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BECCA MARTIN-BROWN NWA Democrat-Gazette T he Interrogator," the next installment in TheatreSquared's virtual 2020 Arkansas New Play Festival, is set in World War II. But it might not always feel like it. The playwright, Russell Leigh Sharman, says "whole sections of the transcripts [on which it is based] could be lifted out of context, and you might think they were recorded just yesterday. I began work on the story in 2015, but I returned to it as a play late last year. I was surprised, and honestly a bit disheartened, at how much more resonant the material had become in those four to five years." The story is set at Fort Hunt, a top- secret prisoner of war camp built in the suburbs of Alexandria, Va., code- named PO BOX 1142. "I first heard about PO BOX 1142 on the radio on a drive back from the Tulsa airport in 2015," Sharman explains. "NPR did a story on how the park rangers at Fort Hunt, now a national park in Alexandria, uncovered the secret history of the location: How it was used as an interrogation center by the U.S. Army and Navy during the war and immediately after. How thousands of Nazi officers and U-boat commanders passed through on their way to more permanent camps. And how the only interrogators they could find who knew the language and the culture well enough were recent immigrants, most of them German and Austrian Jews. "The kicker was that there was no torture or physical duress of any kind permitted," he adds. "The interrogators AUGUST 2-8, 2020 WHAT'S UP! 3 See Interrogator Page 4 Doomed To Repeat It? Historical lessons resonate in T2's 'The Interrogator' "It is a scary time in this country and around the world," says New York actor Joe Chisholm, pictured here in rehearsal for "The Interrogator" with Steven Marzolf and Matt Boston. "I think until a few years ago, most people would look at the megalomania that was Hitler's rise and see it as a fluke in the fabric of human history. But political division and dangerous rhetoric in today's world have seen the embers of nativism sparked and flamed in a frighteningly reminiscent fashion. It adds a heavy layer of déjàvu to see some similarities in how the world was back then compared to where we are now, and just how much we failed to learn last time. It makes the immediacy and need within the play that much easier to hook into as an actor, and I hope as an audience member." (Courtesy Photo/T2) FAQ 'The Interrogator' WHEN — 7 p.m. Aug. 7 WHERE — Streaming at playarkansas.com COST — By donation INFO — theatre2.org BONUS — The reading will be followed by a conversa- tion with the creative team. Encore streaming is available through Aug. 10. Sharman FAYETTEVILLE