Maryam: A Woman of Bethlehem: A Play Foreword, with English Script and Arabic Script

VICTORIA RUE, MDIV, PHD, is a university lecturer, a theatre writer/director, and a Roman Catholic woman priest. She lectures in Comparative Religious Studies, Women's Studies and Creative Arts at San Jose State University. In 2018–19, she was a Fulbright Scholar at Dar al-Kalima University of Arts and Culture in Bethlehem, Palestine. As her Fulbright project, she created and directed the play Maryam: A Woman of Bethlehem, which is translated by Hind Abu Shkhadim. Dr. Rue's Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union focused on how feminist theatre enacts feminist theology. Her book Acting Religious: Theatre as Pedagogy in Religious Studies (2005) introduces teachers and students to embodied/enacted learning.

Her most recent plays are Mary/Maryam in Christian and Islamic Traditions, performed December 2016, and A Halaqa/Seder Exodus, created with the Islamic Networks Group and the Jewish Federation of Silicon Valley in April 2016. As a playwright and director in the United States, Victoria's work has been seen in New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Additional information about Rue and her work can be viewed on her website: http://www.victoriarue.com.

In 2005, Victoria was ordained a woman priest. There are presently nearly 300 women priests in the United States who are proudly excommunicated through the movement Roman Catholic Womenpriests. For more information, see http://romancatholicwomenpriests.org. Victoria's spouse of twenty-nine years is Kathryn Poethig, MDiv, PhD; they met while studying at Union Theological Seminary in NYC. and live in Berkeley, California.

HIND ABU SHKHADIM, translator and dramaturg of the play Maryam, organized the play's tour to seven cities around Palestine. Abu Shkhadim has a degree in Dramatic Arts and Performance from Dar Al Kalima University College of Arts and Culture in Bethlehem. She is likewise a stage and film actress and believes in employing drama as an innovative means for raising awareness and making social change. Abu Shkhadim is the Middle East–Africa winner of the Google+ Social Media Marketing Competition 2013. Her campaign sought to empower women and fight negative stereotypical images of women in Palestine and worldwide. She is a certified trainer in international training methodologies in debate, soft skills, and entrepreneurship.