Adong Judith

In 2006, a T. A/Masters student at Makerere University, Adong returned to her war-ravaged hometown, Gulu, to study the use of theatre in the psychosocial therapy of the children who filled the ranks of Kony’s army, one of the largest child armies in human history. Adong knew then that a dissertation that would gather dust in academic shelves would be an injustice to these war-weary yet raw defiant powerful voices that needed to be heard by the world. So, she wrote Silent Voices, a play that depicts a former LRA slave-wife’s struggle to make sense of the justice she was dealt. While working on the play at Sundance Theatre Lab, Adong met her first openly gay person. The encounter challenged her to re-assess her understanding of homosexuality and she wrote Just Me, You and THE SILENCE, partly developed at the Royal Court Theatre in London and read at Makerere University and to 300 Ugandan LGBTQ & the Diplomatic community. Silent Voices’ acclaimed World Premiere at the National Theatre of Uganda amidst fear of Adong’s arrest for her daring portrayal of the government’s role in northern Uganda war crimes was described by many a Ugandan as, ‘the spiritual rebirth of theatre in Uganda since the decline of critical theatre due to political persecution of artists during the Idi Amin Regime’. It brought together victims, political, religious, cultural, Amnesty Commission and transitional justice leaders for critical, transformative conversations about issues of war crimes. For many in the Kampala audience, the atrocities in Gulu were unfamiliar and shocking, eliciting feelings of betrayal by their Government. Without a doubt, Adong had found her calling! However, a filmmaking dream nurtured since the age of 13 after watching her first African film, Consequences (Zimbabwe, 1987) still ate at Adong’s soul. Fall of 2012, she joined Temple University’s MFA Filmmaking and Media Arts under the prestigious Fulbright Fellowship, where true to her calling, her 50mins thesis film, Right Song, Wrong C(h)ord, explores the journey of a young Ugandan woman’s search of home, recognition and respect in the face of racial prejudice and the burgeoning promise of true love in the world of the American Dream. In 2015, Adong returned home with an Acholi language production of the play whose journey started there, which this time around she directed and toured 3 towns of northern Uganda and yet again brought together stakeholders in a conversation and moved Acholi people to tears, christening Adong the ‘rebirth of Okot P’ Bitek’. “The way you captured the events of the war are so spot-on. The most truthful depiction of the war ever. So, I laughed because I recognized myself in the actors on stage. I saw the meaningless atrocities I committed and saw how stupid and meaningless it all was. So, mine was a laugh of recognition, not enjoyment”, explained a former LRA Soldier audience member when Adong expressed disappointment at a few inappropriate laughter. Adong, who is 1 of 12 global Theatre Influencer’ for the 2017 54th Berlin Theatre Meeting, has found a multiplier effect approach that blends her theatre influence goals through an annual summer Theatre Production Apprenticeship she designed that teams up 10 Aspiring Theatre Makers with Renowned Local and International Theatre Makers in a hands-on-on-the-job training under her non-profit production company, Silent Voices Uganda., whose 1st Edition commenced in 2016 upon her return from the ‘Get Lost Program’ Artists Residency in Amsterdam. She continues to write, direct and produce social change plays- Holy Maria (2017), a play that asks, ‘how free is the 21st century woman?’ & Blood (2017), Adong’s Modern Day Impression of Lorraine Hansberry’s Les Blancs that exposes the hypocrisy of White American journalists that flock the African continent to cover stories of ‘barbaric’ acts, while ignoring the savagery unleashed on Black Americans back home. Adong uses a multi-layered storytelling approach that combines conventional and experimental styles with dark humor and a blend of music, dance and drama that exposes absurdities and layers of issues that make her plays accessible to diverse groups. Her plays have received Public Readings in New York, London, Toronto and Chicago and been studied at Ivy League Universities like Princeton, Dartmouth, NYU and UNC, where she has been invited as a visiting artist. Adong’s theatre directing style draws from her cinematic background creating stunning visuals on stage. Veteran Ugandan Art reporter, Wabweyo George described Adong’s 2016 directions of her play Ga-AD! as, “The Hand of God of Ugandan theatre, so reminiscent of Argentinian Diego Maradona's 1986 World Cup epic steal against England…” Adong recently signed a publishing contract with Methuen Publishers, UK for her play, Silent Voices and is currently in pre-production of her 2017 Summer Apprenticeship using the production of her LGBTQ Rights play, Just Me, You and THE SILENCE.