Mona Mansour's play The Way West recently received a BareBones workshop at the Lark Play Development Center in NYC, where she was a Fellow in 2012 (directed by Linsay Firman). The Hour of Feeling (directed by Mark Wing-Davey) just received its world premiere in the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Following that, it was part of the High Tide Festival in the U.K. as part of the Rifle Hall plays. Urge for Going (directed by Hal Brooks) received a LAB production in the 2011 season at the Public Theater, and before that was read in New Work Now at the Public, and developed at Ojai Playwrights Conference. Mona was a member of the Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group, and is currently a Core Writer at The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis. Other plays include Across the Water, Girl Scouts of America and Broadcast Yourself (part of Headlong Theatre’s Decade, which premiered in London). Her work has been developed at the Cape Cod Theatre Project, Williamstown Theatre Festival, New York Stage and Film, and Lincoln Center Directors Lab. Television credits include Dead Like Me and Queens Supreme. Newest works include a piece on journalist Anna Politkovskaya for Continuum Theater and The Letter, a play co-written with Tala Manassah that premiered in November 2012 at Golden Thread’s ReOrient Festival. Honorable mention, 2010 Middle East America Playwright Award; 2012 Whiting Award.

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The Urge for Going

URGE FOR GOING tells the story of 17-year-old Jamila, a Palestinian girl growing up in a Lebanese refugee camp who is desperate to escape the small and impoverished world she calls home. Mansour fuses global politics with the intimacy of family life in this smart and inventive drama. (2W, 4M)

The Hour of Feeling

In 1967, fueled by a love of English Romantic poetry and Wordsworth in particular, a young Palestinian academic, Adham, and his new wife, Abir, take a trip to London, where he will deliver a career-defining lecture. While the situation in his home "country" deteriorates and his marriage threatens to dissolve, Adham confronts his fear of failure and the reality that he may be an outsider no matter where he goes.

The Way West

In a crumbling modern-day California town, Mom shares death-defying tales of pioneer crossings with her two squabbling daughters as she waits for her bankruptcy to come through. Stories are stretched, songs are broken into, and checks are forged as Mom and her grown girls scrape for survival.

Director: Hayley Finn

Cast: Nadia Bowers, Shanan Custer, Dan Hopman, Catherine Johnson Justice, Mo Perry, James Rodriguez, Eric Sharp and Sally Wingert