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Robert Schenkkan has dug deeply into the American past in his award-winning plays, some of which originated in his former home base of Seattle. But in his latest work, Schenkkan was compelled by current events to look ahead and imagine the future. His two-actor stage drama “Building the Wall” is set in 2019 in the wake of a major terrorist attack in the United States. President Donald Trump has ordered the immediate arrest and detention of tens of thousands of immigrants. Under pressure from the federal government, a prison official is one of those tasked with coordinating the mass detentions. And after things go horribly wrong, he’s one of those blamed for the policy’s tragic consequences. To read more, click here.

A.R.T. of Human Rights: A free reading of Building the Wall By Robert Schenkkan (All the Way). Directed by Ari Edelson

Wednesday, November 1 at 7:30PM

Ames Courtroom, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School

1515 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge

Building the Wall lays out the potential consequences of contemporary anti-immigration campaign rhetoric. Set in 2019, the play imagines the rhetoric has become policy, and massive numbers of undocumented immigrants and others have been incarcerated in private prisons and camps. As Rick, the former warden of one facility, awaits sentencing for events which happened under his watch, he is interviewed by Gloria, a historian who has come in search of the truth about how the unthinkable became the inevitable.

A.R.T. of Human Rights is an ongoing collaboration with the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University that uses the arts and the humanities to explore some of the most pressing human rights issues of our time. This series features public conversations with leading artists, academics, and activists, as well as educational and artistic partnerships with local schools and organizations. Building on the Carr Center's commitment to advancing human rights principles, and the A.R.T.'s mission to "expand the boundaries of theater," A.R.T. of Human Rights is designed to foster a new model for community education, civic engagement, and creative expression. The reading will be followed by a panel discussion.

"Hacksaw Ridge" is a nontraditional war movie depicting the story of Desmond Doss, a war hero who survived World War II without ever picking up a gun, and won a Medal of Honor for saving dozens of his comrades. Andrew Hanks, a film junior, is the lead event organizer of Hollywood Invades Tempe, which screens movies and brings in filmmakers to speak to students. "We like to pick popular films or films that have just come out so they're fresh on people's minds," Hanks said. "'Hacksaw Ridge' being nominated for six Oscars and winning two, really just a powerful movie that came out in the past year. The fact that we could get Mr. Schenkkan just made it even better." To read more, click here.

During one of the many crises punctuating her husband’s tumultuous presidency, Lady Bird Johnson (Jennifer Blagen) reminds her husband that bravery runs in his family. “When your great-grandmother was hiding under the floorboards while the Comanches were raiding her house, did she flinch? It’s just not in your blood.” In another play, that line might have played as a hackneyed pep talk. In All the Way, it’s a reminder that a long history of racial violence and exploitation can be conveniently minimized by white people who want to pride themselves on incidents of isolated courage. This Lyndon Johnson feels under-appreciated by Civil Rights activists, but it’s hard to applaud political compromise when there’s a burning cross in your front yard. To read more, click here.