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Sign up today1001 Nights in Iraq
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Learn moreShant Kenderian’s visit to Baghdad in 1980 at age seventeen was supposed to be short, just long enough to make peace with his estranged father before returning home to the United States. But Saddam Hussein invaded Iran and sealed off Iraq’s borders to every man of military age—including Kenderian. Suddenly forced onto the frontlines, he saw his two-week visit turn into a nightmare that lasted for ten years.
Kenderian miraculously survived the Iran-Iraq War and Desert Storm, the minefields, sinking boats, fires, starvation, heavy interrogation, and solitary confinement. What broke him in the end was his love affair with a female soldier named Monica. Yet throughout his ordeal, he never lost his respect for people, his faith in God, or his sense of humor. His story is a unique look into a country and a culture only hinted at in the headlines.
Shant Kenderian immigrated to the United States at the age of fifteen with his mother. He has earned several degrees, including a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from John Hopkins University. He currently works for The Aerospace Corporation in the Los Angeles area, where he lives with his wife and three children.
Jason Collins
Over the past twenty-one years, Mr. Collins has been seen on Northwest Stages including The Group Theatre, TAG, Village Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Seattle Children’s Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre and The Seattle Repertory Theatre. Favorite roles include Seymour in Little Shop Of Horrors, (Village Theatre) and Matt in The Fantasticks, (ACT). Mr. Collins has had the good fortune and distinct pleasure to be involved with two collaborations with Speeltheatre, Holland at the Seattle Children’s Theatre; Nicky Somewhere Else and more recently Glittra’s Mission. Mr. Collins has received three prestigious Footlight Awards for his work as Huck Finn in Big River and Valentine LaMar in Babes In Arms, (both with Village Theatre) and Finn in Into The West (for Seattle Children’s Theatre). In addition to Live Theatre, Mr. Collins can be heard on the original cast recordings of David Austin’s A Christmas Carol and Bucket Of Blood.
Reviews
“1001 Nights in Iraq rivals anything in the fantastic tales narrated by Scheherazade. But Kenderian’s story is true, making it all the more astonishing only a storyteller of extraordinary talent could have related it with such humanity, grace, and humor.”
“Shant Kenderian takes us on an emotional journey that is both tormented and complex and, in the process, establishes an important context through which we can view today’s Iraqi conflicts. What a ride!”
“Kenderian’s harrowing experiences are recorded in careful detail, offering a compelling portrait of a nightmarish time…Collins gamely inhabits the grim world of 1980s Iraq.”
“Strangely compelling memoir by a self-described ‘man without a country’…The splendidly preposterous facts overwhelm any infirmities in the telling of this amazing personal history.”
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