Women's Playwright Series back at Centenary Stage

HACKETTSTOWN — The popular Women Playwright Series is back at Centenary Stage, with new plays from writers from all over the country.
Centenary Stage Company announces the 2017 Women Playwrights Series (WPS) line-up, with the works of playwrights Sholeh Wolpe, Jennifer Fawcett and Michelle Kholos Brooks, and distinctive new plays which will feature professional casts and directors and be presented in the Lackland Center on Wednesday evenings, April 12, 19 and 26 at 7:30 p.m.
A fast-paced dramatic comedy about the secrets and cost of happiness, “Shame” by Sholeh Wolpe will open the festival on April 12. Noor is an Iranian-American physicist who moved to the U.S. in her teens. Her sister, Sahar, is a stay-at-home mother married to a young American man. The sisters eagerly await their mother’s arrival from overseas, with a celebratory dinner. But when the food delivery man turns out to be Ahmed, an Iranian nuclear scientist, who has come to the country and disguised himself to investigate his sister’s affair, he is mistaken by Noor’s mother for Noor’s fiancé — an affair which has ended. Chaos ensues and before long they are all engaged in a head to head clash over each other’s moral values and cultural expectations.
Born in Iran, Sholeh Wolpe spent most of her teen years in Trinidad and the UK before settling in the United States. Her awards include: 2015 Switzerland’s Le Chateau de Lavigny residency, 2014 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Award, 2014 Hedgebrook residency, 2013 Midwest Book Award, and the 2010 Lois Roth Persian Translation prize. Wolpe is the author of three collections of poetry and two books of translations, and is the editor of three anthologies. Her new book will be forthcoming from W.W.Norton in 2017. She lives in Los Angeles.