Orna Rawls' Play to Be Presented During 'Tribal Humor 5'

During “Tribal Humor 5” on June 23 and June 26, Orna Rawls will combine her career as a therapist with her passion as a playwright.

Her short play, “After All I’ve Done for You,” will be presented by The Temple Players during the six-play festival, which takes place at . Each comedy in this festival focuses on a Jewish theme.

“The play is based on my favorite topics, sacrifice and guilt. My career is based on the treatment of guilt,” she explains.

Her play will be directed by Marlana Rugg of Branford.

Rawls is a Stratford-based licensed marriage and family therapist with more than 30 years of experience working with individuals, couples and families in therapy, mediation and conflict resolution.

“The phrase, ‘After All I’ve Done for You’ has become a family joke,” she notes. “I say it to my kids when I try to make them feel guilty.”

She describes her play, which is a monologue, as a story of a “certified guilter,” who tells you all you need to know about guilt, control and laughter.

Last month the piece was presented as part of the “One Woman Standing” series presented by New York City-based Emerging Artists Theater.

Three of her plays, including “No Child Left Behind,” “Unintelligent Design” and “By the Book,” were semi-finalists at the Samuel French Festival of Short plays in New York City.

“I’ve been writing plays for about 10 years,” she reports. “In April, ‘No Child Left Behind’ was presented by the Blackstone Players in Branford."

Rawls is a co-founder of SquareWrights, the playwright center of and has co-produced a number of the group’s short-play festivals.

For more information on the Tribal Humor 5 festival, .

Editor's note: This is the fifth in a series of features on the "Tribal 5 Humor" festival. A new installment will be published at 10 a.m. each weekday leading up the event.