Little Boy: The Peace Play

The music of this peace play is composed by Muhammad Iqbal Behleem

Listen and download free peace songs from my site. Come more ofetn to hear more of my music free and share it with your friends.

I am making peace songs with all my friends from around the world as one of my projects to promote peace through music.

Also see the videos of my other peace songs on my website.

"Little Boy" Collaboration Offers Theater, Culture, Art, Peace Activities


The innovative YS Kids Playhouse presented a wholly original work, Little Boy: The Peace Play, on August 5, 6, and 7, indoors at the Antioch Theater, 920 Corry Street, Yellow Springs, and on August 8 and 9 at the Dayton Playhouse, 1301 East Siebenthaler, Dayton USA 

Little Boy, a sci-fi ode to future peace and the joys of being human, is an original production of the YS Kids Playhouse in collaboration with the Shirley-Jones Gallery in Yellow Springs and the Dayton International Peace Museum.  The play coincides with the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki , yet it also celebrates 60 years without the use of nuclear weapons - a positive message for youth and adults alike.

 Little Boy- is a theater-dance work that fuses a variety of artistic elements inspired by the post-war Japanese super flat style. Unique set design, shadow puppetry and evocative music invite the audience to consider multiple levels of experience in both psychological and physical realms.

Peace themes in Little Boy are revealed through otaku and the universal experience of childhood bullying, brought to the stage by YS Kids Playhouse youth members from throughout the Miami Valley.

Each performance of Little Boy will be part of a larger peace experience, with many activities for children and adults, including the lighting of candles, folding of origami peace cranes, and a Japanese tradition of writing and hanging personal peace messages on a wish tree.

Following each performance in Yellow Springs on August 5, 6, and 7, playgoers may participate in a candlelit walk led by the Yellow Springs Dharma Center , to the Shirley-Jones Gallery, where there will be a reception for the gallery's second annual Peace exhibition titled  Childhoods End, a painting installation by Chicago artist Michiko Itatani.



At the Dayton Playhouse on August 8 and 9, audience members are invited to participate in a short candlelit walk to the Dayton International Peace Museum s PeaceMobile, which features the exhibit How Dayton Helped End A War: the 10th Anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords. Original music for ?Little Boy? was created by Pakistani-based composer Muhammad Behleem.  Other associate artists include choreographer Tricia Gelmini, visual artist Pierre Nagley, and playwright Neill Kramer. Little Boy is directed by John Fleming, who has been honored by the International Peace Research Association for promoting peace through theatre.



For information on peace experience activities and the collaborating organizations:

Artist Biographical Information:

Muhammad Iqbal Behleem, Composer, Little Boy

Muhammad Iqbal Behleem is an audio producer, composer, songwriter, singer, computer musician and sound engineer, based in Karachi , Pakistan . The composer has created and produced jingles, music for documentaries, titles and background music for T.V programs, for numerous national and multinational clients including add agencies and media companies in Pakistan . 

My mission is to place my musical talents at the service of humanity, and share in the suffering of those under injustice, with the goal of empowering them with hope and energy. I want to use the universal language of music to communicate the beauty of humanity and promote positive peace.

iIt will be a great honor for me to produce music specifically for this project because it will be a contribution of West and East to the world for message of peace through arts.

Neill Kramer, Playwright, Little Boy

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Neill Kramer currently resides in California where he is a stay-at-home dad to a seven-year-old boy.

As an undergraduate at Evergreen College , Kramer created a documentary video about the formation of a grassroots museum in the San Juan Islands called The Whale Museum. He wrote a grant and lived on the island, recording the day-to-day activities of building the museum's exhibits.

After receiving his BA from Evergreen and a Master's in Education from the University of Oregon in 1983, Neill worked for several years in the non-profit sector. He designed exhibits for museums and worked for development offices at a hospital and a theater. Subsequently, Neill taught interdisciplinary studies at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), focusing on the interface between science, technology and society.  

In 1992, with two of his colleagues from RIT, Kramer founded a software company. Winner of the prestigious Codie Award - the software industry's Oscar - Cyberpuppy Software specialized in developing creativity and internet software for children.

John Fleming, Director, Little Boy

John Fleming s 30 years of theatre experience include roles as an actor, playwright, and director in New York City ; Atlanta , Georgia ; and Ohio . He earned a master s degree in Conflict Resolution and was the first artist awarded a grant from the International Peace Research Association (IPRA).  Fleming presented to the 2004 IPRA Annual Conference in Hungary , featuring his work with youth and its applications to the pursuit of global peace. He is a member of the international Transcend: Art and Peace Network.

John Fleming is the founding Artistic Director of YS Kids Playhouse (YSKP), the Miami Valley  s only avant garde theatre company by and for youth.  The YSKP original, multimedia productions have received critical acclaim for their unique blend of innovation and entertainment, and YSKP has received ongoing recognition by the National Endowment for the Arts.

As founder of the YS Kids Playhouse he has directed and choreographed 12 original plays for youth and has cultivated a high degree of theatre craft with over 500 YSKP participants. John has worked with a variety of diverse ethnic groups, including a conflict resolution project with inner city African American youth in Atlanta .

In the Dayton City Paper  The Year in Theater, Fleming was honored as 2005 Best Director of a Play for the Sinclair Community College comedia d el arte production ?The King Stag. As a teaching artist, Fleming is on the roster of the Ohio Arts Council Arts in Education Program, The Muse Machine, and the Kennedy Center/Ohio Partners in the Arts Alliance.

Michiko Itatani, Visual Artist, Shirley-Jones Gallery Exhibit "Childhood's End"

Michiko Itatani was born and raised in Kobe , Japan .  In college, she had an early passion to become a writer.  After some reflection, she decided instead to pursue the visual arts.  In the early 1970s,  she moved to Chicago where she has spent her professional adult life.  She studied, and now teaches, at the Art Institute of Chicago, was a founding member of NAME Gallery, and is a fixture of the art and
critical scene of the Windy City .  Itatani's work springs from her continuing immersion in literature and has over the past 3 decades explored themes of space, self/others, micro/macro, the body and questions about theoretical space/hyperspace.  She paints on a large scale and is prolific.  Her work has been exhibited internationally and is in numerous public and private collections. Itatani's work for this show probes the possibilities for human kind to move into a collective cultural context where war is displaced by new and peaceful modes of resolving differences and conflict.

Companion Reading List for Little Boy:  The Peace Play, a collaborative arts event staged by YS Kids Playhouse, the Shirley-Jones Gallery, the Dayton International Peace Museum, and the Dayton Playhouse.

YOUTH READING
YS Kids Playhouse recommended reading for youth, as supplementary activity to Little Boy: The Peace Play:

  • Hiroshima No Pika, Toshi Maruki

  • Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, Eleanor Coerr

  • The Lord of the Flies, William Golding

  • Animal Farm, George Orwell

  • The Last Flower: A Parable in Pictures, James Thurber

For more youth books about and for peace education, here is a general list from Spanish in Our Libraries Web  site::

Weapons of Mass Instruction: Anti War Books for Young People,
http://www.sol-plus.net/peace.htm

ADULT READING
Recommended by Steve Fryburg, a Board member for the Dayton International Peace Museum

  • Seeking Peace Johann Christoph Arnold ISBN: 0-452-28186-5
  • Waging Peace in a Nuclear Age David Krieger and Frank Kelly ISBN: o-88496-285-7
  • Hope in a Dark Time David Krieger ISBN:1-59266-005-3
  • The Power of Nonviolence Beacon Press ISBN:0-8070-1407-9
  • The Impossible will take a Little While Paul Rogat Loeb ISBN:
    o-465-04166-3
  • For a Future to be Possible Thich Nhat Hanh ISBN: 1-888375-07-8
  • Jesus and Nonviolence, A Third Way Walter Wink ISBN:0-8006-3609-0
  • I'd Rather be Teaching Peace Coleman McCarthy ISBN: 1-57075-430-6
  • Being Peace Thich Nhat Hanh ISBN: 0-938077-00-7
  • Peace is Every Step Thich Nhat Hanh 0-553-35139-7
  • Nonviolence in Theory and Practice Robt. L. Holmes 1-57766-183-4
  • Planethood Benjamin B. Ferencz and Ken Keyes, Jr ISBN:0-915972-21-2
  • The Poetry of Peace David Krieger ISBN:0-9722503-9-5
  • Art and Humanist Ideals, Contemporary Perspectives Wm. Kelly ISBN: 1-876832-25-8
  • Peace Quest Kelly Guinan ISBN: 0-9719279-0-1 (Great youth activities book)
  • Go With Peace Kelly Guinan (Great youth activities book)
  • U.N. Resolution for a Culture of Peace, on the U.N. website, http://www3.unesco.org/iycp/

'STEEL MAGNOLIAS' ON TAP AT XENIA HIGH SCHOOL THEATRE

Tickets for Steel Magnolias have reserved seating. The show will be performed at the Xenia High School Theater, located at 303 Kinsey Road in Xenia. Tickets went on sale Monday, August 1st, so there is still plenty of seating still available. Seating is limited to 100 spectators per performance, so there is not a bad seat in the house!!! Tickets may be reserved by calling 937-372-0516; they are not available online at this time. If you call us for reservations, we will be certain to get you the best available seat(s).  Tickets are $10 for general admission and $8 for students and senior adults.  Check out X*ACT's website at:  www.xeniaact.org

Cast:

  • Truvy - Linda Coates
  • Annelle - Tara Craven
  • Clairee - Gloria Roth
  • Shelby - Kristin Neumann
  • M'Lynn - Lisa Hale
  • Ouiser - Carolyn Borden-Collins

Show Dates:

  • August 19, 7:30 PM
  • August 20, 7:30 PM
  • August 21, 2:30 PM
  • August 26, 7:30 PM
  • August 27, 7:30 PM
  • August 28, 2:30 PM