Day Off Diary: THE VAGRANT TRILOGY’s Mona Mansour

For many performers, after a long 8-show week, their one day off is time to rest and recharge. When it comes to playwrights, though, the work never stops. Still, we managed to catch up with Mona Mansour from The Vagrant Trilogy and spend an afternoon with her. Get to know a bit more about Mona in her #DayOffDiary: 

Hometown? Born in Seattle but grew up in SoCal.

‍Where might we find you on your day off? Walking in my part of Brooklyn! Prospect Park.

‍If you weren’t a writer, what would you be doing? A journalist? Speech pathologist?

‍If you could describe your experience with The Vagrant Trilogy in just one word, what would it be? It’s impossible to put in one word.

‍Who are you jamming to on Spotify right now? This fantastic Palestinian hip-hop group DAM. There's a song of theirs called EMTA NJAWZAK YAMMA ("When will you get married?") that is sharp and funny and witty and has a great beat. I love it so much I asked for it to be on the pre-show music for the third part of Trilogy.

‍What are you binging on TV right now? Station Eleven. So beautiful and full and dark and compassionate.

‍Read any good books lately? Lucky Boy by a fellow New Amsterdam writer: Shanthi Sekaran. It’s beautiful, heartbreaking. I’m in awe of novelists in general, the immensity of the worlds they create, and the multiple threads they carry around inside them as they unravel it all on page.

‍One Instagram account (besides your own, duh), that we need to be following? @femalecollective

‍Favorite coffee joint in New York? What’s your order? I'm a tea person! Harney & Co.

‍Pickles on your burgers? Nope!

‍Pineapple on your pizza? Never.

‍What flavor of cream cheese on your bagel? Regular with all the accompanying fat, thank you.

‍The Public is so historic to New York Theatre, what was the first show you ever saw performed at The Public? Well it was a Public show but I saw it on Broadway: Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks. I’d never seen anything like it: playful, poetic, human and shocking in all the right ways.‍

What is one show you are dying to see on Broadway right now? Take Me Out! I'm a huge baseball fan—and Hiram Delgado from my theater company (SocietyTheatre.com) is in it.

You can catch Mansour’s The Vagrant Trilogy at The Public Theater Off-Broadway. For tickets and more information, click here. For more photos, visit Theatrely on Instagram. All photos by Rebecca J Michelson/Theatrely.