FIU theatre professor marks first annual Human Trafficking Awareness Day

FIU theatre professor Phillip M. Church marked the first annual Human Trafficking Awareness Day with the production Body & Sold, a powerful play featuring the real-life experiences of exploited children. Performed Jan. 11, the play was preceded by a forum and followed by a standing-room-only stage reading that concluded the night.

“The 16-member cast and crew, which was made up of FIU theatre majors, worked selflessly over the winter break and were the real inspiration behind the success of the evening,” says Church.

The script of Body & Sold was brought to Church’s attention by Margaret McCaffery, director of the Soroptimist International of Coral Gables— a national organization focused on supporting women and girls in distress. Written by Deborah Fortson, the play is based on records from teenage victims in various U.S. cities. Many of the monologues and scenes explore disturbing testimony from these once-innocent children who became drawn into a ring of exploitation and corruption.

“Body & Sold has given students and faculty a chance to explore social theater and to raise questions and awareness about a terrible pandemic that is progressively worsening as the marketplace for sex slavery, pornography and indentured labor continues to expand,” says Church.

The partnership included the FIU Alternative Theater, FIU Women’s Studies Graduate Student Association, FIU Student Government Association and the student grassroots organization Act on It. The pre-show forum included panelists including Alexander Acosta, dean of FIU College of Law; Trudy Novicki, executive director of Kristi House; Roza Pati, professor of St. Thomas University’s School of Law; and Carmen Pino, assistant special agent for Immigration and Customs Enforcement SAC/Miami.

The possibility of taking this project to Washington in 2011 to mark the National Day of Observance for Human Trafficking is currently being explored.