Like Ink and Paper: The Love Letters of May Ziadah and Kahlil Gibran

The Department of Theater presents Like Ink and Paper: The Love Letters of May Ziadah and Kahlil Gibran, performed by Felicia Leicht '04 and directed by Adrienne Mackey '04. Like Ink and Paper tells the story of these two Lebanese writers who maintained a nearly twenty-year long correspondence while Gibran lived in New York and May in Egypt. They knew each other solely from the letters they wrote and from each other's work. Set in last years of May's life, when she was institutionalized following the death of Gibran, the play follows May as she processes the aftermath of their relationship. This piece explores one woman's search for her own identity as a Middle Eastern woman as well as her own role as a writer in the shadow of the mythic literary figure of Gibran through monologue, poetry, and movement.

Created by Felicia Leicht '04, Adrienne Mackey '04, and Tim Sawicki, Like Ink and Paper is not an historical representation of their correspondence but rather a freely inspired rumination on how Ziadah both changed and was changed by her several decades of correspondence with one of Lebanon's "Great Minds."

Like Ink and Paper is made possible by the Swarthmore Project in Theater, and was performed in an earlier version (entitled Beloved Prophet) at the 2004 Philly Fringe Festival. It will also be performed at University of Maryland, College Park in Fall 2006 as part of a year of events commemorating the 75th anniversary of Gibran's death.

Location: Frear Ensemble Theatre
Dates: May 2, 2006 - May 5, 2006
Times:
Tuesday, May 2 at 8PM
Wednesday, May 3 at 8PM
Thursday, May 4 at 8PM
Friday, May 5 at 8PM