! No, we won't give in!" says David Reed

Director Streiff explained just how amazing this event was. Her sister in Denmark was attending a performance that was two blocks from her home. She had three other sisters in all corners of the US that were also attending performances equally close to their homes. All over the world over 1,000 readings were staged, in 59 countries on one day. Various translations and adaptations were used in different places. The reading at Field School used the adaptation by Drue Robinson Hagan. Various scripts are available to view at http://www.pecosdesign.com/lys/script.html. Some are translations, some are adaptations. Robinson Hagan's version is lyrical and rhyming, and very moving and funny.

In addition to the readings each performance had a peace candle. They were all lit from candles that were lit from other candles, all the way down to the first "Peace" candle. Each attendee was given a small candle to light their own peace candle to take home and create one for each family, to be lit every night at 9 PM.  They were asked to spread them around. The math boggles my mind here, how many people in 1,000 readings in 59 countries brought home candles to light for peace?

After the readings all were invited to attend a march performance, "Beyond Lysistrata: A Concert for Peace and Justice". Local artists and musicians performed and read, their donation towards peace.

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Janice LaMere is a self-professed (and sometimes publicly acknowledged) girl-geek. She does computer technical support and training, and is a writer, college student, mother of three and grandmother of two. She likes to read, learn, listen to music, walk with her dog (Lady Isabella Augusta, AKA Auggie Doggie) and watch old movies. She can be found on the Internet at www.janissima.com, or email to lamere@janissima.com.

For more information, please visit www.lysistrataproject.org, and www.pecosdesign.com/lys/.