Warrior One

Through yoga, Philadelphia playwright Jennifer Schelter taps into the compassion of an Iraqi torture victim.


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Published: Jan 26, 2011

TOUGH LOVE: In InterAct Theatre Co.'s Love Lessons from Abu Ghraib, Jennifer Schelter took testimony of a tortured Iraqi citizen and turned it into a one-woman play.

Paul Rider Photography

[ theater ]

In 2006, lawyers working on a class-action suit against two U.S. defense contractors — CACI and Titan — interviewed an Iraqi citizen named Abdulwahab.

His testimony was roughly as follows:

He traveled from his village to Baghdad to buy a car. American forces raided the hotel he was staying in. He was restrained with plastic handcuffs, hooded and taken to one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces. He was told he was in al-Qaida. He didn't know what al-Qaida was or what it meant. He was stripped naked and interrogated. He was taken to another location and forced to run on his knees and knuckles for 10 days, not sleeping more than 20 minutes at a time.

Then he was sent to Abu Ghraib, and things got worse.

His story is buried under thousands of pages of testimony from more than 300 plaintiffs in Haidar Muhsin Saleh v. Titan Corporation — a case now awaiting review by the Supreme Court. And it would have likely stayed there, except that one of the note-takers at his interview in Istanbul was a yoga instructor and former Equity actress from Philadelphia.

After years of performing in regional theater — and burning out on it — Jennifer Schelter started a yoga studio in East Falls. She thought her stage career was long behind her.

About five years ago, she was approached by one of her students after class. "She said she had just gotten back from listening to torture testimony," explains Schelter. "She wanted me to come with her, but she didn't know why exactly. She said she thought these people needed healing, and I could help. She said, 'Maybe you could do yoga with them or maybe just your presence would be healing.'"

The student was Susan Burke, lead prosecuting attorney on Saleh v. Titan.

Schelter began writing Love Lessons from Abu Ghraib in compulsive bursts, shortly after returning home from Istanbul.

"I had reverse culture shock. No one cares about this, and everyone wants to be happy," says Schelter. "Christmas Day, I sat down and wrote as many stories as I could remember. Because the level of forgiveness in these men was beyond anything I had ever witnessed."

Love Lessons is a one-woman show based on Abdulwahab's testimony. But it's also very much about Schelter's attempt to cling to the virtues of her yoga training in the face of breathtaking inhumanity.

The play debuted at the 2007 Philly Fringe with four chairs, a stage and a budget of about $300. An InterAct Theatre Co. board member fell for it, and gave a DVD copy of the show to artistic director Seth Rozin. He fell for it, too: Love Lessons opens Saturday at InterAct.

In a basement rehearsal space on Sansom Street, Schelter slumps down into a chair facing an imaginary audience.

Her posture suddenly transforms into a distinctively male presence — slouched, but forward and direct. Her voice is not only deeper, but it seems to have a musical cadence, too: "My name is Abdulwahab. I am 33 years old. I am from a small village. I gained about 20 kilos since leaving Abu Ghraib. I was born in Iran. I am Sunni, Muslim."

Later, Schelter sits more comfortably at the lip of the tiny stage: "I mean, think about it, in their mind they have every right to think that the United States must be full of fucking assholes," she says. "I was attempting to be a compassionate witness while I was there. ... And, you know, I didn't even get to do any yoga with former detainees. There just wasn't the opportunity. But at least I think they got the sense from me that not all Westerners would do this again. I'm thankful for that."

(editorial@citypaper.net)

Love Lessons from Abu Ghraib runs Jan. 29-Feb. 13, $25, InterAct Theatre at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., 215-568-8079, interacttheatre.org.