in the crossing (20.0)
by Leila Buck
originally developed with Shana Gold, Yuval Boim, Adam Green, Kathryn Grody, Lameece Issaq, Maya Serhan, and Kathryn Kates
At Universalist National Memorial Church
FEBRUARY 9-10, 2027
Part of this year’s
Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival
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SYNOPSIS | CREATIVE TEAM
SYNOPSIS:
Maya, a Lebanese-American writer/performer, and her husband David, an agnostic from a Jewish family, have been invited to a conference on intercultural understanding by Joan, the president of the board - and David’s aunt - to share their experiences in Lebanon during the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah war, 20 years later.
And you’re invited to join them!
Blurring the line between truth and fiction, theater and town hall, In the Crossing (20.0) invites you into an interactive, funny, real-time exploration of the personal in the political, the past in the present, the here in the there, and how those intersections shape who we are as individuals, families, and nations.
This 20-year-anniversary revision of the play that engaged audiences across the country draws upon decades of experiences in Palestine, Israel and Lebanon, and the many questions asked about who gets to tell those stories, and how, to probe the boundaries between us, and what happens when we choose to cross them.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT:
Leila Buck is a Lebanese American actor, playwright, facilitator and educator who has performed and taught theatrical tools for students, educators, aid workers, community organizers, intercultural workers and UN delegates across the U.S., Europe, China, Australia and 11 Arab countries.
Writer/Performer:Hkeelee: Talk to Me (limited run presented by Ari Roth/Mosaic Theater Company/Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival in the Kogod/Arena Stage; State Dept. Speaker Specialist tour Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon). AmericanDreams (dir. Tamilla Woodard; Cleveland Public Theater, Online Tour Working Theater, Round House, Marin Theatre Co, Hartford Stage, ASU-Gammage –Drama League nomination); In the Crossing (dir. Shana Gold; developed with Ari Roth/Theater J at Studio Theatre, The Public Theater, Culture Project, NYTW, Brooklyn Museum) Acting: A Good Day to Me Not to You (u/s lead – Arena stage); The Admission (Theater J/Studio Theatre); Aftermath (NYTW, international tour – Drama league nomination); Scorched (Wilma Theater - Barrymore award). Publication: Stages of Resistance; Innovation in Five Acts; Etching Our Own Image: Voices from the Arab American Art Movement; Four Arab-American Plays. Alumna: Emerging Writers Group, Public Theater, NYC; TCG Fox Fellow; Usual Suspect – New York Theatre Workshop; M.A., Adjunct professor - NYU.