victoria

rue

 

Home | Consultation & Workshops | Playwright & Theatre Director | Professor | Author | Roman Catholic Woman Priest | Contact me

 

“Theatre is an arena in which we can dream what we want to create in our society"

 

Mary/Maryam in Christian and Islamic Traditions

 

by Victoria Rue, M.Div.,Ph.D.

 

BACKGROUNDIn the Spring of 2016, under the auspices of the Islamic Networks Group and the Jewish Federation of Silicon Valley, I adapted and directed a play about the Exodus Story in the Qur’an and the Torah at Congregation Shir Hadash in Los Gatos., California. The event presented Muslims and Jews with the surprising reality of how similar and yet different the Exodus story is in the Torah and the Qur’an. This work planted seeds for this present play.

 

Three months later, I was in Israel/Palestine at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute outside Jerusalem. While in Bethlehem, I interviewed Muslim and Christian Palestinian women about their relationship to Mary/Maryam. Their stories, particularly their admiration of Mary/Maryam as a single mother, inspired me to write this play: Mary/Maryam in Christian and Islamic Traditions

 

THE PLAY

• Mary/Maryam, was first presented by Peace United Church in collaboration with the Islamic Center of Santa Cruz, California in December 2016. It has subsequently been presented at Whittier College, Los Angeles and in Jerusalem at Tantur Ecumenical Institute.
• The play explores the person of Mary/Maryam in the Qur’an and Christian Bible as well as in Apocryphal Literature.
• The play explores questions like: Who was Mary? How did she grow up? What are the similarities and differences between how Mary is seen in Christian scriptures and how she is seen in the Qur’an?

 

PRESENTING THE PLAY

• There are different ways of presenting the play Mary/Maryam:A staged reading and a full production run nearly 90 minutes, including conversations
  • a simple reading of the script by actors or non-actors
  • a staged reading of the script by actors or non-actors where they move about the stage with the script in their hands
  • a fully staged presentation with simple costume pieces, music and lights with actors or non-actors
  • A reading of the script runs 40-60 minutes. At four points in the play, the audience moves into small groups for ten to fifteen minute conversations. [possible topics for conversation are included in the script]
• The play can be presented as an evening event with dinner to follow so that conversations can continue

TO LEARN MORE

Contact Victoria Rue: victoria@victoriarue.com

 

 

I also write and direct plays that celebrate the range of human experience—HIV positive persons, women with cancer, Vietnamese and Latinos working in the computer industry, homeless youth. These plays nourish actors and audiences with stories that challenge our daily lives. Just as important as the performance of these plays, the rehearsal process with actors enfleshes the story and creates community.

The theatre is a model for cooperation, community building, and somatic learning. This makes theatre an ethical and social enterprise. Brazilian theatre director Augusto Boal says “theatre is a rehearsal for revolution.” Put another way, plays allow us to rehearse, even to dream, the changes we would like to make in the world around us.

Left to right: Photo 1. "Approaching the Quran" Actors Theatre, Santa Cruz, 2005 Photo 2. in rehearsal for  "Who Shot Her" with San Khau Viet Cali, San Jose, 2007 Photo 3. (same as #2) Photo 4. (same as #1)

Left to right: JoAnne Henry on the set of Notes from a Pullman Porter's Daughter, Right: JoAnne Henry and Victoria

SELECTED PLAYWRIGHTING AND DIRECTING

MARY/MARYAM IN CHRISTIAN AND ISLAM TRADITIONS

Peace United Church, Santa Cruz, ‘16, Whittier College, Los Angeles, ‘17, Tantur Ecumenical Institute, Jerusalem, ‘17

THE EXODUS: AN INTERFAITH SEDER/HALAQA

Islamic Network Group and Congregation Shir Hadash ‘16

COME FLY TO THE DREAM, Bandhavi Project,

developed with 17 young women students, Karnataka, India, 2014

STOP DOMESTIC VIOLENCE!

 developed with 6 women of the Women’s Collective of Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India, 2014

RABBIT HOLE by David Lindsay-Abaire

Actors Theatre of Santa Cruz, 2010

SILENT SACRIFICE

a bilingual play about Vietnamese-Americans, San Jose, 2010

NOTES FROM A PULLMAN PORTER'S DAUGHTER
written by JoAnne Henry
Denison University, 2009

APPROACHING THE QUR’AN
an exploration of three suras of the Qur’an in movement and text
Mosaic Theatre Festival, Santa Cruz, 2005

POLAROID STORIES
by Naomi Iitzuka
California State University Monterey Bay ‘03

LOVE'S SHADOW
bilingual Vietnamese play, co-writer/director
San Jose Stage, Downtown Arts Series, April '03

DO YOU READ ME?
a play about reading and writing, written with high school and college students of UpstateNew York; funded by a grant from Verizon; toured to high schools in Upstate New York ‘03

LIKE HEAVEN
Nhu Thien Dang
a bilingual play about Vietnamese immigrant experience in the U.S. Created with the members of San Khau Viet CALI (2000, ‘01)
San Jose Stage Company 2000
Milpitas Community Theatre 2001

PAULA
A play about memory and death and the mother-daughter relationship
My adaptation of Isabel Allende’s memoir PAULA
California State University at Monterey Bay ‘04
St. Lawrence University, ‘01
Studio American Conservatory Theatre ‘97

ECSTASY IN THE EVERYDAY
a play about everyday mysticism Co-created with Letitia Bartlett
Yale Divinity School, ‘95
Union Theological Seminary , ‘95
The Women’s Ordination Conference in Washington D.C., ’95
Churches, synagogues and other houses of worship throughout the Bay Area, ‘94

POSITIVE WOMEN
A play about women and HIV/AIDS, collaboratively written with the performers who were HIV+ women,
New Conservatory Theatre and Theatre Rhinoceros, San Francisco, ‘94

CANCERBODIES: WOMEN SPEAKING THE UNSPEAKABLE
My play about women and cancer
Western Regional AAR, Redlands University, ‘95
National Meeting of American Academy of Religion, San Francisco’94
Tribad Theatre, Petaluma, ’94
Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, Occidental College, Los Angeles, ‘94 Fourth International Women Playwrights Conference, Adelaide Australia, ‘94
Common Stage, Woodstock NY, ‘93
BRAVA! For Women in the Arts, San Francisco, ‘92

GRAPES AND FIGS ARE IN SEASON: A PALESTINIAN WOMAN'S STORY
Co-written with Emily Shihadeh,
Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, ’95 ,
Yale Divinity School, ‘96
Union Theological Seminary, ’96,
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, ‘95
American Conservatory Theatre's Studio Theatre, ‘90

DARLINGHISSIMA
My adaptation of the book by Natalia Danisi Murray
Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, ’88
A production of KCRW for National Public Radio, ‘88
Manhattan Theatre Club, NYC ’87

CROSS COUNTRY
by Susan Miller
Mark Taper Forum, ‘76