American Next Wave

Four Contemporary Plays from the HighTide Festival

Stella Fawn Ragsdale, Mona Mansour, Laura Marks, Branden Jacob-Jenkins, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN:
  9781408173077
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781408173084
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

A collection of four plays by new American writers curated from the Emerging Writers Group at the Public Theater, New York. These plays represent the finest works developed by the Public Theater, addressing contemporary social preoccupations: race, class, heritage, economic hardship, family values and identity.
The plays included are: Perish by Stella Fawn Ragsdale: when Porter's father kidnaps her son, she must go back to the woods of East Tennessee to find him, where she is distracted by a mysterious firebird. Textured with poetry and grit, this play follows the plight of women in Appalachia and the disappearance of the working class.
The Hour of Feeling by Mona Mansour: in 1967, fuelled by a love of English Romantic poetry, a young Palestinian academic, Adham, and his new wife, Abir, take a trip to London, where he will deliver a career defining lecture. While the situation in his home "country" deteriorates and his marriage threatens to dissolve, Adham confronts his fear of failure and the reality that he may be an outsider no matter where he goes.
Bethany by Laura Marks: when the going gets tough, the tough get going, and the going has gotten very tough indeed for Crystal. Her job is in jeopardy, her house has been repossessed and her daughter taken by social services. It's time for Crystal to get going. But in her effort to get her daughter back and put her life on the right track, Crystal is forced to question just how far she's willing to go to survive.
Neighbors by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins: Black face, not on my doorstep, not today. Richard Patterson is not happy. The family of black actors that has moved in next door is rowdy, tacky, shameless, and uncouth. And they are not just invading his neighborhood-they're infiltrating his family, his sanity, and his entirely post-racial lifestyle. This wildly theatrical, explosive play on race is an unconventional comedy which uses minstrelsy both to explore the history of black theater and to confront tensions in 'post-racial' America.

Mona Mansour

The Hour of Feeling

The playwright gratefully acknowledges Mandy Hackett and Liz Frankel at the Public Theater; Professor Nina Schwartz for invaluable insights into literary criticism; and fellow playwright and amazing dramaturg Ismail Khaldi

The Hour of Feeling received its first UK staged reading at the HighTide Festival, Halesworth, Suffolk, on 6 May 2012 and featured the following cast and creative team.

Adham	Robert Gilbert
Beder	Ishia Bennison
Abir	Sofia Stuart
George	Geoffrey Breton
Theo	Jack Cosgrove
Diana	Olivia Vinall

Director Richard Fitch

Characters
in order of appearance

Adham, Palestinian, twenty-five. A scholar. Handsome, intense, equal parts cocky and unsure.

Beder, Adham’s mother, fifties. As intense as her son. World-weary but fierce. Funny, too. Not a great cook.

Abir, Palestinian, nineteen. Smart, beautiful, unself-conscious.

George, English scholar, late twenties to early thirties, but could be older. Very polished, more confident than Adham. A bit argumentative, loves the sound of his own voice. The ladies like him.

Theo, English scholar, mid-twenties. Affable, energetic, sweet, willing to look foolish at times.

Diana, English, early twenties. Ex-scholar, current bohemian. Very friendly, very curious about the world. Sexy in a ‘joie de vivre’ kind of way.

The play takes place in the summer of 1967 in two places: London and Beit Hanina, a village considered a ‘suburb’ of East Jerusalem. In 1948, Beit Hanina was captured by Jordanian forces, so it became part of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. But residents there considered themselves Palestinian first and foremost. This is still the case when the play begins.

About Language

I’ve indicated surtitles for Arabic translations. There are other ways of conveying these, and I would welcome exploring them. Dialect-wise, it seems to fit the rules of the play that in scenes with just Arab characters, no dialect is present. But in scenes with the British, Adham has a Palestinian accent, as does Abir. The Arabic is transliterated; a capital A indicates the consonant ’ayn, and a capital H indicates the consonant Haa.

Note: In Part 2 a scene begins that is entirely in Arabic. While I would strongly suggest this scene play as such, should no surtitles or alternate form of translation be available, there is a slightly modified version of the scene, all in English. See Addendum at end of script.

Part One

Prologue

THE PARTY

Lights up, very close in on:

Adham stands, reads out loud from Wordsworth’s poem ‘To My Sister’, first in Arabic:

Adham

Hunaaka baraka feelhawaa’

Tabdou idraakan lil’ibtihaaj, youhab

Lil’ashjaar aljardaa’ wa ljibaal alaariya

Wa lilAushb al ‘akhDar fee lHuqoul.

[There is a blessing in the air,

Which seems a sense of joy to yield

To the bare trees, and mountains bare,

And grass in the green field.]

Then in English:

My sister! ’Tis a wish of mine

Put on your woodland dress;

And bring no book: for this one day

We’ll give to idleness.

Beder Idleness? Hm.

Adham shushes her.

Adham

Love, now a universal birth,

From heart to heart is stealing,

From earth to man, from man to earth:

It is the hour of feeling.

Lights widen a little to reveal:

Late afternoon. A small, stifling apartment, in which Adham’s mother, Beder, fifties, cooks – energetically but not necessarily skillfully.

Beder Keep going.

Adham I can’t. It smells terrible in here.

Beder You don’t have to eat it.

Adham Someone does. All these years and she’s never learned to cook.

Beder So what? No one starved.

Adham Can I open the window? Please.

Beder No. I just killed a mosquito. I don’t want to have to run around chasing them off all night.

Adham It’s stifling in here. It’s only going to get worse when the guests arrive. (Sarcastic and playful, more the former.) Whatever guests there are, actually. Who’s coming?

Beder Half the village. They better show up.

Adham Is that what you said when you invited them? I’m opening a window. I can’t breathe in here.

Beder You’re antsy? Have a smoke.

Adham I will if I feel like it. Not because you told me to.

Beder So spoiled.

Adham laughs.

Beder Like a child. It’s hard to believe you’re a college graduate, the way you act.

Adham Believe it.

Beder Intellectually, yes. Emotionally?

Adham What are you doing?

Beder Putting down a bowl. Is that so shocking?

Adham For what?

Beder Nothing you need to worry about!

Adham Food?

Beder Maybe.

Adham I see. So what’s with the coins you threw in? Are they edible?

Beder Leave it alone.

Adham My God, she has no class! All these festivities to ‘celebrate my accomplishments’?

Beder (rhetorically) Do you need money for your trip?

Adham No! It’s funded by a scholarship, all of it!

Beder Leave it alone.

Adham So we’re begging people for money now?

Beder We’re not going to London with you in that suit.

Adham ‘We’? We? Ha.

Beder (correcting herself) You. You.

Adham She thinks she’s coming along? Good God.

Beder Does the scholarship pay for new shoes and a suit?

Adham I’m leaving.

Beder The bowl is for gifts! This is common practice!

Adham Then why force it upon people?

Beder These cheap villagers? You have to mak...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Perish
• The Hour of Feeling
• Bethany
• Neighbors
• About the Authors
• eCopyright