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Playwright Christina Gorman responds to the theme of "Lies" from Jeremiah 5:1, as well as to the 2013 rescue of the women kidnapped in Cleveland in this piece: "The Grey Ladies," read by actor Seth Moore.

Jeremiah 5:1

The Grey Ladies

By 

Christina Gorman

Credits: 

Read by Seth Moore

Curated by: 

Emily Clare Zempel

2013

One-Act Play

Image by Giorgio Trovato

Primary Scripture

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Just as I started thinking in earnest about this project, three young women in Cleveland were rescued from ten years of captivity in a house in the heart of the city. The reports hammered home the evil, and the horror, and the growing depravity of humanity. I was riveted by the women's plight. How did they survive it? I kept thinking, within or surrounding the greatest of evils, there must be some sliver of good they helped one another to hold onto. How might that manifest itself? In a person? In a child? In a mother? Perhaps, yes, and in the case of the piece I ended up writing, also in a police officer.


Striving to be the good and to find the good is ennobling, and I wanted to illustrate that. I wanted to write about in Jeremiah 5:1 the "one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth." That person may not be saintly and perfect, but they are looking for and striving for goodness, and that's to be celebrated.




Spark Notes

The Artist's Reflection

Christina Gorman developed her latest play, Orion Rising, at the New Harmony Project as part of their Spring 2012 Conference and at the Lark Play Development Center. Her play American Myth has been awarded the 2012 Blue Ink Playwriting Award from American Blues Theater in Chicago, where it will be produced in 2014. The play was developed while she was a member of The Public Theater’s inaugural Emerging Writers Group and where it was presented as part of The Public Theater’s Spotlight Series. The play was also presented in the hotINK International Festival, at Westport Country Playhouse, and it was named a finalist for the Princess Grace Award. Her play Split Wide Open has been produced at SPF in New York City and was developed with a fellowship from Ensemble Studio Theatre through its New Voices Program. The play was also named runner-up for the Princess Grace Award. Just Knots was named winner of the Samuel French Short Play Festival and is published in the Samuel French Publication Off-Off Broadway Festival Plays, 34th Series. It has been produced nationally and internationally. DNA has been produced at Prospect Theatre Company, Hangar Theatre, Samuel French Short Play Festival, and in the New York International Fringe Festival, where it received the award for Overall Excellence in Playwriting. Sacred Ground was produced at Stella Adler Studios, where Christina was the 2010-11 Harold Clurman Playwright-in-Residence. Her short play The God Particle was produced at both the Planet Connections Festival, the Estrogenius Festival, and at Stageworks/Hudson. She is a 2010-11 Fellow of the New York Foundation for the Arts and is an alumna of the Women’s Project Playwrights Lab.




Christina Gorman

About the Artist

Christina Gorman

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