Between the Land and Sea: A Selkie Myth

by Laurie Brooks

Copyright 1994

3 Men, 5 Women

Inspired by Scottish myths of the seal people, who transform into humans on one night of the year, Selkie tells the story of young Ellen Jean, caught between land and sea, childhood and maturity, as she unravels her true identity. On her thirteenth birthday, Ellen Jean is expected to dance at the foy, but ashamed of her webbed hands, she refuses to dance. During this magical Midsummer's Eve, Ellen Jean—helped by her Grandpa, Tam the gypsy boy and the mysterious selkies—discovers her mother's secret and finds "the knowin'." With the poetic language of the Orkney Islands, the sounds of the sea, the wind, and the haunting cries of the seals, Selkie will touch the hearts of young and old alike.

• Finalist at the Bonderman/IUPUI National Playwriting Symposium (1995).
• New Visions/New Voices Development Symposium, The Kennedy Center (1995).
• Distinguished Play Award (1998) from the American Alliance for Theatre and Education.
• Included in Theatre for Young Audiences: Twenty Great Plays for Children, Edited by Coleman Jennings, St. Martin's Press, 1998.
• Listed in ASSITEJ Outstanding Plays for Young Audiences, Vol. VI, 1999.

Photos courtesy of The Coterie Theatre