THE ERA OF EDEN
A Trilogy
By Alana Ruben Free
BEGINNER AT LIFE - A one-woman show
When Eden discovers in a yoga class that she is “not connected to her body,” she sets out on a quest of self-recovery that brings her deep into the wilderness of anorexia, her sexuality, and her marriage.
FEAR AND DESIRE: A MOTHER-DAUGHTER STORY -
A drama in three acts; 3 F
Eden finds herself further away from her dream of home upon marrying and having a baby than when she was single and searching in Israel. By courageously facing and befriending both the fearsome witch and abandoned child within, Eden through her poetry claims her body as her ultimate spiritual home.
BLACK FIRE/WHITE FIRE - A full-length play, 2F, 2M, with some double casting
A handsome Irish neighbor sets his sights on newly divorced Eden and challenges her relationship to her religion and art. She must reconcile her conflicting desire for love and relationship with her desire to set her own course. Yet, neither wrestling with God, nor meeting his estranged wife, Sophia, can spare her from the painful reality that to claim love she will have to paradoxically both leave behind her idea of Eden and fully claim it. (Revised script due: March 15, 2011)
If you would like to read any of these plays, please respond to me below
By copying and pasting the form into an email and sending to alana.free@gmail.com
RESPONSE FORM – REQUEST SCRIPTS
RE:THE ERA OF EDEN, A trilogy by Alana Ruben Free
Part OneBEGINNER AT LIFE, A one-woman show
Part TwoFEAR AND DESIRE: A MOTHER - DAUGHTER STORY; A drama in three acts; 3 F
Part ThreeBLACK FIRE/WHITE FIRE, A full-length play, 2F, 2M, with some double casting
Eden’s story gains attention from men and women of all ages and faiths, because it portrays a dramatic, intergenerational search to answer the question of where home really resides, and how to inhabit that place. Alana’s plays are a revelation in rich imagery and well-structured dialogue.
BEGINNER AT LIFE
Description - When Eden discovers in a yoga class that she is “not connected to her body,” she sets out on a quest of self-recovery that brings her deep into the wilderness of anorexia, her sexuality, and her marriage
Development History - BEGINNER AT LIFE has been performed in Tel Aviv as Matchilat L’Chaim in spring 2010; Milan, Torino, and Novara as Principianti alla Vita in 2009-10; Sydney, Australia in 2008 and spring, 2010, as well as in Toronto and New York City in 2007. Performances are being scheduled in Istanbul in 2011. The play developed out of the monologues VIRGIN MOM AND STILL WAITING (2003) and ODE TO EVE (2004) both performed at The Cutting Room, NYC. Full scripts of BEGINNER AT LIFE were worked in front of audiences throughout 2004-05 at the C Note in the East Village, Cornelia Street Café, and the Bowery Poetry Club. Australian Stage reviewer LB Sykes has commented, “This is transformational, transcendent, inspirational, insightful, challenging, uplifting theatre.” The Steppenwolf literary department has also commented that Alana “displays an intelligent and sensitive voice”.
FEAR AND DESIRE
Description – Eden, a new mother in Manhattan, asks the audience, “How do you trust life if you don’t trust your mother?” Dealing with the micro-management of her life by her executive “supermom”, Eden is desperately trying to reconnect with herself while battling post-partum depression. We follow Eden’s journey in a series of flashbacks – a visit to work on a kibbutz which multiplies her questions and leads her to an orthodox Biblical study center in Jerusalem; a family loss which brings her back to New York and a proposal for marriage; as well as guidance on womanhood from spiritual teachers, a psychiatrist, and her immigrant grandmother. However to ultimately find and free herself, Eden must dance with the witch and child within.
Development History - FEAR AND DESIRE was given a staged reading in NYC at Julia’s Reading Room, in the home of legendary producer of Julia Miles, on September 21, 2010. Publicized readings were staged in Sydney, Australia in May, 2010, and in NYC, at NOLA Studios, at the Mamapalooza Festival and the conference of The Association for Research on Motherhood in May 2009 and 2010.
BLACK FIRE/WHITE FIRE
Description: A handsome Irish neighbor sets his sights on newly divorced Eden and challenges her relationship to her religion and art. She must reconcile her conflicting desire for love and relationship with her desire to set her own course. Yet, neither wrestling with God, nor meeting his estranged wife, Sophia, can spare her from the painful reality that to claim true love she will have to paradoxically leave behind her idea of Eden and fully claim it. Black Fire/White Fire had two well-attended publicized staged readings in Sydney, May 2010.
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FEAR AND DESIRE: A MOTHER - DAUGHTER STORY
Author’s Statement
My early developmental years were infused with the messages sung out on my FREE TO BE YOU AND ME album (i.e., travel the world, make my own statement, break-free of gender roles) and equally strong broadcasted messages from my “Super-Mom” (i.e., be financially independent, a mother, and look great). After business school, I decided to start my life in Israel, become a writer, and seek out a meaningful spiritual life. In Jerusalem, I absorbed images of womanhood that were new to me, but centuries old: self-abnegation, modesty, and conformity. By twenty-six, in my attempt to fulfill myself and so many different visions of womanhood, I, the onetime Rhodes Scholar finalist, was depressed, anorexic, married, working, religiously observant, and a mother of a child with special needs.
Our wounds become our blessings when we turn them into art. I set out immediately to writing classes and enrolled in graduate school in Jewish Studies with the goal of writing historical plays and fiction. However, as I grappled with healing my inner world, I found myself more and more deeply inspired and captivated by the times I was living in, especially for women. I wanted to share my perspective and experience of healing with the world. I wanted it to be spoken aloud and experienced in a collective container. I decided to write my story as a trilogy of plays.
Knowing that there is too much at stake if men and women do not find their inner strength, authenticity, and new values, I refused to compromise on message for the sake of conventional form, and I believe this is why my work has found such a strong following. So many women and men thank me for saying aloud and clearly what they know in their bones, but is not being broadcasted in mainstream media; that the honest complexity of the struggle to assert real humanity and claim one’s individual power is often preceded by a battle with addiction, depression or grave disillusionment.
The work of reclaiming our sexuality, deeper wisdom, spiritual lives, creativity, and individuality is essential to our species’ evolution and survival. I have attempted over the three plays to provide a character struggling and succeeding in her own way on each of these levels.
