Are You Now or Have You Ever?
A new work based on the life and works of Lillian Hellman, written for the 2015 Intiman Emerging Artist program.
On the eve of her testimony before HUAC, Lillian Hellman converses with Joan of Arc and Martha Dobie, wrestling with her principles and her self-preservation. Hopscotching through time and space, ARE YOU NOW … wonders what takes precedence when we’re pressed: the truth, or a good story.
Are You Now (excerpt) from Alice Gosti on Vimeo.
Dir. Alice Gosti
Cast:
Averil Kelkar
Brad Walker
Jéhan Òsanyìn
Jordan Moeller
Linnea Ingalls
Shanelle Leonard
Teklu Hogan
Anthea Carns’s summary above gives an excellent introduction to the subject of her play. But it doesn’t convey the taut dramaturgy and beautifully sculpted, even fierce dialogue coming from her three main characters.
Larry Rinkel
JOAN OF ARC
That’s the most fearful thing for a girl who was told her whole life to be loving, to be gentle. When I was small I wanted to be Mary Magdalene, kneeling before our Lord and washing His feet with my hair—soft, perfumed and soft. She was the one who saw the angel on Easter, the one who believed he was risen before any of the Apostles. I thought I wanted to be her, kneeling before her Lord with her hair let down loose. I thought that was what faith looked like. Instead I died the same way I led my men: standing, my hair shorn, un soldat.
I think of them often, though. Leah, and Mary Magdalene, and Miriam, and the woman at the well. They had no swords or armor, had nothing but love, and with that, they withstood it all. Roman soldiers. Slave-owners. Husbands. Wedding nights.
If my Voices had never come to me, would I have been brave enough for that? For life as someone’s wife? I don’t know. But I was brave enough for war.
