Bess Welden
REFUGE * MALJA * ﻣﻠﺠﺄ
by Bess Welden
Fiercely independent Jewish-American photojournalist Jamie Winter meets refugee kids all the time, but when Waleed, a shoeless teenager steps off the boat and in front of her lens, she is suddenly forced to confront her own cultural identity, family history, a complicated past relationship, and the undeniable compulsion to become the boy’s rescuer. Written in English and Arabic, the play explores motherhood, what it means to truly communicate across cultures and inside our own families, and how each of us defines and finds a home. Full productions will feature photographs by award-winning photojournalist Jodi Hilton.
“The Syrian Refugee crisis, literally haunted by the ghost of the Holocaust. This is what “Never Again Means Now” looks like onstage. ”
Development:
Production, Portland Stage Company, 2018
Reading, Portland Stage Company, 2018
Reading, Portland Stage Company, 2017
Residency, Hewnoaks Artist Colony, 2017
Reading, Maine Playwrights Festival, 2016
JPP Development:
2020 Jewish Playwriting Contest
Playwright Bess Welden
Bess Welden lives and makes theater in Portland, ME. She’s written over a dozen plays and librettos that center women and girls, and the lived experience of the female body. She focuses on the complicated, powerful, and often fraught love in relationships between mothers and daughters, grandmothers and granddaughters, and between sisters, and more often than not explores these characters and their stories through both a contemporary and historical Jewish lens. She’s drawn to examining how ancient stories like myths and folktales collide and resonate with everyday life, and weaves poetry, songs, illustration, photography, puppets, and languages other than English into her work. Her full-length play REFUGE MALJA premiered on Portland Stage’s mainstage and was nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 2018. Her solo comedies THE PASSION OF THE HAUS FRAU (2009), BIG MOUTH THUNDER THIGHS (2013), and one-act MADELEINES (2015) premiered in Portland Stage’s Studio Theater. LEGBALA IS A RIVER, an immersive solo-storytelling event with live music and illustration, premiered at Mayo Street Arts in 2017. Her newest play with songs, DEATH WINGS , is a semi-finalist for the 2020 O’Neill New Play Conference and was recently workshopped with Boston’s Fresh Ink Theatre. MERGIRL SAVES THE WAVES, Bess’ feminist, environmentalist adaptation of The Little Mermaid, is in development supported by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission. www.besswelden.com
WHERE ARE THE 2020 JPC TOP 7+ PLAYWRIGHTS??