Third Country writer gets the third degree

It is the idea of leaving what you know; that childhood fear of having to let go of all your friends, places, favorite window seat, to enter into a new school in whole new setting. Suehyla El-Attar took this idea of leaving it all behind (well, except a soccer ball) and made it into her play, Third Country, opening tonight at Horizon Theatre. Third Country portrays a character in transition in a changing community. It is about defining home, what you let go of and what you hold on to, and what it means to truly be hospitable.

Below, Busking at the Seams gave El-Attar the third degree  about her own ideas of home and the need to hide kitty litter:

Q. What do you call home?

A. Friends, moments, open conversations with strangers, a place where I can take a walk and find my way back.

Q. What would you keep with you if you had to leave your home?

A. My instinct is to say, my pets. But, I can’t answer this, truly. I would never know till I had to face it. Because moments change us within them.

Q. What would you want to get rid of?

A. …Debt?

Q. If an outsider came to your home, what would you want them to feel?

A. The truth of it. Nothing warms me more than hearing, “your home feels like love.” “Your home feels open” “your home feels comfortable.” And nothing awakens me more, than hearing “Is everything okay, it feels really dark in here.”  “Can we go outside, it feels more comfortable…”

Q. What would you want them not to see?

A. The cat litter unemptied.

Q. What is the best way to connect to a hometown (new or old)?

A. The way to find home, to me, is to work and live in that place. By living, I mean, finding a way to create some of your habits within the new space. I love daily walks, and even when away on business, if I can find a safe route to walk, I feel at home.

Q. What part of your home are you most ashamed of?

A. You think I’d admit it in public? The cat litter. And unfolded laundry.

Q. What are you most proud of?

A. That it’s open, that you can drop by any time. That I have my childhood piano.

Q. Is it more difficult for a person to change or a place?

A. I think each depends on the other. It’s a chicken/egg thing. But then again, like my friend Jill Jane says, ” Wherever you go, there you are.”

Q. What would you change about your home?

A. My home? Nothing. The house in which I’m currently living:  I’d like to knock down a couple of walls and make the kitchen bigger, and redo the bathroom.