The
Waterfall

by Phanésia Pharel

I really do love you.
I just don’t understand you.

Tensions brew as Bean returns to help her brilliantly biting, stubborn Haitian American mother, Emi, recover from a hospitalization. Despite succeeding in many of life’s shoulds, Bean is lost, struggling to settle down, and her mother is having none of it. Poetic, personal, and prodigal, The Waterfall explores the complicated bond between mother and daughter, the notion that all women are born to be mothers, and what it means to live your own version of the American Dream.

2024 Kennedy Center Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award Winner 

Staged readings:

July 28, 2023
September 23, 2024

About the Playwright

Phanésia Pharel

Phanésia Pharel (Playwright) is a Haitian-American playwright from a dragon fruit farm in Miami. The daughter of an immigrant teacher and farmer, she writes to honor people. Her full-length plays include DEAD GIRL’S QUINCEÑERA, THE WATERFALL, R&B, LUCKY, and BLACK GIRL JOY.

She is the incoming playwriting fellow at Emory University where she will teach and have a new play produced through their repertory company. She has received commissions from the Atlantic Theater, Lucille Lortel (Alcove),… Read more