Watermarked

by Karen Marguerite Moloney

Two-sentence Synopsis:
As seas rise, an American writer searches for sixteenth-century ancestors. Are they also looking for her?

Synopsis:
With her passion for the past, Dr. Kate-Siobhan Donoghue comes to the German coast of the North Sea to write a memoir about her foremothers. A chance discovery leads her instead to a sixteenth-century forefather who sailed a ferry between the mainland and a nearby island...

Two-sentence Synopsis:
As seas rise, an American writer searches for sixteenth-century ancestors. Are they also looking for her?

Synopsis:
With her passion for the past, Dr. Kate-Siobhan Donoghue comes to the German coast of the North Sea to write a memoir about her foremothers. A chance discovery leads her instead to a sixteenth-century forefather who sailed a ferry between the mainland and a nearby island. Edde the Ferryman captures her imagination, and when she learns that he left behind a trail of artifacts, she sets off to follow. But where will the trail lead? And why does she feel so drawn to Edde and his sons—and later, to Sibbrich, his young daughter? Do vital clues about the present lie buried in the past? This is the ancient homeland of the Frisians, and while Kate searches for answers, the coastal landscape casts its spell. Water spirits converse with her as easily as cousins share local lore. Gradually, as the play’s scenes alternate between the present and the 1500s, Kate comes upon the answers she needs, and lingering griefs begin to heal. Sea levels are rising, though, and the murderous North Sea will have the last word.

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Watermarked

Recommended by

  • Playwrights Foundation: Watermarked

    Playwrights Foundation enthusiastically recommends this play, WATERMARKED, as a Semi-Finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival 2020. We were moved by the quality of the writing and the relevant and compelling themes that spoke to the mission of our festival. It excelled in a competitive process of 735 plays submitted this year and rose to the top after a six month long process discussing its merits with both national and local Bay Area readers, and we hope it moves swiftly towards production

    Playwrights Foundation enthusiastically recommends this play, WATERMARKED, as a Semi-Finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival 2020. We were moved by the quality of the writing and the relevant and compelling themes that spoke to the mission of our festival. It excelled in a competitive process of 735 plays submitted this year and rose to the top after a six month long process discussing its merits with both national and local Bay Area readers, and we hope it moves swiftly towards production

Development History

  • Type Reading, Organization AMPLIFY! Bay Area Women's Theater Festival (selected but postponed due to the coronavirus), Year 2020
  • Type Reading, Organization Claddagh Theater Company, Louisville, Kentucky, Year 2019
  • Type Reading, Organization Nordsee Museum, Husum, Germany, Year 2017
  • Type Workshop, Organization Weber State University, Year 2015

Awards

  • Note: The play is fictionalized from "Watermarked," the playwright's memoir, published in Memoir 14:2013. Awarded the issue's 2nd Prize for Memoir in Prose or Poetry (out of 1200 submissions).
  • Selection
    Bay Area Women's Theater Festival
    2020
  • Semi-finalist
    Bay Area Playwrights Festival
    2020