Author: Nicholas Gonzalez
During the 2016 Buffalo Infringement Festival, a performance will be taking place that covers a world that not many are aware exists in the darkest corners of our society. The performance which is called “A Lured Dream” is an original piece about the world of human trafficking. It is a disturbing, yet profitable enterprise in which millions of people are sold into a life of slavery. Michael Doben is the playwright for the staged reading, and is joined by Lucas Lloyd of the Road Less Traveled Theatre Co. who directs the play. A slew of other voices such as John Profeta and Rick Lattimer will be bringing to light this underground and taboo business in its opening premiere next month.
The new performance follows after Michael Doben’s recent experience assisting directing “Judgment at Nuremberg” for New Phoenix Theatre. Doben hopes to carry the success of that play to the Buffalo Infringement Festival with “A Lured Dream”. During his college career of studying Criminal Justice, he developed a passion for the more hidden side of human rights that are being violated daily due to human trafficking. Because of our society’s lack of understanding about how this business came to be, or even being aware of its existence, human trafficking is rooted in many dark corners of the world and continues to be a source of suffering and misery for the people who are involuntarily caught up in the enterprise.
Although the subject matter in the play is real, the play will actually be a fictional piece placed in two settings. The first being in Montreal, Quebec’s St. Laurent Boulevard which is the city’s red light district, and the second being in Upstate New York. The story will have a converging timeline that the cast will help bring full circle. With “A Lured Dream” Doben hopes to “spark interest in further pursuit of illuminating these taboos, and draw out of each audience member the same passion of awareness and change that pushed me to research and write this play”. It is Doben’s hope and wish that the play will only be just the beginning in future efforts to make society become aware of a dangerous world that we know little or nothing about, in order to quell the business and end the suffering of millions living in slavery.
The performance will be held at Manny Fried Playhouse July 28th-August 7th.
Lead image: Hawk creek picture caption: Starring John Profeta as Huxley. Seen here as Ernst Janning from New Phoenix Theatre’s spring production of Judgment at Nuremberg.
Photos from performer Michael Doban