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Books > Language & Literature > Literature: texts > Drama texts, plays > General
What is home? The answer seems obvious. But Telling Our Stories of
Home, an international collection of eleven plays by and about
women from Lebanon, Haiti, Venezuela, Uganda, Palestine, Brazil,
India, UK, and the US, complicates the answer. The "answer"
includes stories as far-ranging as: enslaved women trying to create
a home, one by any means necessary, and one in the ocean; siblings
wrestling with their differing devotion to home after their
mother's death; a family wrestling with the government's refusal to
allow the burial of their soldier-son in their hometown; a young
scholar attempting to feel at home after studying abroad; a young
man fleeing home due to his sexual orientation only to discover the
difficulty of creating home elsewhere, and Siddis (Indians of
African descent) continuing to struggle for acceptance despite
having lived in India for over 600 years. These are voices seldom
represented to a larger audience. The plays and performance pieces
range from 20 to 90-minute pieces and include a mix of monologue,
duologue, and ensemble plays. Short yet powerful, they allow
fantastic performance opportunities particularly in an age of
social-distancing with flexible casts that together invite the
theme of home to be performed and studied on the page. The plays
include: The House by Arze Khodr (Lebanon), Happy by Kia Corthron
(US), The Blue of the Island by Evelyne Trouillot (Haiti), Nine
Lives by Zodwa Nyoni (UK), Leaving, but Can't Let Go by Lupe
Gehrenbeck (Venezuela), Questions of Home by Doreen Baingana
(Uganda), On the Last Day of Spring by Fidaa Zidan (Palestine)
Letting Go and Moving On by Louella Dizon San Juan (US),
Antimemories of an Interrupted Trip by Aldri Anunciacao (Brazil),
So Goes We by Jacqueline E. Lawton (US), and Those Who Live Here,
Those Who Live There by Geeta P. Siddi and Girija P. Siddi (India)
"Oh if we can just quiet the world for a moment. And listen within.
There's a voice guiding you. I promise it's there. And until you
can hear it, I'll be it for you." The men are all fighting, again.
An endless war. From nowhere, an unexpected leader emerges. Young,
poor and about to spark a revolution. Rebelling against the world's
expectations, questioning the gender binary, Joan finds their power
within, and their belief spreads like fire. I, Joan is a powerful
and joyous new play which tells Joan of Arc's story anew. It's
alive and queer and full of hope.
In south side Chicago, Walter Lee, a black chauffeur, dreams of a
better life, and hopes to use his father's life insurance money to
open a liquor store. His mother, who rejects the liquor business,
uses some of the money to secure a proper house for the family. Mr
Lindner, a representative of the all-white neighbourhood, tries to
buy them out. Walter sinks the rest of the money into his business
scheme, only to have it stolen by one of his partners. In despair
Walter contacts Lindner, and almost begs to buy them out, but with
the help of his wife, Walter finally finds a way to assert his
dignity. Deeply committed to the black struggle for equality and
human rights, Lorraine Hansberry's brilliant career as a writer was
cut short by her death when she was only 35. A Raisin in the Sun
was the first play written by a black woman to be produced on
Broadway and won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. Hansberry
was the youngest and the first black writer to receive this award.
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