Remember returning to school in the fall during elementary and junior high school and having to write an essay about what you did on summer vacation? Perhaps it was going to the beach or to a lake. Maybe it was riding your bike with friends. Or sitting outside after dinner and having a campfire in your own backyard. How about a family trip to the country your family came from and learning about the customs of your family when when they lived in Europe, Africa, or Asia? That’s what the main character, Mariam, would have to do if she went on her family trip in my play WHAT’D YOU DO ON SUMMER VACATION? But before she left on her family trip to Somalia, Mariam discovered what her mother and father expected her to undergo in a small hut outside her relative’s village in Africa. The subject of my play is the story of Mariam facing the threat of “vacation cutting.”
WHAT’D YOU DO ON SUMMER VACATION? had two performances on April 18, 2015 in N.Y. at the Northport One-Act Play Festival. The play was very well received. A number of audience members approached me after the performances and asked what happened to Mariam after the play was over. Should I have told them? This is a play you should perform at your church, local theater, or college/high school. So-called female circumcision is an explosive topic that cannot be ignored. It is a procedure, condemned by the U.N., affecting millions of girls around the world each year.
