Scheherazade.

by Marisha Chamberlain

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Marisha Chamberlain is a novelist, playwright, poet and librettist. Her debut novel, The Rose Variations, was published by Soho Press.Her plays have been staged all over the world: in South Africa, Germany, Australia, Turkey, Britain and Canada as well as in the United States. Scheherazade, a stage play, won the Dramatists Guild/CBS Regional and National Awards and in its teleplay version was broadcast across the United States and screened at the British Film Institute Festival. Her stage adaptation of Little Women was premiered by the Children’s Theater Company of Minneapolis and subsequently produced by the Stratford Ontario Festival Theater, Stage One of Louisville and Kansas City Repertory Theater.Her ballet, The Worn-Out Dancing Shoes, was toured nationally by the Children’s Theater Company.She began a significant collaboration with composer Carol Barnett in 1997 with the premiere of their chamber opera,Meeting at Seneca Falls by the Minnesota Orchestra.
The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass with text by Chamberlain and music by Barnett was commissioned by VocalEssence under the direction of Phillip Brunelle and premiered as a joint performance by the VocalEssence chorus and the celebrated Bluegrass ensemble, Monroe Crossing. The World Beloved was published by Boosey & Hawkes and released on CD on the Clarion label in 2007 and is performed widely. A second Bluegrass/choral work, Mortals & Angels: a Bluegrass Te Deum, with composer Carol Barnett, was commissioned by Distinguished Concerts International and will premiere at Carnegie Hall on January 25, 2016.

Reviews

[Todd Sullivan · Rating 2 out of 5]

An intriguing idea, but it's difficult to swallow the chain of events from a rape to a game of scrabble. Also, it's a bit on the short side, as a full length play at only 40 pages with no intermission.