Liberty

By Karen Sunde

“(George Washington) cut a dubious figure. He fell into greatness as if it were a chasm and he has suddenly found a parachute. This making of the hero least likely, Miss Sunde has captured in her play. She has also caught the mood of the revolution... She also exposes the remarkable image of a democracy fighting with men who were bound by nothing... ...a nervous amateur ... becomes the legendary figure...” Clive Barnes NEW YORK POST

“With a voice both poetic and theatrical, Karen Sunde’s plays dramatize historical epochs in epic scope, making hers a distinctive, even unique, contemporary American drama, more akin to European than to other American plays. She tackles topics of war and politics to produce usually presentational, often explosive theatre which many would swear could not have been created by a woman. Flesh and blood passions...People achieving greatly, now and then crippled by arrogance and intolerance, suffering mightily, dazzled by possibilities, devastated by disappointments yet continuing and surviving are what she dramatizes No matter how sweeping the setting and cast, she chooses personal canvases upon which to paint her funny, thrilling, searing, moving scenes, which probe the stuff of which our heroes - and by extension we ourselves - are made. In inquiring about our past, Sunde remarks upon our future. That she does so with a sure histrionic sense is a guarantee that her work will endure in the American theatre after our more commercial fare has proven ephemeral.”

Excerpt from "SUNDE" entry pp 643-45; CONTEMPORARY DRAMATISTS

• Language: English
• Publisher: Karen Sunde
• Release date: Dec 27, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465774217

Karen Sunde

An actor turned writer, Karen performed many leading roles Off-Broadway, and was Associate Director of CSC Repertory. Her plays have been performed Off-Broadway, in regional theatres, on a USA tour, and in eleven countries and seven languages. Sunde’s first screenplay, UNDERCOVER PATRIOT was a finalist at Sundance. She wrote PARALLEL LOVES for Terra Bella Entertainment, Los Angeles; BOULE DE SUIF (adapt Maupassant) for Dace Direction, London; DREAM HOUSE for Passport Films, NYC; THE FASTEST WOMAN ALIVE for Howard S Shulman Productions, NYC; THE SECRET SHIP; FINAL QUEST: THE MOUNTAIN OF THE GODS; TRIPPING TAMMY; CHICKS GOTTA SWIM; LOVE HITS EARTH (& Other Disasters); NEXT!; adaptations of HOW HIS BRIDE CAME TO ABRAHAM, screenplay an "Official Selection" at Oaxaca FilmFest, www.AbrahamFilm.org, and IN A KINGDOM BY THE SEA, won the Gold Prize at Hollywood Screenplay Contest. Published plays: DARK LADY, produced Abbey Theatre, Ireland, Aalborg State Theatre, Denmark, optioned for film; BALLOON, won three VILLAGER awards Off-Broadway, nominated Best Play by Outer Critics Circle, aired Radio France; HAITI: A DREAM in FACING FORWARD, produced Seven Stages, Atlanta, aired WNYC, WHYY, NPR; TO MOSCOW, premiered Ankara National Theatre, Turkey, Chain Lightning, New York; OH WILD WEST WIND in ROWING TO AMERICA, produced Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey (PTNJ). PLAYS BY KAREN SUNDE includes TRUTH TAKES A HOLIDAY, read La MaMa, New York City (NYC); IN A KINGDOM BY THE SEA produced PTNJ, HOW HIS BRIDE CAME TO ABRAHAM, produced PTNJ, Praxis Theatre Project, NYC, premiered at The Unicorn, Kansas City. ANTON, HIMSELF for Actors Theatre of Louisville, also played The Moscow Art Theatre, the Yalta Festival in Russia, Peoples Light and Theatre, NYU in New York. THE FASTEST WOMAN ALIVE produced Luna Stage, NJ, Praxis, NYC, Edinburgh Festival (2010); KABUKI OTHELLO, produced People's Light and Theatre Company and Annenberg Center, Philadelphia; Wisdom Bridge, Chicago; KABUKI LADY MACBETH produced Chicago Shakespeare Theater, cited for five JEFF Awards, including "Best New Work," Best Production," "Best Direction:" IN A KINGDOM BY THE SEA. Scenes from TO MOSCOW; ANTON, HIMSELF; MASHA, TOO; and ABRAHAM appear in SCENES & MONOLOGS FROM THE BEST NEW PLAYS. Among 23 plays--for Actors Theatre of Louisville; People's Light and Theatre; The Acting Company, NYC, Sunde wrote KABUKI MACBETH, KABUKI KING RICHARD and ACHILLES, which toured Hungary, Cyprus, and Japan. She co-wrote musical QUASIMODO,(a musical) premiered Byrdcliffe Festival, Woodstock, NY, produced Lahti City Theatre, Finland. For Cheltenham Center, Philadelphia, she wrote LA PUCELLE (ME & JOAN) and DADDY'S GONE A-HUNTING (TRACKING BLOOD WHITE). In NYC: for Chain Lightning, WHEN REAL LIFE BEGINS, for The Working Theatre, 2020 SEXCARE in FREE MARKET; for Tisch School, NYU, Table and Chair Handmade Theatre, PLEASE GOD, NO WEDDING OR SHOOTING AT THE END! Opera THE SPA with composer Michael Dilthey. also at https://www.dramaticpublishing.com/authors/profile/view/url/karen-sunde Sunde’s won a McKnight Fellowship, an NDEA Fellowship, the Aide de la Creation award in France, the Bob Hope Award, Gold Prize in Hollywood Screenplay Contest, lives in New York City, served on the theatre panel of New Jersey Council on the Arts, and the new plays panel of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, was faculty at New Hampshire Institute of Art's Writing for Stage & Screen MFA program, La MaMa ETC (New York)'s nominee for the Laura Pels/​PEN award, consultant for musical DAMASCUS SQUARE.

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What the Critics Say

(George Washington) cut a dubious figure. He fell into greatness as if it were a chasm and he has suddenly found a parachute. This making of the hero least likely, Miss Sunde has captured in her play. She has also caught the mood of the revolution... She also exposes the remarkable image of a democracy fighting with men who were bound by nothing... ...a nervous amateur ... becomes the legendary figure.

Clive Barnes NEW YORK POST

Brilliant crossing of the Delaware. The play is surprisingly well crafted.

Glenne Currie (United Press International) UPI

...a fascinating study of George Washington and his Continental Army during the last months of 1776. ...fast-moving account...engrossing...vivid. Sunde's epic drama...a work of considerable power and originality.

Emory Lewis THE RECORD

Sunde's revealing new drama...a very human, sorely beset leader. Washington doesn't sleep here. The fox is very much awake. Not a monument at all, a towering human being.

Joan T Nourse THE CATHOLIC TRANSCRIPT

With a voice both poetic and theatrical, Karen Sunde’s plays dramatize historical epochs in epic 63scope, making hers a distinctive, even unique, contemporary American drama, more akin to European than to other American plays. She tackles topics of war and politics to produce usually presentational, often explosive theatre which many would swear could not have been created by a woman. Flesh and blood passions...People achieving greatly, now and then crippled by arrogance and intolerance, suffering mightily, dazzled by possibilities, devastated by disappointments yet continuing and surviving are what she dramatizes No matter how sweeping the setting and cast, she chooses personal canvases upon which to paint her funny, thrilling, searing, moving scenes, which probe the stuff of which our heroes - and by extension we ourselves - are made. In inquiring about our past, Sunde remarks upon our future. That she does so with a sure histrionic sense is a guarantee that her work will endure in the American theatre after our more commercial fare has proven ephemeral.

CONTEMPORARY DRAMATISTS from SUNDE entry, pp 643-45

TAGS: George Washington, American Revolution, Crossing the Delaware, Hessian, Revolutionary War, King George, Battle of Trenton, Continental Congress, Thomas Paine, 1776, Durham boats, General Charles Lee, Colonel Johann Rahl, Brigadier General William Alexander Lord Stirling, Colonel Joseph Reed, Colonel John GLOVER, Major General John Sullivan,

PRODUCTION HISTORY

The Running Of The Deer (now titled LIBERTY) was first produced by CSC Repertory at the Abbey Theatre, New York City, on February 2, 1978. The production was directed by Christopher Martin.

Liberty

(The Running of the Deer)

by Karen Sunde

Smashwords Edition

Copyright Karen Sunde

For all rights to perform this play, apply to:

130 Barrow Street Suite 412

New York, NY 10014

212-366-1124

[e-mail]

www.karensunde.com

CONTENTS

CHARACTERS

Liberty ACT ONE

Liberty ACT TWO

MUSIC APPENDIX

What the Critics Say

OTHER PLAYS AND SCREENPLAYS by Karen Sunde

LIBERTY PRODUCTION

PRODUCTION NOTES:

The play is written for a bare stage and a flexible company of approximately twelve men and two women. (With doubling. More may be cast.)

The costumes of all are ragged and dirty, but the foot SOLDIERS must be in various states of extreme decay. More than half without shoes, some without pants, some are bound with strips of rags. They’ve never had uniforms.

The time is fall and winter, 1776.

CHARACTERS: (Double as needed)

WASHINGTON, General George, 44, tall, Virginian, Commander-In-Chief.

GREENE, Major General Nathaniel, 34, big, foundry owner, Quaker from Rhode Island, halts from knee injury, quartermaster.

REED, Colonel Joseph, 35, lawyer, Pennsylvania, adjutant.

GLOVER, Colonel John, 44, small tough—terrier, owner of fishing fleet, Massachusetts.

STIRLING, Brigadier General William Alexander Lord, 50, former surveyor-General, claimant to Scottish title, arthritic, alcoholic, New Jersey.

SULLIVAN, Major General John, 36, lawyer, fire-eater, New Hampshire.

LEE, General Charles, 46, tall, thin, exotically ugly, eccentric, English, brilliant military mind, Second-In-Command.

RAHL, Colonel Johann, 45, Hessian Commandant.

MAC, 30’s, floating functionary, but central. Mac is always there. Middle rank officer (In this army, Captain), all-purpose messenger.

GREENE, Major General Nathaniel, 34, big, foundry owner, Quaker from Rhode Island, halts from knee injury, quartermaster.

BEN, 14, soldier, Connecticut.

TOM, 40’s, soldier, trapper, Maryland.

ADAM, 30’s, soldier, shoemaker, Connecticut.

SARA, 30’s, cook, Adam’s wife, Connecticut.

POLLY, 17, farmer’s daughter, New Jersey.

JAMES, 20’s, soldier, Ben’s brother, Connecticut.

LANDLADY, 40’s, of White’s Inn.

DRAGOON, 40’s, English.

HONEYMAN, 30’s, butcher, spy, New Jersey

MCKONKEY, 50’ s, tavern-keeper, Pennsylvania.

WOMAN, 40’s, farm woman, New Jersey.

GIRL, Teen’s, farm woman’s daughter.

POLERS

SOLDIERS

LIBERTY

Distant bombardment as lights fade to black. Quiet. Dawn lights slowly. Two figures are standing still downstage. They listen and survey area, waiting. Onstage is an overturned cart and two stumps that provide permanent seating. Bombardment in distance.

WASHINGTON: It’s begun. They’ll be landing.

(The two begin to move center, stop as they hear distant shouts, getting louder, and clanking, clomping of men on the move. The eery, dissonant screaming swells as one MAN comes running from upstage loaded down with pack, musket, horn. GREENE steps to intercept him.)

GREENE: Where to, fellow? Enemy’s yonder.

(The MAN, yelling, dodges past GREENE. Three OTHERS enter from the same place, screaming and with faces contorted. All the running and struggles in this sequence may be performed in slowed-down motion. WASHINGTON confronts the first MAN— )

WASHINGTON: Turn. (The man hesitates) Turn, bastard.

(The MAN squeals, lets his gear fly off as he dodges past WASHINGTON and off downstage.)

WASHINGTON: You bloody sons of bitches, turn, damn you!

(WASHINGTON steps to center in the midst of the three who are fleeing. GREENE moves to stop them, too, but steps back as WASHINGTON begins striking with the flat of his sword and then with his whip. More MEN enter. Fleeing blindly, they scream, stumble over each other, struggle, letting their gear drop along the way. One falls dead in shadow downstage.