Rona Tamir is an Israeli born, Brooklyn based film and TV screenwriter, writing for both English and Hebrew speaking productions. Among her projects currently at work are My Happy Ending (feature film, starring Andie MacDowel, scheduled for release February 2023); Race to the Top (drama series for Israeli broadcast channel Keshet12, to air by end of 2023); Hotel Jerusalem (feature film, Dir: Sameh Zoabi, in production) and others. Before moving to the U.S. Rona worked as a staff writer on multiple of Israel’s top rated, award-winning political satire and sketch comedy TV shows (such as ‘Eretz Nehederet’ and ‘Matzav Ha’Uma’) and has written for numerous Israeli comedians and comedy TV shows and series. Prior to screenwriting, Rona worked on various Israeli documentary TV series in a range of roles, from research to story editing, as well as on news programs (Israeli Channel 10). She hosted comedy and talk radio shows (on Tel-Aviv Radio and Galatz Radio) and she has published articles and humorous pieces on Israeli media outlets, both in print (Ha’aretz) and online (Hamakom). Rona holds a BA Magna Cum Laude in Jewish and European history from Tel Aviv University and studied film at FAMU, Czech Republic and at Tel Aviv University’s MFA program.
LABA project description:
“Ode to My Never-to-be-Born Child” is a monodrama by way of stand-up with Moth-style storytelling vibe, that tells the story of an abortion that almost never gets told. At 40, a woman discovers she’s pregnant, and she doesn’t want to have the kid. No, she wasn’t raped. no incest either, thank God. No health problems or rare genetic disorders and no, she wasn’t having an affair. Just an unwanted pregnancy of a happily married couple with two very wanted kids.
Now what?
Is it okay not to want another kid when there’s “nothing wrong”? As the woman soon finds out – whether okay or not, it happens to so many, many couples. It’s just that no one talks about it. Ever. It’s much easier to swallow the abortion idea when the woman is underage, or a victim, or in danger. But what about exercising the right to choose under “ideal” circumstances? And to make things even more complicated- What if it happens not only in a Jewish environment, but an Israeli one – where family is scared and a tribalism is the default culture? Soon enough the woman and her husband discover they’re not alone in this, it just feels like it because no one ever talks about their not-another-kid abortions. It’s the last taboo of the liberal, woke, taboo-defying middle class bourgeoisie. It’s 2023 and American women are yet again deprived of autonomy and sovereignty over their bodies and life choices. And those are the lucky ones- Most women around the world haven’t even made it far enough to be set back like that. As a woman, a mother, an American citizen and a member of the sisterhood, I have to speak up, before it’s too late for my daughter.
What Taboo would you like to break?
In my utopia, when woken up from a mid-day nap by a work call, no one would have to lie about it anymore.