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Munaya

     In 2007 I was invited to direct two new plays from Israel with a group of undergraduate students at Ohio Northern University. The university commissioned two new plays – one written buy an Arab playwright, and the other by an Israeli one.

     

     Munaya is a fascinating glance at the life of an Arab Christian family – their codes of behavior, faiths and morals. Munaya is the elder sister, very religious and still unmarried. Her younger sister Nisrin, on the other hand, is more liberated, more beautiful, and is now going to be married. Nisrin brings her fiancée to a long weekend to her sister’s house. Soon enough we discover why Munaya tried to avoid the meeting. Omer, Nisrin's fiancée, was once Munaya's lover, who had deserted her (thus breaking very restricting rules about honor and relationship.) Completely unexpectedly, the meeting between Omer and Munaya reignites their love, thus complicating the situation and threatening Nisrin's marriage.

 

Ohio Northern University, The Freed Center for The Performing Arts, 2007

Credits

Play by: Yousef (Joe) Sweid

Chief Producer: Nills Riess

Production Dramaturg: Joan Robbins

Translator and Text Dramaturg: Varda Fish

Set Design and technical production: Scott Henkels

Costume Design: Cathy Smalley

Lighting Design: Kathe DeVault

Music: Jonatan Cox

Sound Design: Kat Wepler

Production Manager: Lindsay Esser

 

Actors: Scott Kremode, Elizabeth Orley, Heather Powell

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