By Tom Coash

Authen­tic­i­ty pre­miered as part of the G160 Fes­ti­val. Direct­ed by Rose Bonczek, per­formed by Alexan­dra Slater and Tabs Perez. The pre­miere pro­duc­tion may be viewed here.

CAST: Noor — Female, light-skinned, actor

Mia — Female, tanned, actor

(Both about the same age)

SETTING: Audi­tion waiting room 

TIME: The Present

(Two women waiting for an audi­tion. Noor reading  a script, Mia strug­gling to put on a hijab/veil cor­rect­ly. After a moment Noor helps.)

NOOR

(Noor offers to help Mia put on the veil.)

Here.

MIA

Oh my god, thanks! I hate auditions!

(Noor deftly pro­ceeds to tie Mia’s hijab for her.  Mia, flus­tered, points to her script.)

I should be study­ing lines. Choices. There’s Arabic!

NOOR

Why do you wear this?

MIA

(Points to script.)

Egypt­ian woman? My friend, the ASM (assis­tant stage manager), said they want veils. 

NOOR

Really?

MIA

Authen­tic­i­ty! (Tugs veil.) Hi-job in Arabic.

NOOR

Hegab.

MIA

What?

NOOR

In Egypt, we say hegab.

MIA

You’re from Egypt?

NOOR

Born and raised.

MIA

And you’re an actor?!

NOOR

My last role I played an oppressed, veiled, ter­ror­ist mother of seven.

MIA

Your English is so good!

NOOR

I went to Juilliard.

MIA

What am I even doing here?! You’re gonna kill it!

NOOR

(Shakes head no.)

They’ll prob­a­bly think I’m too light-skinned. And I don’t have one of those. (Indi­cates veil.)

MIA

You can borrow mine.

NOOR

No, thanks. Trying to quit. Joke.

(Mia laughs.)

You’re darker than me.

MIA

Can tan!

NOOR

What?

MIA

(Mimes spray­ing on tan.)

Right?!

VOICE FROM OFFSTAGE

Next!

MIA (Cont.)

(To Noor brightly.)

Authen­tic­i­ty!

(She exits to her audi­tion. Lights down.)

END

 

Photo by Gary Yost