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Pass Over
Antoinette Nwandu
Copyright © 2018 by Antoinette Nwandu
Introduction copyright © 2019 by Antoinette Nwandu
Cover artwork © Alim Smith
“Nikes.” Words and Music by Christopher Breaux, Om’Mas Keith, Carl Palmer, Harry Palmer, Jeff Palmer and James Blake Litherton. Copyright © 2016 Heavens Research, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, EMI April Music Inc. and Buzzard And Kestrel Ltd. All Rights for Heavens Research Administered by BMG Rights Management (US) LLC. All Rights for Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, EMI April Music Inc. and Buzzard And Kestrel Ltd. Administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, 424 Church Street, Suite 1200, Nashville, TN 37219. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission. Reprinted by Permission of Hal Leonard LLC.
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CAUTION: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that Pass Over is subject to a royalty. It is fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and all British Commonwealth countries, and all countries covered by the International Copyright Union, the Pan-American Copyright Convention, and the Universal Copyright Convention. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, recitation, public reading, radio broadcasting, television, video or sound taping, all other forms of mechanical or electronic reproduction, such as information storage and retrieval systems and photocopying, and rights of translation into foreign languages, are strictly reserved.
Stock, and amateur applications for permission to perform it, and those other rights stated above, must be made in advance to Samuel French, Inc., 235 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10003, and for first-class professional rights, to ICM Partners, 65 East 55th Street, New York, NY 10022.
Acting edition by Samuel French © 2018
Published simultaneously in CanadaPrinted in Canada
First Grove Press paperback edition: June 2019
ISBN 978-0-8021-4742-4
eISBN 978-0-8021-4743-1
Grove Press
an imprint of Grove Atlantic
154 West 14th Street
New York, NY 10011
Distributed by Publishers Group West
groveatlantic.com
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Production Credits
Characters
Author’s Notes
Act One
Act Two
Pass Over was developed over a period of nearly five years. I am deeply grateful to the following people and institutions:
My many hundreds of students at the Borough of Manhattan Community College for keeping me on my toes, making me a better instructor, and reminding me what beautiful language sounds like.
Evan Cabnet, André Bishop, and LCT3; Anna Shapiro, David Schmitz, Aaron Carter, and Steppenwolf; Angelina Fiordellisi, Janio Marrero, Seri Lawrence, Katori Hall, and The Cherry Lane Mentor Project; Michael Walkup, Rachel Karpf Reidy, and P73; Jonathan McCrory and The National Black Theatre; and Shawn Rene Graham and Playwrights’ Playground at The Classical Theater of Harlem.
Spike Lee, who read the play, saw its urgency, and preserved it on film so that people who don’t go to the theater can share in its wonder.
Ted Hope, Scott Foundas, and Amazon Studios for giving this story such a readily accessible platform on Amazon Prime.
All the generous and talented directors and actors who enabled development of the piece along the way: Tea Alagic, Victor Maog, and LA Williams. Also Julian Parker, Ryan Hallahan, Jaime Lincoln Smith, Eden Marryshow, Joe Tapper, RJ Brown, Frank Harts, Jeff Biehl, Ruffin Prentiss, Khiry Walker, Carl Hendrick Louis, Bill Johnson, and Malik Ali.
And especially Jon Michael Hill, Namir Smallwood, and Gabe Ebert, whose finesse, urgency, and professionalism made me a better writer.
To my great and good collaborator, Danya Taymor, who said yes to this wild ride without hesitation, jumped in heart-plus-brain first, and made the play sing.
And last but not least, thank you to Graham, my lover, husband, and friend. When I’m at my lowest and worst, you believe in the work I’m doing, and even more in me. I love you.
I want this introduction to be a record of the process, oftentimes uncertain and serpentine, that resulted in the birthing of this play. I was skittish and impatient when I began writing this play, but possessed of an emotion so unsettling in its demands for acknowledgement, for action, that I had no choice but to embark.
I began writing Pass Over at the end of 2013 and completed a first draft by the summer of 2014. The first few months were tumultuous: a while earlier I had endured a developmental process for another play that left me brittle, untrusting, and creatively empty. After that play was over, I wrote
