Peace Pledge-Chicago
www.peacepledgechicago.org
312.494.5840


EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT Contact: Annalise Raziq, cell ph#773.750.2585
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
UPDATED AS OF MAY 14, 2004

Air America commentator Laura Flanders to host performance and discussion

Peace Pledge-Chicago presents AN EVENING WITH LAURA FLANDERS, BUSHWOMEN – A PERFORMANCE PIECE, on Monday, June 7 at 7:00 PM at the Lakeshore Theater, 3175 N. Broadway. Laura Flanders, author and Air America radio host, comes to Chicago to bring to life her New York Times best-selling book BUSHWOMEN - Tales of a Cynical Species. Ms. Flander's co-host for the evening will be journalist and political commentator Salim Muwakkil, senior editor at In These Times. BETTY, of the seven-month run off-Broadway show BETTY RULES, will be guest performers. BETTY RULES is playing at the Lakeshore Theater until June 20.

BUSHWOMEN is about the women close to George W. Bush. In 2001, he came to power declaring that “W. Stands for Women.” To great fanfare, Bush appointed several women to his Cabinet. “Not his father’s Cabinet,” wrote the Washington Post. Women were named to head the departments of Labor, Interior, Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency. The President’s inner circle included two who would become arguably the most powerful women in the world: Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor, and Karen Hughes, the first female White House Counsel. What has the U.S. public learned about these women since? Not much, considering the power they wield. Until now.

Chicago actors bring adapted sections of BUSHWOMEN to life under the direction of Dado. Dado’s recent directing credits are: Fahrehnheit 451 for Steppenwolf Arts Exchange, The Marriage of Figaro for the Cultural Center of Chicago, The Grey Zone for A Red Orchid Theater, High Life for Victory Gardens/Shattered Globe, Coyote on a Fence for Shattered Globe and The Storefront, Hellcab for Famous Door, The Possessed for Prop/National Pastime and AKA, Take it Deep and Thanatos for AKA, The Pitchfork Disney for Trapdoor, Tracers for Mary Arrchie-Theater. Dado is currently the Director of Education for Emerald City Theater Company.


SEE: scenes from the novel Sisters (Signet, 1981), written by the Vice President's wife, Lynne Cheney, and adapted for the stage. Cheney's breathy, gothic novel celebrates condoms, free love and lesbian romance in nineteenth-century Wyoming. From the book jacket: "Where the relationship between women and men became a kind of guerilla warfare in which women were forced to band together for the strength they needed and at times for the love they wanted."

HEAR: John W. Rice's 1971 speech against the Vietnam War. Condoleezza Rice's father wasn't quite the conservative Republican voter his daughter, the National Security Advisor, described at the Republican National Convention four years ago.

In addition to these scenes and others from the book, the evening will feature a discussion between Ms. Flanders and Mr. Muwakkil, both about BUSHWOMEN and our current political situation.

Following the event, there will be a reception and book signing of BUSHWOMEN and The W Effect: Bush's War on Women, edited by Laura Flanders. The public is invited. Event co-sponsors are Women & Children First Bookstore, Chicago National Organization for Women (NOW), and Evanston NOW. Donations are $15 (plus a $1 theater surcharge), $12 for seniors, students, and actors with union cards or headshots, and will benefit Peace Pledge-Chicago, an organization that actively works to build a nonviolent movement for a peaceful, just, global community. Tickets can be purchased from the theater box office at 773-472-3492 or www.lakeshoretheater.com.

Laura Flander’s books will be offered for sale at the event by Women & Children First Bookstore. She will also be discussing BUSHWOMEN and signing books at the Women & Children First Bookstore, 5233 N. Clark on Tuesday, June 8 at 7:30 PM. An electronic copy of a photograph of Laura Flanders is available upon request to rsemer (at) ameritech.net. More information about Laura Flanders can be obtained from her web-site: www.lauraflanders.com.