FIU students to perform ‘Body and Sold’ at International Youth Arts Festival in Great Britain

FIU theater students are in the United Kingdom this week to perform Body and Sold, a play about modern-day human trafficking.

Actors from three universities representing the United States and United Kingdom are joining forces to perform the docudrama by playwright Deborah Fortson.

Performers from Florida International University and the United Kingdom’s Southampton Solent University and Kingston University London will present this semi-staged piece of multimedia theater under the direction of FIU Theatre professor Philip M. Church.

Body and Sold opens at the Millais Theatre at Southampton Solent University today before playing in the Rose Theatre in Kingston on July 8 as part of the 2011 International Youth Arts Festival.

Based on transcripts from interviews with several young victims who have been lured into the sex trade, Body and Sold reveals the psychological terror experienced by victims of modern day human trafficking. Each performance is followed by an interactive discussion.

Providing an interactive element to the performance, Miami artist Xavier Cortada will produce a 12 by 20-foot message mural on-site. The mural will be painted with the assistance of students from Kingston Grammar School and Miami Beach High School.  Festival visitors will have the opportunity to sign the mural during its development.

The International Youth Arts Festival is created and produced by young people, giving them opportunities not only as performers, but as event managers, producers, creators and innovators.

Last year, nine FIU theater majors joined six students from McKinley High School in Washington, D.C., to perform the play at the Kennedy Center.