Harriet Tubman Visits a Therapist
Paperback (published by Samuel French)
Bennett College Production
- 2018, Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate NY, Schenectady, NY.
- 2018, Wesleyan College, Macon, GA.
- 2018, Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, TX.
- 2017, Soul Rebel Performance Troupe, Albany, NY.
- 2017, SUNY Oneonta, NY.
- 2017, The Victorian Players, Youngstown, OH.
- 2016, Department of Pan-African Studies’ African Community Theatre, Kent State University.
- 2016, Women's Leadership Symposium, Kent State University.
- 2016, Comparative Drama Conference, hosted by Stevenson University, MD. Dr. Yuko Kurahashi from Kent State gave paper on Black Theatre History penal: "Reclaiming Three Nineteenth-century African American Women's Voices and Experiences through Neo-Utopian Visions: Carolyn Gage's Harriet Tubman Visits a Therapist, Sandra Fenichal Asher's A Woman Called Truth, and Lydia Diamond's Harriet Jacobs."
- 2016, Arielle Productions, St. Augustine, FL.
- Winner, Lambda Literary Award in Drama, (The Second Coming of Joan of Arc and Selected Plays).
- 2013, Cauldron & Labrys, Westbrook, ME.
- 2011, Agape Theatre Troupe, Lexington, KY.
- Unity Players Ensemble, Hollywood, CA. (A Black Trilogy 2006).
- BLAST Women of the Palm Beaches, Lake Worth, FL
- Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC.
- Soul Rebel Performance Troupe, Watervliet, NY.
- 2011, staged reading, Lucid Stage, Portland, ME.
- Published in Under 30: Plays for a New Generation, Vintage Books, NYC.
- Douglass Theatre, Macon, GA.
- Bailiwick Theatre, Chicago.
- Ladyfest Midwest, Chicago.
- El Camino Community College, Torrance, CA.
- Juneteenth Festival, sponsored by Actors Theatre of Louisville, KY.
- Boston Stage Company, Boston.
- Playwrights for Pets, NYC
- Looking Glass Theatre, NYC
- Academy of Art University, San Francisco.
- LunaSea Dyke Drama, San Francisco.
- Featured performance at National Women’s Music Festival, Muncie, IN.
- Published in Off-Off Broadway Festival Plays, Twenty-Third Series, Samuel French, Inc., NYC.
- Staged reading, Martin Luther King Day, Bates College, Lewiston, ME.
- Reading at Howard University, Washington, DC, funded by Ford Foundation grant (national leadership conference for historically Black colleges)
- National Winner, Off-Off Broadway Original Short Play Festival, sponsored by Samuel French, NYC.
- Winner, Festival of One-Acts, Love Creek Productions, NYC.
- Nat’l Winner, Perishable Theatre Women’s Playwriting Festival, Providence, RI
Reviews & Synopsis:
Lucid Stage Production, Maine
"… marked with originality and cleverness as well as thoughtfulness in both conception and execution... In a time in our society when slavery and its sustaining effects are never acknowledged and outright denied, it is good to read a contemporary version of the classic freedom fighter— Harriet Tubman.” --Aishah Rahman, playwright and Associate Professor in Brown University’s Creative Writing Program.
“The discussion [following the play]… lasted well over an hour, a record for such events at the theatre.”--Vanessa Gilbert, Perishable Theatre, Providence, RI.
“The play has the power of anger.” --The Providence Journal, RI.
"... highlights a unique disconnect between the two slave women, a schism in the psychological approach to dealing with the emotional effects of slavery. Where Tubman will not tolerate it at all, going so far as to risk her life and sympathize with women who have killed their children rather than see them sold, the slave therapist tries to make the best of her situation. "Focus on what you can change," is a tag line of the therapist, issuing a modern self-help maxim that sounds patently ridiculous the moment [the Therapist] utters it. Still, [the Therapist's] character typifies one particular psychological stance for dealing with oppression — do what it takes to survive — while Tubman holds to the integrity of her African foremothers in a fit of unyielding spiritual poetry that is uplifting and lyrically profound."-- Kentucky.com
“… a satirical, funny and yet poignant and serious look at the abuse black women took in those days, with some interesting comparisons to today.” --The Warwick Beacon, RI.
“vivid and evocative… ” --The Providence Phoenix, RI.
“Arthur’s performance [as Tubman] was so powerful and raw that the audience literally could not stop cheering and clapping at the end.” --Our Weekly.Com, Los Angeles.
"... unyielding spiritual poetry that is uplifting and lyrically profound." -- LexGo.com, Lexington, KY.
"... the distillation and the lyric intensity of poetry."-- Portland Phoenix.
“Playwright-editors Lane and Shengold have assembled five full-length plays, 11 shorter plays, and excerpts from four plays, all written for actors under 30… Jessica Goldberg’s Refuge, Jenny Lyn Bader’s None of the Above, and Carolyn Gage’s Harriet Tubman Visits a Therapist are all standouts… fresh and gripping…” --Library Journal, reviewing Under Thirty: Plays for a New Generation (Vintage)
"The script has the distillation and the lyric intensity of poetry. Harriet’s rejoinders to the therapist jump between sullen, enraged, and reelingly comedic..." -- Megan Grumbling, The Portland Phoenix, ME.
"Harriet Tubman taps into that push and pull between women of color, the outside forces that oppress us, and our internal struggle with how best to save ourselves- should we fight for individual gains? resistance? transformation? The play’s ending is empowering. It concludes not with the death but the triumph of women’s resistance, a real, historical event that made more ripples on the sea of Black women’s lives than Harriet Tubman might have dreamed of- and it was her willingness to let her dreams carry her away that made triumph possible. The immediate and long-held standing ovation was testament to the play's incredible uplift." -- Selina Gallo
"Carolyn Gage's New Short Plays Give Women Voice," by Megan Grumbling, Portland Phoenix.
"Drama Scene with Acorn Studio's Little Sister," by Bob Keyes, Portland Press Herald.
“The discussion [following the play]… lasted well over an hour, a record for such events at the theatre.”--Vanessa Gilbert, Perishable Theatre, Providence, RI.
“The play has the power of anger.” --The Providence Journal, RI.
"... highlights a unique disconnect between the two slave women, a schism in the psychological approach to dealing with the emotional effects of slavery. Where Tubman will not tolerate it at all, going so far as to risk her life and sympathize with women who have killed their children rather than see them sold, the slave therapist tries to make the best of her situation. "Focus on what you can change," is a tag line of the therapist, issuing a modern self-help maxim that sounds patently ridiculous the moment [the Therapist] utters it. Still, [the Therapist's] character typifies one particular psychological stance for dealing with oppression — do what it takes to survive — while Tubman holds to the integrity of her African foremothers in a fit of unyielding spiritual poetry that is uplifting and lyrically profound."-- Kentucky.com
“… a satirical, funny and yet poignant and serious look at the abuse black women took in those days, with some interesting comparisons to today.” --The Warwick Beacon, RI.
“vivid and evocative… ” --The Providence Phoenix, RI.
“Arthur’s performance [as Tubman] was so powerful and raw that the audience literally could not stop cheering and clapping at the end.” --Our Weekly.Com, Los Angeles.
"... unyielding spiritual poetry that is uplifting and lyrically profound." -- LexGo.com, Lexington, KY.
"... the distillation and the lyric intensity of poetry."-- Portland Phoenix.
“Playwright-editors Lane and Shengold have assembled five full-length plays, 11 shorter plays, and excerpts from four plays, all written for actors under 30… Jessica Goldberg’s Refuge, Jenny Lyn Bader’s None of the Above, and Carolyn Gage’s Harriet Tubman Visits a Therapist are all standouts… fresh and gripping…” --Library Journal, reviewing Under Thirty: Plays for a New Generation (Vintage)
"The script has the distillation and the lyric intensity of poetry. Harriet’s rejoinders to the therapist jump between sullen, enraged, and reelingly comedic..." -- Megan Grumbling, The Portland Phoenix, ME.
"Harriet Tubman taps into that push and pull between women of color, the outside forces that oppress us, and our internal struggle with how best to save ourselves- should we fight for individual gains? resistance? transformation? The play’s ending is empowering. It concludes not with the death but the triumph of women’s resistance, a real, historical event that made more ripples on the sea of Black women’s lives than Harriet Tubman might have dreamed of- and it was her willingness to let her dreams carry her away that made triumph possible. The immediate and long-held standing ovation was testament to the play's incredible uplift." -- Selina Gallo
"Carolyn Gage's New Short Plays Give Women Voice," by Megan Grumbling, Portland Phoenix.
"Drama Scene with Acorn Studio's Little Sister," by Bob Keyes, Portland Press Herald.
Synopsis:
B'dway's Kari Nicolle, 2010 NYC reading
Harriet Tubman Visits a Therapist is a gripping confrontation between two women who share the same oppression, but whose definitions of survival are in direct conflict.
Harriet Tubman, suspected of planning an escape on the Underground Railroad, has been sent to the Therapist for an evaluation. The Therapist, another African American woman, warns Harriet about the dangers of radical action. Harriet accuses the Therapist of colluding with the enemy in the guise of practicing therapeutic intervention.
As the Therapist attempts to convince Harriet of the benefits of accepting the things she cannot change and learning to live one day at a time, Harriet uncovers the Therapist’s secret - a secret which will give her access to the information she needs.
The plot takes a sudden twist during one of Harriet’s spells of sleeping sickness, and in resisting the suggestions which justify the Therapist’s ideology, Harriet discovers a source of spiritual support rooted in her own activism.
Two women
20 minutes
Single set
