Media coverage is invited - Friday October 6 – Chelsea Piers/Pier 60
#1 – Post-rehearsal interviews, 12:30pm-1:30pm
#2 – Red carpet arrivals, 5pm-6pm; President Bill Clinton arrival, 6:30pm

New York, NY (September 18, 2006) – A gala performance of Speak Truth to Power: Voices from Beyond the Dark by Ariel Dorfman, directed by Terry Kinney, and starring Lorraine Bracco, Giancarlo Esposito, Charles Grodin, Matthew Modine, Robin Wright Penn, Gloria Reuben, Martin Sheen, Christian Slater, Sharon Stone, Sigourney Weaver will be staged at Chelsea Piers on Friday, October 6, 2006.

Ethel Kennedy will present the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Ripple Of Hope Award to President William Jefferson Clinton for his commitment to a more just and peaceful world.

The event will benefit SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER and The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial. Among the defenders of human rights in attendance will be Bobby Muller, who won the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for his International Campaign to Ban Landmines.

SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER, the global human rights initiative founded by Kerry Kennedy and Nan Richardson, brings people face-to-face with courageous human rights heroes. This multifaceted project presents inspiring stories of 51 women and men from over 40 countries who have stood up to oppression at great personal risk in the non-violent pursuit of human rights including demilitarization, children of war, environmental activism, and religious self-determination.

SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER began with the publication of a book of interviews by Kerry Kennedy, Speak Truth to Power: Human Rights Defenders Who Are Changing Our World (Umbrage Editions – www.umbrageeditions.com), and the launch of www.SpeakTruthToPower.org.

In addition to the book, the SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER project also includes a PBS documentary, five public service announcements that aired on Court TV, and a 64-page educational curriculum distributed free by Amnesty International to 10,000 high schools and universities.

Also planned for the morning of October 6th is a series of symposia on human rights for 5,000 New York high school students that will include speakers Freedom Neruda of the Ivory Coast, Rana Husseini of Jordan, Ka Hsaw Wa of Burma, Bruce Harris of the UK and Van Jones and Stephen Bradberry of the US.

The play by award-winning author Ariel Dorfman premiered in 2000 at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington D.C., hosted by President William Jefferson Clinton and has toured to over 20 cities in the United States as well as in Greece London, Madrid, Barcelona, Sydney, Helsinki, Rome, Seoul, Florence, and Mantua. Plans for the future performances include Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Santiago, Nashville, Paris, Beirut, and Qatar.

An ongoing New York production of Speak Truth to Power: Voices from Beyond the Dark directed by Terry Kinney with compositions by Obadiah Eaves, runs Sundays at 7PM and Mondays at 8PM from October 15 through December 18 as part of the Impact Festival at the Culture Project (www.impactfestival.org; for tickets www.ticketmaster.com, (212) 307-4100).

SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER is a program of The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial (www.rfkmemorial.org), an activist organization dedicated to Robert F. Kennedy’s vision of creating a more peaceful and just world. For almost 40 years the RFK Memorial has worked to advance the human rights movement through partnering with courageous grassroots defenders from around the world who have won the RFK Human Rights Award, some of whom are featured in Speak Truth to Power, and supporting exceptional authors and journalists whose work brings light to injustice through the RFK Book and Journalism Awards.

The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial is a 501c3 charitable organization.

For additional information:

Jeffrey Buchanan
The RFK Memorial
(202)463-7575 x241