Silk Road Rising cofounder Jamil Khoury says the uproar over Manhattan’s Ground Zero mosque inspired both his new play in progress, “Mosque Alert,” and his attempt to crowdsource the playwriting process via a Web page.
It has also produced a library of videos that includes a brief biography for each of the six characters, along with individual riffs—developed in collaboration with the actors—on topics such as “family drama” and “being an American.” Anyone with a computer and Internet access can view these minidramas and, if they choose, participate in the process by leaving comments on the site. Khoury, who believes this online workshopping is a “theater first” and “the next frontier in new-play development,” takes them all into consideration and periodically weighs in himself.
And that’s a dilemma for Khoury, who argues that Baker’s positions are not unrealistic. “These are politics we see in op-ed pieces, from Fox News commentators, and in speeches at the Republican National Convention. They are relatively mainstream ideas.” On the other hand, he adds, “I don’t want this to be about demonizing people I don’t agree with. It’s a balancing act. My struggle.”
