For Immediate Release: February 15, 2006
Media Contact: Amy Watson Bish, Delaware Theatre Company, 302.594.1104 x228

Delaware TheatreCompany’s series of audience enrichment events,Connections: A CommunityConversation, continues Saturday, March 18, 2006 with“Awakening to Injustice: Student Awareness andProtest of Social Injustice.”This event is presented in conjunctionwith the theatre’s production of Pamela Gien’sThe SyringaTree,which tells the playwright’s personal account of her whiteSouth African family living with a black family during Apartheid.It will follow the 2 p.m. matineeat approximately 4 p.m. and run about 90 minutes.The event is freeand open to the public and is partly funded by agrant from the Delaware Humanities Forum, a state program of the NationalEndowment for the Humanities.For more information call302.594.1100.

Thisrevelatory discussion will focus on how youth in situations all over the worldhave come to terms with their countries’ social injustices and how they try tochange them.Ralph Begleiter, University of Delaware’s (UD) DistinguishedJournalist in Residence and former CNN World Affairs Correspondent, willmoderate this panel.The panelistswill represent three distinct perspectives on separate experiences of socialinjustice, spanning over seventy years of history in both US and worldevents.Panelists includeLittleton Mitchell, former head of the Delaware NAACP,TanyaAccone, a South African native currently working for UNICEF, andMustafaZia, a University of Delaware student from Afghanistan.

RalphBegleiterjoined the UD faculty in1999, bringing with him more than 30 years of experience to classrooms forstudents interested in international affairs and broadcast journalism.He came to UD from CNN, where he was thenetwork’s most widely traveled correspondent, covering world affairs.Among his CNN assignments, Begleiterco-anchored CNN's prestigious "International Hour” anddeveloped and hosted “Cold WarPostscript,” a 24-part weekly program examining connections between the historyof the Cold War and global affairs in today's world.During the Persian Gulf Crisis in 1990and 1991, Begleiter followed the diplomatic construction of the internationalcoalition that eventually went to war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq.He reported live from Geneva on thedramatic collapse of diplomatic efforts to avoid the war with a finalIraqi-American high-level meeting in January 1991.Among his many interviews are such worldleaders as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, German Chancellor HelmutKohl, Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz and French President Jacques Chirac,along with history-making world figures such as South African President NelsonMandela.

LittletonMitchellis a long-timecivil rights and social activist who graduated from Howard High, Delaware’s onlyhigh school that admitted black students at the time.While attending West Chester University,he became a member of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen.Following his discharge, he returned toschool, earning his degree and starting an extensive career in psychiatrictreatment of children and civil rights advocacy.He led the Delaware State Branches ofthe NAACP as President for over 30 years until 1991.Mitchell was Presidential Selectee as theDelaware Representative on the Brown vs. Board of Education 50th AnniversaryCommission.Of him, Senator TomCarper has said “Lit has lived a life dedicated to teaching diversity andtolerance. Focused on breaking down barriers standing in the way of civilrights, he has been a visionary in the fight forequality.”

TanyaAccone, likeplaywright Pamela Gien, grew up during the late Apartheid era, living throughSouth Africa’s transition from segregated subsistence to the birth of a new,democratic nation and beyond.Shebrings the perspective of one of South Africa’s smallest persecuted ethnicminorities, the Chinese, who nonetheless warranted the painstaking attentions ofthe Apartheid government.Ajournalist and new media specialist, Accone now works as the Deputy Chief forInternet, Broadcast and New Media in the Division of Communication at the UnitedNations Children's Fund (UNICEF).During her career, she has spearheaded the development of Internetbusinesses and content portals throughout the African continent, served as theInternet Editor of South Africa's largest newspaper, and worked at theWashington Post.

Mustafa Zia, born in Kabul, Afghanistan, was surroundedby war all through his childhood. In 1993, Zia’s father was killed while he wascoming back from work at the United Nations.“[My father] wasn't specificallytargeted to be killed,” Zia says, ”it was just unfortunate that he got in themiddle of a war going on between Mujahideen factions.” Following the death ofhis father, Zia’s family fledAfghanistan to Pakistan whereZia attended an Afghani-based high school in Islamabad, Pakistan.During this time, the Taliban came topower in Afghanistan and one of Zia’s brothers, who was working for the UN inHerat, Afghanistan, died due to reasons unknown.Zia’s family moved to Herat for a shorttime where Zia witnessed the conditions during the Taliban period.After two ofhis siblings moved to the U.S., Zia and his mother soon began arranging travelto join their family in America.“Unfortunately for us,” Zia recounts, “our flight was scheduled onSeptember 12, 2001. We had a very hard time getting here, as one mightassume.”Zia currently attends theUniversity of Delaware, where he majors in International Relations and Economicsand hopes to one day be able to help his native country rebuild as his fatherdid.

“Awakening to Injustice: Student Awareness andProtest of Social Injustice”will take place at Delaware TheatreCompany, 200 Water Street in Wilmington.The event will follow the 2 p.m. matinee performance on Saturday, March18, 2006, beginning at approximately 4:00 p.m.Admission to allConnectionsevents are free.For moreinformation, please call 302.594.1100.

Connections:A Community Conversationis partially funded by a grant from the Delaware Humanities Forum, a stateprogram of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

DelawareTheatre Company’s 2005-2006 season is sponsored by JPMorgan Chase. CorporateCo-Producer forTheSyringa Treeis AstraZeneca. Artist transportation provided by Amtrak. This program is madepossible, in part, by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and theDelaware Division of the Arts, a state agency committed to promoting andsupporting the arts in Delaware.The Delaware Division of the Arts provides technical and financialassistance to artists and arts programs and serves as a clearinghouse forinformation on the arts.

TheSyringa Treeis produced through special arrangement with Samuel French,Inc.

DelawareTheatre Company,Delaware's premierprofessional theatre, is located at 200 Water Street, on Wilmington’sexciting Riverfront.DelawareTheatre Company is a member of the League of Resident Theatres, TheatreCommunications Group, the Arts Consortium of Delaware, the Theatre Alliance ofGreater Philadelphia, the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, the Arts&Business Council of Greater Philadelphia, the New Castle County Chamber ofCommerce, and the Wilmington Convention&Visitors Bureau.

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