The Lost Boys of Sudan
Description
Three boys meet in the worst way: fleeing the horrors of war. And as they team up on a perilous journey to a refugee camp, they exchange heroic survival stories, song and even laughter. Thus begins an extraordinary passage that eventually takes three boys of the Dinka tribe to, of all places, Fargo, North Dakota, where drought, crocodiles and guerrillas are replaced by malls, video games, and Skittles.
Production Info
Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
Press Quotes
“Much as, say, Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation was an excellent movie about jet lag, this is an excellent play about culture shock. And about making your way as a stranger in a strange land. Like the Coen brothers (who love this same human and physical landscape), Carter satirizes the good people of the Upper Midwest while celebrating their fundamental decency ” —Chris Jones, The Chicago Tribune
“Several tall, young, slender African men bearing beaming smiles and the slightest hint of ritual scars on their foreheads strolled through the lobby of the Victory Gardens Theater on Sunday night. They were the real ‘lost boys’ of Sudan — victims of the horrific civil wars that raged in that enormous, oil-rich country from 1983 to 2005, leaving the population decimated. Now twentysomething, and residents of Chicago, the men had come to watch playwright Lonnie Carter’s immensely imaginative, linguistically dizzying, tragicomic rendering of their history. To be sure, it’s a fantasia rather than a documentary, but one that captures the essence of their experiences in a uniquely theatrical way.” —Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times
“THE LOST BOYS OF SUDAN turns out to be more joyous than the title might suggest … theater sometimes can do what documentaries sometimes can’t — tell stories with the power of poetry, metaphor and music … all the musical language in Lonnie Carter’s script. There’s a palpable sense of magical realism in his play.” —David Hawley, Pioneer Press (Minneapolis)
“Playwright Carter says that his script is ‘hip-hop infused,’ and it is, at times. But mostly, I felt it was in the great tradition of English verse that moves from Shakespeare and Marlowe to Ntozake Shange and beyond.” —Paul Thompson, BroadwayWorld.com
Author
Lonnie CarterLonnie Carter's play THE ROMANCE OF MAGNO RUBIO received eight Obies for its production by the Ma-Yi Theatre Company in 2003. His plays have been produced by The Yale Repertory Theater, the American Place Theater, Victory Gardens Theater, the Long Wharf Theater, and at the first Asian-American Theater Festival in New York City (2007), the Los Angeles Theater Center's Latino Theater Festival (also 2007) and festivals abroad (the Philippines and Romania). His plays include CHINA CALLS, THE SOVEREIGN STATE OF BOOGEDY BOOGEDY, THE GULLIVER PLAYS (LEMUEL, GULLIVER, AND GULLIVER REDUX, published by Broadway Play Publishing), BABY GLO, WHEATLEY (the Colonial HippeHoppe story of Phillis Wheatley), CONCERTO CHICAGO, and most recently THE LOST BOYS OF SUDAN, produced by the Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis (Tony Winner for Best Regional Theatre 2003). THE LOST BOYS (AND GIRL) OF SUDAN was produced by Victory Gardens in 2010. He is a charter member of the Victory Gardens Playwrights' Ensemble. (Victory Gardens was the Tony Winner for Best Regional Theatre 2001). He is an Alumnus of New Dramatists in New York and the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis. He is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and Marquette University, a Guggenheim Fellow and twice a Fellow of the National Endowment of the Arts and the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. He has taught at the Yale School of Drama, the Hammerstein Theater Center at Columbia University and the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. His screenplay for THE ROMANCE OF MAGNO RUBIO is in pre-production.
Book Information
| Publisher | BPPI |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 12/21/2011 |
| Pages | 80 |
| ISBN | 9780881454437 |
Special Notes
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypublishing.com