Human Rites
Play Description
Michaela, an African American dean at a major American university, summons Alan, a renowned professor of cultural psychology, in response to student protest over his controversial paper on female initiation rites in sub-Saharan Africa. But dormant feelings from an affair years earlier turn a heated argument over science and cultural pluralism into a knock-down, drag-out fight. Rozin's provocative play shatters the ivory tower of academia, upending questions of privilege and Western morality.
Production Info
Cast: 3 total (2 female, 1 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
- Reviews
- About the Author(s)
- About the Book
- Special Notes
Press Quotes
“Fast-paced and riveting … be prepared to have your eyes opened, your own pre-conceived notions debunked, and your head left spinning … I highly recommend it.” —Broadway World
“HUMAN RITES soars with mind-blowing ideas.” —Broad Street Review
“When Westerners decry the practices of other cultures, and campaign for change, they may mean well. But are they really spreading enlightenment, or shame? Who gets to decide whether an initiation rite is barbaric or an exemplary form of bonding? Are there any cultural absolutes, or are all cultural norms equally valid? This constellation of questions animates Seth Rozin’s crafty and invigorating play, HUMAN RITES.” —Julia Klein, Philadelphia Inquirer
“Plays like HUMAN RITES — thoughtfully written and thought-provoking — are what keep a lot of people, myself included, eagerly going to the theater.” —WHYY-FM
“It’s so refreshing to experience a play that relentlessly challenges its audience to rethink its assumptions, about both big-picture issues and the human characters wrestling with them.” —Indianapolis Business Journal
Author(s)
Seth RozinSeth Rozin is the author of more than a dozen plays, including MEN OF STONE (produced by Theater Catalyst, nominated for a Barrymore Award for Outstanding New Play), MISSING LINK (produced by InterAct Theatre Company, nominated for a Barrymore Award for Outstanding New Play), REINVENTING EDEN (produced by InterAct), BLACK GOLD (National New Play Network rolling world premieres at InterAct, Phoenix Theatre, Prop Thtr, Arts West), TWO JEWS WALK INTO A WAR… (National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere at Florida Stage, New Jersey Rep, Writers Theatre of New Jersey, Shadowland Stages, Unicorn Theatre, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, InterAct, Florida Studio Theatre, Geva Theatre, Barter Theatre, Jewish Theatre of Grand Rapids and New Repertory Theatre), THE THREE CHRISTS OF MANHATTAN (produced by InterAct), and HUMAN RITES (produced at Phoenix Theatre & InterAct; winner of the 2018 Brown Martin Philadelphia Award). Seth also wrote the book, lyrics and music for a musical ENTITLED A PASSING WIND, which received its premiere at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts’ inaugural Philadelphia Inernational Festival of the Arts in 2011. He is the recipient of two playwriting fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, NNPN's Smith Prize, as well as a new play commission from the Foundation for Jewish Culture. Seth is the founder and Producing Artistic Director of InterAct Theatre Company in Philadelphia, where he has directed over 50 productions, including 30 world premieres, and has twice served as President of National New Play Network.
Special Notes
If original stage producers credits appear in bold below, all licensees are required to include them in the following form on the title page in all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play and in all advertising in which the full cast appears in size of type not less than ten percent (10%) of the size of the title of the Play:
World Premiere produced by Phoenix Theatre, Indianapolis, Indiana,
Bryan Fonseca, Producing Director
In addition, the following must appear within all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play:
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypub.com
Related Plays
$15.00–$15.95 Play Description
A creative writing professor is called to the office of the college president for questioning. What has been going on in his classroom to provoke a growing controversy and attract the attention of the United States military? Is there a real threat, or is it imagined?
Production Info
Cast: 3 total (1 female, 2 male)Full Length Drama (about 110 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95 Play Description
On the night in 1939 when Count Basie is to be the first black performer at the Palomar Ballroom next door, a pair of Bimini Baths attendants are tasked with cleaning up a stranger fished out of the La Brea Tar Pits.
Production Info
Cast: 3 total (3 male)Full Length Drama (about 60 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
$15.00–$17.95 Play Description
An old Tutsi story-teller, sitting on a hill, invites us to join him in the most beautiful place on earth — Rwanda. He becomes our guide through the history and people of the land he loves. In the wake of the 1994 genocide, multiple stories unfold. A Hutu government minister, engaged in encouraging the killing falls deeply in love with a Tutsi woman. The head of the U.N. peacekeepers, haunted by the hundreds of thousands of people he couldn’t save, struggles with his own will to live. A young Rwandese film student, away at school in New York City when his country implodes embarks on an eye-opening journey to find out what has become of his family and craft a film that will bring his country’s story to the world. The play weaves together the lives of these and other characters who experience the genocide from many different perspectives and ultimately come together to move forward into the uncertain future, reaching for hope.
Production Info
Cast: 14 total (2 female, 12 male)Full Length Drama (about 180 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95 
Play Description
Race and science collide in Cassandra Medley’s trenchant drama. Claire is a melanin scientist. She believes people of color are genetically superior — physically, mentally, in every way. Her daughter Kalima, a molecular geneticist at Johns Hopkins, knows otherwise, but to discredit her mother would destroy the relationship that each woman values the most. Forced to choose between science and family, between her future and her family, Kalima must decide where her loyalties lie.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (3 female, 2 male)Full Length Drama (about 110 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes
$11.95–$15.00 Play Description
In NO PLACE TO BE SOMEBODY a black bartender in New York City attempts to outwit a white mobster syndicate. The play received the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Charles Gordone’s Pulitzer signified two firsts: he was the first African American playwright to receive a Pulitzer, and NO PLACE TO BE SOMEBODY was the first Off-Broadway play to receive the Pulitzer.
Production Info
Cast: 16 total (5 female, 11 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95 Play Description
Melissa figures she has everything: a thriving career, a devoted partner (who never overstays his welcome), and the freedom to enjoy whatever and whomever else she wants. But when an unexpected visitor brings equally unexpected news, Melissa's rollicking life turns into comic confusion, replete with surprising twists and a tantalizing resolution.
Production Info
Cast: 3 total (2 female, 1 male)Full Length Comedy (about 90 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95 Play Description
THURGOOD depicts the life of Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court justice, and his role in the historic decision on the Brown v. Board of Education case.
Production Info
Cast: 1 total (1 male)Full Length Drama (about 105 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95 Play Description
With an important piece of legislation pending, treatment for a serious illness about to begin, and engagement to a woman half his age in the balance, a first-term City Councilman in Washington, D.C. is visited by his two adult sons, the younger one a gay man who must find a way to come out to his father, the older one an ex-football star who’s been living out of the country and out of touch for nearly twenty years. Both sons, in addition, carry a long-held tacit agreement that is destined to explode in their father’s face.
Production Info
Cast: 6 total (2 female, 4 male)Full Length Drama (about 120 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
Play Description
THE GULLIVER TRILOGY presents the adventures of its hero, Lemuel Louis Gulliver, Citizen Candidate of the World, an extraordinary everyman, whose picaresque life begins in 1942 on Chicago's great South Side. Among the issues addressed in LEMUEL are racial segregation, quality of education, assassination of American leaders, abuse of political power, and the needs of the poor and oppressed.
Production Info
Cast: 9 total (4 female, 5 male, multiethnic cast)Full Length Drama (about 110 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95 Play Description
An African American college professor who is feeling stuck both in his life and in his world of words meets a female African American student who comes to represent for him a dangerous kind of renewal and redemption, one that leads to tragedy for two disparate families.
Production Info
Cast: 9 total (3 female, 6 male)Full Length Drama (about 115 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes