Unfortunately, this past Thursday I was unable to attend the reading of Mohammed’s Radio at the Macaulay Center. Judging by the discussion that went on in class, the reading of the play gave a new light to its meaning as well as the way each actor/actress depicted their characters. I was surprised at how easy of a read, relatively speaking, this play was. I thought that it was going to drag on but it didn’t take me more than an hour to read the play cover to cover. Since the content of Mohammed’s Radio was something that a lot of people my age can relate to, even though we were young when the events of 9/11 took place, it made the play easier to read and understand. I’m not particularly a theater lover but this play had such a controversial message that it didn’t seem to drag on.

Reading something and watching the text being acted out is very different and a lot of my classmates agreed that their perception of the characters changed after watching the stage reading. I’m not very familiar with the neighborhoods in Brooklyn but based on these characters, it seems as if it’s a traditional white neighborhood which is closed off to any type of new cultures. I think that seeing this play being read by actors would have allowed me to better visualize the events that took place in the book as well as put a face to each character to either confirm or nullify my brain’s expectation of them. The content of the play also can change while being acted out because of the way an actor interprets the stage directions. Seeing and hearing the reading would have helped me further understand the play even though I think that the play was great just based on my own reading.