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Lupita Nyong’o and the cast of Broadway’s Eclipsed by playwright and “The Walking Dead” star Danai Gurira were joined onstage this weekend by U2 lead singer and ONE Campaign co-founder Bono, who surprised the audience during the curtain call/bows to launch the first in a series of dedications at Eclipsed to the abducted and still missing 219 schoolgirls of Chibok, Northern Nigeria, and abducted girls all around the world.

See  video courtesy of Eclipsed on Broadway:

 

At the Saturday, April 30, 2016 matinee, Lupita Nyong’o spoke briefly then introduced Bono who addressed the audience at the Golden Theatre, dedicating that day’s performance—by name—to two of the girls abducted from the Chibok School by the Boko Haram in April 2014, an international tragedy which spawned the #BringBackOurGirls campaign.  The dedication initiative entitled #KNOWHERNAME gave voice to the  names of two girls: Lydia Habila and Rejoice Musa, missing for 747 days (as of Saturday, April 30, 2016) at Saturday’s performance.

 

Nyong’o, Bono and Eclipsed cast member Akosua Busia all spoke to the importance of keeping the world’s attention on the missing girls, and of knowing the girls by name. During the dedication, they said:

 

Lupita Nyong’o: “We’ve asked (Bono) to join us today to launch our effort to bring direct attention to the challenges faced by millions of girls all over the world living under the tyranny of war, in poverty and being denied their human rights simply because they are female … From here on out, each performance will be dedicated to specific girls from around the world who have been kidnapped and are still missing.”

Bono: “The cast wants us to remember two specific girls in particular — Lydia Habila and Rejoice Musa … It goes without saying if they were American girls or Irish girls we’d get a daily report on how they are doing. Well, they’re not out of the news tonight and we want that daily report.”

Akosua Busia: “Many of the abducted girls are living lives exactly like those you have just witnessed today on our stage. They are used as tools of war. Lydia Habila and Rejoice Musa. Know her name.”

 

As previously announced, all future performances of Eclipsed will have live dedications during the bows at the end of the show.  In some cases, special guests like Bono will join the cast onstage for this moment.  At all other performance, one of the Eclipsed cast members onstage will do the honors.

Eclipsed recently received five Outer Critics Circle Award nominations including Outstanding New Broadway Play, Outstanding Actress in a Play (Lupita Nyong’o), and Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play (Pascale Armand, Zainab Jah, Saycon Sengbloh); a special Drama Desk Award for playwright Gurira (Sam Norkin Award) and a nomination for Featured Actress in a Play (Saycon Sengbloh); plus three Lucille Lortel Award nominations for its celebrated Off-Broadway run in the following categories: Outstanding Play, Outstanding Director and Outstanding Costume Design.

www.eclipsedbroadway.com