HuffPost today announced a collaboration with The Center for Investigative Reporting’s StoryWorks, to transform our original journalism into documentary theater.
The production, titled “Tomorrow, Inshallah,” was inspired by the groundbreaking Islamophobia Tracker created by Rowaida Abdelaziz and Christopher Mathias. The main characters are based on people interviewed by Rowaida and Christopher during their ongoing reporting on this topic, and each performance will be followed by an interactive community discussion.
The Islamophobia Tracker was launched in the wake of the terror attacks in Paris and mass shooting in San Bernardino, California ― and amidst a surge in anti-Muslim rhetoric from U.S. politicians. The purpose of the project, which ran throughout 2016, was to document the wave of hate against American Muslims using news reports and first-hand accounts.
“Tomorrow, Inshallah,” written by award-winning playwright Rehana Lew Mirza and directed by StoryWorks’ Jennifer Welch, opens at the Living Room Theatre in Kansas City and runs from July 20 to Aug. 5. Kansas City was chosen, in part, because it was one of the 25 cities on HuffPost’s Listen to America tour in 2017, and because of its large Muslim population.
The play is the third foundation-funded project at HuffPost. We created the Project Zero series on neglected tropical diseases last year with support from the Gates Foundation. Our two-year global project on transforming capitalism, This New World, is funded by Atlanta-based Kendeda and Partners for a New Economy, which is an international donor collaborative based in Switzerland.
The theater collaboration was funded by the Doris Duke Foundation.
Matthew Krumholtz, head of philanthropic initiatives at HuffPost, has been facilitating the project, while Cat Smith on the Impact team helped initiate discussions with StoryWorks.