(The Christian Science Monitor) The stage lights are coming on in the main hall of the modernist Alhamra Arts Center. It is the last night of the Lahore Literary Festival and the venue is packed with people sitting in the aisles and standing at the rear. Hundreds more are pressed together outside at a large screen, waiting for this Sufi-inspired music, drama, and dance spectacular.
Backstage, Saadaan Peerzada, dressed in jeans and a black jacket, his gray hair tied in a ponytail, is distributing paper cups of steaming tea for the half-dozen or so performing troupes he has gathered.
Peerzada is chief operating officer of the Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop, Pakistan’s premier performing arts group, and he considers tonight's performance crucial.
