Acting Up 6 (2020-2025): Anthology of North American Mennonite Plays

Edited by Lauren Friesen

Acting Up: Anthology of North American Mennonite Plays comprises six volumes of 51 scripts, written from 1970 to 2025, totaling over 2,500 pages. There are 22 main playwrights and many more associate contributors. Each of the six volumes presents a decade, which Friesen summarizes with introductions on the following topics: ‘Transitions’ (1970s), ‘Struggle’ (1980s), ‘Modernity’ (1990s), ‘The Contemporary’ (2000s), ‘Compassionate Realism’ (2010s), ‘Self-Exploration’ (2020-25).

The title for the collection hints at its rebellious nature.

While some Mennonites still speak German dialects, ride in buggies, shun zippers, and live on farms, since the 1970s, some have written and produced plays in professional theatre venues. Acting Up now offers to producers and directors a wealth of intriguing possibilities for production, and to actors a trove of new monologues. The scripts are comprehensive and current, whatever their subject or publication date. Intended for a mainstream audience, some include mature content and course language, as they probe ethical challenges, while trying to avoid moralizing or didactics. Topics range from traditional Mennonite life to settings in which there is no identifiable Mennonite characters in the script.

Voice of the Residue and Bat Kol by Cameron Altaras

From the Introduction to Vol. 6

“Self-Awareness: 2020-2025 Exploration and Return”

By Lauren Friesen, Editor

“Voice of the Residue by Cameron Altaras discloses how pain and rage may become the fuel for justice and hope. The play visits the dark avenues of existence and pulls away from them in reflection on the damage caused by abuse and cruelty. And yet, in this deep dive into the mysteries of suffering, there is a glimmer of hope. Hope because the stories can be and are being told. In telling the story, she is released from the pain and scourge of rape and sexual violence that seemed immovable and had weighed down her entire being. To name the attacker is not to forgive, but is to move beyond the “him” into hope. It is like the raft on a river that is suddenly able to change its course. This play is a powerful expose of the trauma from sexual violence.” (pp. viii-ix)

“Bat Kol is a litany, an incantation, a mystical journey, and a confession. Cameron Altaras provides a text for the wide sweep of history while confronting the interior of the soul. Where there is pain, there is also hope; where confusion reigns, clarity resides. These are the dramatic tensions in this poetic and psychological work. It is a confession, admission, and declaration all carried forward through rhythm, music, and vocal expressions to form a unified experience. It is a vision of how life has been, how it might be and how thoughts and feelings are shaped. Shaped by words that flow as smoothly as Schubert’s Lieder while consistently stirring the heart with new sounds, emotions, and heightened awareness.” (p. x)