The Recipe Play (formerly called Jackson Pie/All The Ingredients / BIC 1967 --- hellllllllp me title this thing)

by Beth Kander

Jackson, Mississippi, November 22, 1967. On the night before Thanksgiving, a Black mother and a Jewish mother are making pies and kugels, forging a tentative alliance as they grapple with the recent revelation that their children are dating. Each fears what this will mean, as the world rages and burns around them. Occasionally interrupted by the white preacher's wife from across the street (who seems...

Jackson, Mississippi, November 22, 1967. On the night before Thanksgiving, a Black mother and a Jewish mother are making pies and kugels, forging a tentative alliance as they grapple with the recent revelation that their children are dating. Each fears what this will mean, as the world rages and burns around them. Occasionally interrupted by the white preacher's wife from across the street (who seems increasingly agitated), the action of the play takes place in Bea’s home, near the city’s only synagogue, which was recently bombed by the KKK. In this imagined story, Bea lives next door to Rabbi Perry and Arene Nussbaum - and that night, another bomb is about to go off.

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The Recipe Play (formerly called Jackson Pie/All The Ingredients / BIC 1967 --- hellllllllp me title this thing)

Recommended by

  • Audrey Lang: The Recipe Play (formerly called Jackson Pie/All The Ingredients / BIC 1967 --- hellllllllp me title this thing) by Beth Kander
    “

    I appreciated this story of two women finding common ground and even friendship, and the way that you can feel the tension of the political landscape they meet in throughout. The ending is so well foreshadowed that while it is shocking when it happens, it's not a surprise. A really well-written play that is historical something-more-than-fiction.

    I appreciated this story of two women finding common ground and even friendship, and the way that you can feel the tension of the political landscape they meet in throughout. The ending is so well foreshadowed that while it is shocking when it happens, it's not a surprise. A really well-written play that is historical something-more-than-fiction.

    ”
  • Nabra Nelson: The Recipe Play (formerly called Jackson Pie/All The Ingredients / BIC 1967 --- hellllllllp me title this thing) by Beth Kander
    “

    The intimacy of it within a very intense socio-political scenario was beautifully balanced. As the daughter of a bi-racial marriage, it was interesting to see this particular point-of-view on a common yet always nuanced and complicated topic.

    The intimacy of it within a very intense socio-political scenario was beautifully balanced. As the daughter of a bi-racial marriage, it was interesting to see this particular point-of-view on a common yet always nuanced and complicated topic.

    ”
THE CHARACTERS, IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE:


BEA GREEN F. 40s. A member of the Jewish community of Jackson, Mississippi. A woman coming to terms with big questions, and uncomfortable with what some of the answers she seeks might be. A businesswoman, though she wouldn’t call herself that. A mother.


ANNABELLE BELL F. 30s. A member of the White Presbyterian community of Jackson, Mississippi—in fact, her husband is a pastor. She wants to be a mother but “has not been blessed with children” and is struggling, spiritually and socially, with her infertility.


SHIRLEY MACNEILL F. 40s. A member of the Black Baptist community of Jackson, Mississippi. A woman with deep convictions, worried about others’ convictions and how they may collide. For too long overlooked, she is a force to be reckoned with who doesn’t miss a thing. A mother.

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