Set in Palestine in the late 1940s, a new play written by Hanna Eady and Edward Mast, tells the story of the friendship between Noor, a sixteen-year-old Palestinian boy and the village Rabbi, Zakariah. As war ravages their homeland, what is loyalty worth and who will pay the price?
LaMaMa presents a Loose Change Production
in association with Sari Sari Women of Color Arts Coup
The Mulberry Tree
A play about Palestine
By Hanna Eady and Edward Mast
Directed by Alexandra Aron
New York: The Mulberry Tree, a new play about Palestine written by Hanna Eady and Edward Mast, looks at the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 from the perspective of a Palestinian boy growing into adulthood as his world disintegrates.
Directed by Alexandra Aron, The Mulberry Tree will have its world premiere at La MaMa ETC (66 East 4th Street, New York City), running February 9 through 25 and will celebrate opening night on Monday February 12th at 8pm. It is presented by La MaMa in association with Loose Change Production and Sari Sari Women of Color Arts Coup.
As1948, the year of the founding of Israel, approaches, a Palestinian boy and his beloved neighbor, the village Rabbi, struggle to maintain their friendship in a village of Jews and Palestinians living side by side and trying to go about life as usual – until it becomes impossible.
An achingly human story, The Mulberry Tree is a play about Palestine’s past, and a heartbreaking but hopeful ode to its future. Written by longtime collaborators Eady (born in Palestine) and Mast (born in California), this story shows the painful price of loyalty and betrayal, while honoring the power of memory.
“Reflecting Palestine’s past through a human lens, The Mulberry Tree transcends borders with themes of love, loss, and the pursuit of hope.Under the directorial vision of Alexandra Aron, the play’s exploration of erasure and memory comes alive. Audiences are invited into the relationships of neighbors turned from tender to divided, in a peaceful village upheaved by outside forces that work their way in and reshape the course of history.”” Playwrights Hanna Eady and Edward Mast
The cast includes Adam Bakri (Oscar-nominated film Omar), Ron Guttman (TV:” Godfather of Harem), Rachel Botchan (Off-Broadway: King of the Jews), Louis Sallan (Off-Broadway: Selling Kabul), Najla Said (Off-Broadway: Palestine), and Ramsey Faragallah (Public Theatre Richard III).
“Despite what is happening there at the present moment, there was a time in recent history when Muslims, Jews and Christian all lived together peacefully and happily in historic Palestine. My own father was born in that place, at that time. This play, firmly settled in history and based in truth, tells the story of two very close families whose deep long-standing friendship is challenged by the forces of politics and nationalism. I think at this time the best thing we can do as artists is try to imagine and create possibilities for the future, and sometimes that requires a closer look at both our humanity and our shared past. This play gives us the chance to do just that.” Najla Said (Salma)
“To me, this play is all about potential. It captures an idyllic moment of time in Palestine that got interrupted. Nowadays, when hope seems scarce, performing this play feels like a prayer—a hope to revive something precious that faded over the years.” Adam Bakri (Noor)
The creative team includes set design by Izmir Ikbal, costume design by Dina El-Aziz,
lighting design by Emmanuelle Delgado, projection design by Tal Yarden, casting by Stephanie Klapper, production stage manager is Debora Porazzi and assistant stage manager is Erin Mittman. This play is Produced by John Breen for Loose Change Productions.
The Mulberry Tree
Performance Dates pending
La Mama The Downstairs is located at 66 East 4th Street, basement level
HANNA EADY (Playwright) was born in 1956 in the village of Buqu’ya in the Upper Galilee region of Israel,and took an interest in theater from an early age. He earned a B.A. in social work from the University of Haifa, and then worked as the artistic director of a theatre. He then moved to the United States to study theatre, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theater from the University of Wisconsin and a Master of Fine Arts in drama and directing from the University of Washington in Seattle. After obtaining his third academic degree, Eady opened the New Image Theater Company, where he wrote and produced numerous plays, including Seeing Double (1991) and Abraham’s Land (1992). The play Suhmata: Memory of Stones, which he co-wrote with Edward Mast, depicts the destruction of a village near Acre, in what is now northern Israel, during the 1948 Palestine war. The play debuted in Seattle in 1996 and has since been performed in various theaters in the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East.
EDWARD MAST (Playwright) was born in California and now lives in Seattle with his wife and daughter. His plays Jungalbook, Dinosaurus, and Wolf Child: The Correction of Joseph are published by Anchorage Press, and his plays by Dramatic Publishing Company. He has received commissions, awards, grants, and fellowships from Seattle Arts Commission, Artist Trust, Seattle Childrens Theatre, American Alliance for Theatre and Education, CalArts Center for New Theatre, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Recent productions include Seneca, with Samizdat Theatre; Shearwater River, with Chain Link; No Problem, a puppet show, with Cardboard Theatre; S2 at Annex Theatre; Tent City Planet, Antigone’s Nation, Sleepwalking Apocalypse, and Shadows of Exile, with the Theatre Squad; The Million Bells of Ocean at Moving Arts and American Theatre Company; and adaptations of Prometheus Bound/Unbound at the Bailiwick Theatre, The War Prayer at The Coterie, Uncle Vampire at Write/Act, Peach Blossom Fan at the CalArts Center For New Theatre, and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea at the Resident Theatre Company. His play Suhmatah (with Hanna Eady), has been touring Israel since 1998.
ALEXANDRA ARON (Director) is the founder and Producing Artistic Director of the Remote Theater Project bringing theater artists from different cultural backgrounds into dialogue to create new work (remotetheaterproject.com). Alex has directed in NY and internationally: Leslie Epstein’s King of the Jews at HERE Arts starring Richard Topol, A Night in the Old Marketplace (Frank London/ Glen Berger) at MASS MoCA and São Paulo, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Toronto, Milan, New York City, Naked Old Man by Murray Schisgal starring David Margulies (Ensemble Studio Theatre); Imagining Madoff by Deb Margolin (Theater J, DC); Three Seconds in the Key by Deb Margolin (New Georges, NYC). Salomé: Woman of Valor, Adeena Karasick/ Frank London (Vancouver, Toronto, ART’s Oberon Theater). She directed a short film Two Altars and a Cave starring Lois Smith.
Alex has developed plays with Palestinian and Jewish theater artists. She commissioned and produced GREY ROCK by Amir Nizar Zuabi at La MaMa and seen in Melbourne and Adelaide Festivals, Kennedy Center, Guthrie Theater Under the Radar Festival. Alex is co-producing LINES an international collaboration with Fidaa Zidan (Palestine), John Rwothomack(Uganda/UK) , Junaid Sarieddeen (Lebanon) which will premiere at Sheffield Theatre, UK and open at LaMaMa in April.
She is an affiliated artist of New Georges Theater, Lincoln Center Directing Lab & Women’s Project alum and a graduate of Wesleyan University. www.alexandraaron.com