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This is a role-playing poem for two players. You will be role-playing two characters who are collaborating on writing a letter. You will need a pen and a blank sheet of paper so that one of you can physically write out the letter in your neatest longhand.
Have one player read the text in the section entitled The Concerned Friend while the other player reads the section entitled The Helpful Acquaintance. Don't read that stuff out loud, just read it to yourselves. Once both of you have finished reading, the player who is The Helpful Acquaintance should pick up the pen and slide the blank sheet of paper in front of him or her. The player who is The Concerned Friend then starts the role-play by explaining the situation to his acquaintance. The majority of the play is concerned with collaborating on and writing the letter.
The poem ends when the letter is finished. If you like, one of you can then read the finished letter out loud. I'd like to read the letters that you write while playing. Send pictures or transcripts of the letters to playdesignplay@gmail.com.
You are a middle-aged Palestinian man who works in some menial capacity at a college in Scotland. You have a young wife and a baby daughter that came over to Scotland with you. You speak a little broken English, and don't read and write the language at all. You are a Muslim and you pray at the local mosque.
One of the other faithful who prays at the mosque is an older Turkish man. You're not really acquainted with the Turk, but you do know that he is married and has a young daughter who studies at this very college. Sadly, the activities of this Turk's daughter are troubling. You have seen her in the company of young English men. You have glimpsed her sitting inside bars about the town. You have seen her walking around the college hand in hand with a young man. It is quite evident that the daughter is seeing the young man romantically. It is also quite obvous that the Turk does not know about his wayward daughter, because otherwise he would have put a stop to this unnacceptable behaviour. If you were in the Turk's position, you know that you would certainly appreciate a member of the community looking out for your daughter.
You are going to write a letter to the Turk alerting him to his daughter's wayward activities. Nobody else in the Muslim community needs to know of the Turk's shame. For that reason you have approached an English acquaintance at college to help you write the letter. Your acquaintance is not a Muslim, and he has helpfully corrected your broken English before. It is your intent that your acquaintance will actually write the letter in longhand, crafting idiomatic English that conveys respect and concern while also making clear the daughter's errant behaviour. It is crucial that the tone of the letter is respectful, so make sure that your acquaintance knows that.
You're a young Scottish man studying at college.
A guy, one of the menial staff at the college, that you know in passing has approached you in the cafeteria. He is a middle-aged Palestinian who has always been polite and pleasant enough on the few occasions you've chatted with him. In broken English he has asked you to help him write a letter in English. His English is very poor, so if he's got an important letter to write you can understand how he might need your help. You have excellent spoken and written English, and sure, you've got the time to help the guy out over lunch.
His plan is that you'll actually write the letter, turning his broken English and ideas into idiomatic English that exhibits a respectful and concerned tone. So, pick up your pen and position that blank sheet of paper in front of you. You've got a letter to write. A page, probably less, will do.
This poem is just an episode from my student years.
While at university in Scotland, I was The Helpful Acquaintance. Money was always tight during my student years, and I'd often spend afternoons in the cafeteria reading books on software; I couldn't afford a computer, and computer time at the university was rationed (!) so I'd write programs out in longhand and type 'em in the next day. I often didn't even buy a cup of tea to "justify" sitting in the cafeteria: I was just there because it was warm.
A Palestinian dude—I forget his name—who worked in the cafeteria kitchens was The Concerned Friend. One day he came over to where I was sitting and asked me to write him a letter. I readily agreed without even asking what the letter was about. It was only after he'd started explaining the situation that I realised I didn't really want to write this letter. I let him carry on speaking though, and as he spoke I thought that I'd better write the letter because at least that way I could influence the tone and content. And so I duly wrote the letter, handed it to the guy, and that was that.
I've often wondered—a few times in the intervening years—what the heck happened to the girl that I wrote about in that letter. Assuming the Turk actually received the letter, I can't imagine that was a happy night in her life. Was that Palestinian guy a cock? Was I a cock for writing the letter? I dunno, I dunno. I don't even remember what I wrote. It was a collaborative effort though, because the guy's English was pretty bad.
I'd dig to read the letters of other Helpful Acquaintances. Are the letters going to be stark? As I recall, mine was quite florid, filled with baroque sentence constructions and excessively flowery language. The dude's English was pretty bad though, so I can only imagine the kind of nasty letter I could have snuck past him if I had been that way inclined.
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