Artistic Statement
While Dreams on Fire deals with depression, anxiety, and genocide, it has humor and heart, as two young people, and a grandmother, journey through their crises together. My models are Odets, Williams, and Miller, more than contemporary writers.
My goal is to make the personal political, while educating audiences about the twentieth century's first genocide.
It’s 2016 spring exam week, and students are rallying about the upcoming election, while an Armenian-American NJ college student is having a nervous breakdown. On his journey to recovery with his grandmother, and later, a classmate, he discovers the connection between his condition and the twentieth century’s first genocide—The Armenian Genocide. In its exploration of the transmission of trauma across generations, and the impact of the past on the present, the play is both universal and timely. My artistic goal is to join the personal with the political. And, as Arthur Miller says, "All great plays are about how to make of the outside world a home."
My goal is to make the personal political, while educating audiences about the twentieth century's first genocide.
It’s 2016 spring exam week, and students are rallying about the upcoming election, while an Armenian-American NJ college student is having a nervous breakdown. On his journey to recovery with his grandmother, and later, a classmate, he discovers the connection between his condition and the twentieth century’s first genocide—The Armenian Genocide. In its exploration of the transmission of trauma across generations, and the impact of the past on the present, the play is both universal and timely. My artistic goal is to join the personal with the political. And, as Arthur Miller says, "All great plays are about how to make of the outside world a home."
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Jan Balakian
Artistic Statement
While Dreams on Fire deals with depression, anxiety, and genocide, it has humor and heart, as two young people, and a grandmother, journey through their crises together. My models are Odets, Williams, and Miller, more than contemporary writers.
My goal is to make the personal political, while educating audiences about the twentieth century's first genocide.
It’s 2016 spring exam week, and students are rallying about the upcoming election, while an Armenian-American NJ college student is having a nervous breakdown. On his journey to recovery with his grandmother, and later, a classmate, he discovers the connection between his condition and the twentieth century’s first genocide—The Armenian Genocide. In its exploration of the transmission of trauma across generations, and the impact of the past on the present, the play is both universal and timely. My artistic goal is to join the personal with the political. And, as Arthur Miller says, "All great plays are about how to make of the outside world a home."
My goal is to make the personal political, while educating audiences about the twentieth century's first genocide.
It’s 2016 spring exam week, and students are rallying about the upcoming election, while an Armenian-American NJ college student is having a nervous breakdown. On his journey to recovery with his grandmother, and later, a classmate, he discovers the connection between his condition and the twentieth century’s first genocide—The Armenian Genocide. In its exploration of the transmission of trauma across generations, and the impact of the past on the present, the play is both universal and timely. My artistic goal is to join the personal with the political. And, as Arthur Miller says, "All great plays are about how to make of the outside world a home."