British Actor and playwright Michael Mears along with Maria Santelli and Jake Short, executive director and administrative and outreach coordinator, respectively for the Center for Conscience and War, will give two presentations on April 3 on the campus of Bluffton University.
At 11 a.m. in Yoder Recital Hall, Mears, Santelli and Short, a 2010 Bluffton graduate, will present “100 Years of Conscientious Objection to War: Conscience, Dissent, Resistance and Civil Liberties from World War I through Today.”
The Forum will explore the history of conscientious objection to war and its evolution since World War I.
At 7 p.m. in Yoder Recital Hall, Mears will present “This Evil Thing,” a one-person play that delves into the experiences of conscientious objectors in Great Britain during World War I and explores the courage it took to be a pacifist. The play focuses on two men in particular: Bert Brockelsby, a young schoolteacher and preacher, and Bertrand Russell, philosopher and Nobel laureate.
Both events are free and open to the public.
