THE PLAYWRIGHT: Ariel Dorfman

ARIEL DORFMAN is the author of numerous works of fiction, plays, poems, and essays in both Spanish and English. His books have been translated into over thirty languages. He is a Chilean expatriate who lives with his family in Durham, North Carolina, where he holds the Walter Hines Page chair at Duke University.

Dorfman's books include the novels Hard Rain, The Last Song of Manuel Sendero, and Mascara; the story collection My House is on Fire; the nonfiction books How to Read Donald Duck, The Empire's Old Clothes, and Some Write to the Future; and Last Waltz in Santiago, a collection of poetry. His plays include Death and the Maiden, which won England's Olivier Award for Best Play, was produced on Broadway and was made into a feature film. Most recently, he is the author of the novel The Nanny and the Iceberg and the memoir Heading South, Looking North.

Dorfman was inspired to write a theatrical presentation based on interviews in the book by Kerry Kennedy that features more than fifty human rights activists from around the world. The resulting play, Speak Truth to Power: Voices from the Dark, was presented at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., in September 2000, and broadcast as part of PBS's The Kennedy Center Presents. In the essay found on the SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER web site, the playwright describes how these long suppressed voices came to be heard.

The play has been performed at theaters across America and around the world, including Geneva, London, Helsinki, Athens, Madrid, Rome, Barcelona, Milan, Florence, New York, Sydney, and Doha...and soon Derry, New Hampshire.