The crowd cheered as the lights came up and Griffin Matthews, the co-creator, lead actor and inspiration behind the main character of Witness Uganda," walked out on stage. Matthews seemed to swell - proudly, not egotistically - with the applause. After months of preparation, "Witness Uganda" had finally been brought to life at the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T), and everyone in the packed Loeb Drama Center was there to see him and to hear his story.
Inspired by real-life events, "Witness Uganda" is a tale about aid work in the eponymous country. However it is also Matthew's analysis and critique of this aid - from the nature of the work to how people think about it and why they do it. "Witness Uganda" - a musical theatre piece developed in collaboration by Matthews' and Matt Gould, who served as a member of the Peace Corps in Mauritania - was first imagined as something akin to an infomercial for their non-profit organization UgandaProject. At times, the project's origins become abundantly clear
