GRANTHAM, Pa. (Sept. 7, 2007) — On Sept. 29, the Messiah College theatre department will give a dramatic presentation of the stories of four internationally recognized photojournalists who worked in Iraq during the war: Kael Alford, Rita Leistner, Thorne Anderson and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad. The performance is free and open to the public and will be held at 8 p.m. in Poorman Recital Hall in the Climenhaga Fine Arts Center on the college’s Grantham campus.

By utilizing personal letters, journal entries and feature stories of the photojournalists, the drama creates a masterful rendition of their experiences in Iraq. “Unembedded Voices” features Kirsten Brooks (’06) as Alford; Brian Smith, senior lecturer in biblical and religious studies at Messiah College, as Abdul-Ahad; Jordan Swisher (’10) as Anderson and Valerie Rae Smith, co-chair of the theatre department at Messiah College, as Leistner. Valerie Smith describes the play as providing an “unflinching look at war-ravaged Iraq [that] illuminates that life there is brutal yet poignant; that compassion co-exists with anger, hatred and fear.”

“Unembedded Voices” is performed in connection with the photography exhibit “Unembedded: Four Photojournalists on the War in Iraq,” on display in Messiah College’s Aughinbaugh Art Gallery from Sept. 14–Oct. 21. The photographers’ work details aspects of the war in Iraq often underrepresented in mainstream media, and the exhibit is free and open to the public and may be viewed during regular gallery hours. The Aughinbaugh Art Gallery, located in the Climenhaga Fine Arts Center on the college’s Grantham campus, is open Mondays through Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; on Fridays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and on Saturdays and Sundays from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Messiah College, a private Christian college of the liberal and applied arts and sciences, enrolls more than 2,800 undergraduate students in 60 majors. Established in 1909, the primary campus is located in Grantham, Pa., near the state capital of Harrisburg. A satellite campus affiliated with Temple University is located in Philadelphia.