“Blackbird: A Story of Kosovo, America, and the Theory of Relativity”
Presented by the Blessed Trinity Theatrical Alliance

Tuesday, April 21, at 7:30 p.m. at St. Brigid Church, Johns Creek
Wednesday, April 22, at 6:30 p.m. at St. Catherine of Siena Church, Kennesaw
Thursday, April 23, at 7:30 p.m. at Blessed Trinity High School, Roswell
Tuesday, April 28, at 7:30 p.m. at St. Jude the Apostle Church, Atlanta
Wednesday, April 29, at St. Ann Church, Marietta

It was seeing the 2004 film “Hotel Rwanda” that really provided inspiration, said Allan Dodson, drama director at Blessed Trinity High School, who is preparing to present his play about the relationship between a Kosovar student and an American student.

The play, “Blackbird: A Story of Kosovo, America, and the Theory of Relativity,” will be presented five times from April 21-29 at parishes in the north Atlanta.

Developing the play was a long process that began before Dodson was even teaching at Blessed Trinity: the history of tension in the region goes back hundreds of years, but 1999 was a key year for Americans.

Shortly after viewing the film, Dodson received information from Catholic Relief Services about a trip to Kosovo.

“It seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime,” he said.

The opportunity came in the form of a CRS-sponsored trip to Kosovo in the summer of 2004. Dodson applied for a spot among 10 U.S. teachers that would travel and meet the people of the region.

In order to be chosen, he had to present a plan to bring the information back to the students at Blessed Trinity.

“Writing a play seemed like a natural way to go,” he said. “So I put together a group of students, and we started the process.”

In 1999, Kosovo was a part of Serbia, but 90 percent of the population was Albanian. That year marked a war between the two ethnic groups with intervention on the Albanian side by NATO forces.

“It seemed that no one in America had ever even heard of Kosovo before the war, but it came on the heels of the genocide in Bosnia, and the world took notice,” Dodson said.

In 2004, Kosovo was still technically part of Serbia, but the region was a U.N. protectorate. Tension was still high between the factions, and Dodson’s trip took him to areas populated by both Serbs and Albanians.

“A week or so before we left, a bomb went off in Prishtina near the hotel where we were supposed to be staying,” he recalled. “That was a little scary. Once we got there, we could see security check points and machine gun nests right in the streets. I never thought I’d see anything like that in my life.”

At the beginning of the 2004 school year, Dodson and Blessed Trinity students, then sophomores, Katelyn Coombs, Mary Beth Gizinski, Katie Krolikowski and Meg Schroeder, along with freshman Paul Markert, began the process of writing the play.

“It was harder than I expected to work in a group like that. We had a few false starts. But we finally created a plot that tells the story in an environment that Americans can relate to. And we tried hard not to make it preachy,” Dodson said.

The play presents the story of Armend, a Kosovar student living in America. He accepts a job tutoring Michael, an American student, in physics, specifically relativity.

According to Dodson, “Relativity seemed like a good subject that would work as an analogy in the story. Einstein always reminds us that things can look different from someone else’s point of view.”

As the story progresses through four physics lessons, Armend discovers that Michael has another agenda. Their viewpoints eventually clash, and they are both forced to think about the world in a different way.

“I met a lot of nice people in Kosovo, both Serbs and Albanians,” said Dodson. “I didn’t want to present the story from either perspective too heavily, so we tried to present both sides through the two characters. It’s a complicated issue.”

After nearly five years of development, “Blackbird” is ready for the stage.

“Blackbird: A Story of Kosovo, America, and the Theory of Relativity” by the Blessed Trinity Theatrical Alliance will be presented on Tuesday, April 21, at 7:30 p.m. at St. Brigid Church, 3400 Old Alabama Road, Johns Creek; Wednesday, April 22, at 6:30 p.m. at St. Catherine of Siena Church, 1618 Ben King Road, Kennesaw; Thursday, April 23, at 7:30 p.m. at Blessed Trinity High School, 11320 Woodstock Road, Roswell; Tuesday, April 28, at 7:30 p.m. at St. Jude the Apostle Church, 7171 Glenridge Drive, Atlanta; and on Wednesday, April 29, at St. Ann Church, 4905 Roswell Road, Marietta.

“We have a really talented cast, and the script is very strong,” said Dodson, who published his first play, “Three Hundred and One,” last year and will have another, “Santas’ Night Out,” produced this spring.

“I think audiences will find it intriguing and challenging,” said Dodson.

“I hope our students and our audiences will become more aware of the human rights issues that take place far from our borders,” he added. “And I hope they’ll understand that there’s something all of us can do, even if it’s something small.”