welcome to Gitana Productions      
       
 

My Heart is Always Shaking
An Original Play Written by Lee Patton Chiles

May 22-June 7, 2009
Fridays and Saturdays 8:00 PM
Sunday Matinee 2:30 PM

St. Louis University Theater
Xavier Hall
3733 West Pine Mall

Tickets: $15 Adults  and $8 (Children 12 and under)
Discounts Available for Seniors, Students and Groups of 15 or more
Contact Gitana for tickets: 314-721-6556

 
You may purchase tickets at the following locations: Sameems Afghan Restaurant at 3191 S. Grand Ave. and Screenz at 6680 Delmar Blvd. in University City. (Special ticket discount to patrons of Sameems)

Excerpt from actual interview
 
Interviewer:   “How many brothers and sisters do you have?” 
     
Woman:     “Should I count the ones who are dead?”
     
    (The interviewer tells her yes and the woman counts them all.)
     
Interviewer:    “How many children do you have?”
     
Woman:    “Do I count the ones who are dead?”
     
    (The interviewer does not speak the woman’s language, stops writing and takes the woman’s hand.)
     
Interviewer:   “Yes. The dead count. Count them all.”
 
The woman counts them all as she holds the interviewer’s hand. She is from Afghanistan and has survived the Taliban. The woman has left her homeland and escaped to the land of the “infidels” – America.

The interviewer notices that the woman’s hands are shaking and she asks if the woman is afraid. “Yes. Even here. Even now. My heart is always shaking.”

The play, “My Heart Is Always Shaking” is based on the interviews of two dozen Afghanistan women who escaped the Taliban and trying to make a new life in St. Louis. The story, which follows the experiences of several women, is full of courage, humor, laughter, sorrow and resilience. It is a story that gives us a better understanding of the place where there is a war involving our young men and women.      



  afghan image strip
 
   
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