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April 21, 2010
Over the course of April and May, I will be dealing primarily with the current production at Seventh Stage – 9 Parts of Desire. However, during this period the purpose of the blog will be to stretch the content of the play beyond what is written and into the realm of broader discussions. My goal is for this to be a highly interactive little space and I may or may not always follow the traditional “blog” form. Truth time: I have absolutely no claim to blog expertise. This is a massively new application of my time and energy and I’m somewhat intimidated by the fantastic things I’ve read in the “research phase”…which basically consisted of reading awesome blogs all day. I’ve found a new obsession. People are so clever! Before now, blogs had really only served as a source of valuable stalker material (like even better than facebook). But we’ll get to all this my “introductions” paragraph. For now, lets start by saying a bit about the truly awesome upcoming production we’ll be discussing here…
And now for the press release:
“Told from the perspective of nine very different Iraqi women, each character speaks intimately to the audience, who becomes a trusted friend. A sexy painter, a radical Communist, a young girl obsessed with N’Sync, an Iraqi American desperate to contact her family in the middle-east; each character struggles with a desire for freedom – from Iraq, from lovers, from friends, from parents. Heather Raffo clearly illuminates what it means to be a woman in a war-zone amidst political turmoil. Part of each woman’s journey is like an out-of-control love-affair: each wanting nothing more than to find peace amidst the chaos.”
And on to introductions:
I ( and this blog, as a virtual extension of myself) am going to give you a tidbit about where I am coming from now and rhyme my name with a fruit…or something. I am here by association, and have never been deeply involved in the world of theatre. I have many friends who are, and it would seem they find my “outsider” perspective valuable. Of course they understand that my interest depends on limiting the amount of stuff I can’t not see, so that I do see only the most important of their many (many!) cumulative productions/readings/performances before the untimely death of my attention span. But seriously, even this is a lot when spread out between them. (Banana).
I am your average downtown Toronto resident with a day job and random/unhelpful undergrad degree. However, I’m currently exploring the question of how the arts (all forms) are relevant in my life, in what specific ways they serve to enrich my life, why I invest in them, and why we should all invest in them as Canadians. This comes up especially when reading the “comments” on CBC.ca that accompany any article on arts funding. I am using this experience as a launching off point and thus far I have already learned something from first read of the script (hurray!); I had not even considered the small every day details that make up a life, that make it relatable – but also make it unique, with regards to the women in news stories about Iraq. Unearthing these things in the lives of women in this specific context (Iraq, or any country at war) suddenly make their lives deeply relatable and human, but also fascinating. This is the aspect of writing, for theatre or otherwise, that I find baffling – this ability to embody and convey these wee little parts that make up a huge human experience.
Poster design by Ania Sroka & Irek Sroka of Twos Visual Communications
This brings me to my final point for today – and one of the things I also hope to achieve with this blog – to connect us. For this, I will need the help of any interested reader. I’ve begun the process of researching Iraqi female bloggers, and will be providing links to my favorites on this site in the days to come. It’s a crazy fascinating read! (and again, a new obsession). If anyone has a favorite blogger with a perspective you find interesting, important, relevant, whatever – put it up in the comment section and share it! Turns out blogging is, like the arts, and travel, a fantabulous way to share our voices. I think I’m gonna like this “information sharing via the interweb”.
May 4, 2010
Welcome back! As you can plainly see, far too many days have passed since I last posted here. I blame technology. There were some minor blog arrangement questions….and then my router broke. The second thing has not yet been dealt with cause I don’t even know where to find a router cause I am bad at technology (*see previous post, line 6). However, “research phase” has continued on. I’ve been stealing away to cafes and buying a tea and sitting there furiously reading away for as long as I feel is justified by my meager purchase. Apparently not enough time to put some kind of synopsis of these things together coherently until now. Anyway, time marches on and the ball will officially begin rolling for performance of the play – rehearsals begin tomorrow (Tuesday) bright and early at 10am with a read through and introduction. While I won’t be attending every rehearsal, I hope to get to as many as needed to report back on the creation process of this can’t-even-wait-gonna-be-soooooo-amazing show. I’ve rarely read a script in preparation for a show (or done this much immersion in the subject matter), so I just.can’t.wait. to see what they’ve gone and done with it. Will report back.
In the mean time, I want to share with you the fruits of my research – highlights from some of the great blogs written by Iraqi women both within Iraq and now relocated. Some of them speak directly to the themes explored by the play, and some of them explore contexts such as that of Hadia, a young lady studying in Mosul:
I like this girl – she’s frank, and uses a kind of dark humor when discussing things like fleeing of classmates due to religiously motivated killing and the crazy way having intermittent electricity in your home can come to rule your life (she actually sets her alarm for every 30 min. throughout the night incase it comes on and she can study. I am suddenly left dealing with the realization that I am a chronic complainer). As a student, she has had the unique experience of reaching voting age in a place where politics take on a whole new meaning – and she describes the anxiety she feels trying to approach this arena and make sense of it in order to contribute. At the same time, she watches her Christian friends drop out of classes and relocate, shrouded in secrecy, for fear of their safety. It really puts a whole new perspective on the infinitely more pathetic attempt I make at understanding politics in the Canadian arena. Honestly, don’t know if I could make my blog readable if that was the material I had to deal with. And she certainly does! …offering the reader a unique glimpse into a highly relatable (but also not) post secondary experience from the standpoint of an Iraqi woman in a war torn country. Added to this, she’s a very successful 18 year old – and has had a book published in English based on her blogging. Way to go Hadia!
Another favourite admittedly comes from a blog that is no longer active. In the Internet world, it feels like maybe this should deem it irrelevant…like it’s been forgotten and now should be cast aside. But I will still recommend it because it’s fantastic, and because more than anything, it leaves me somewhat obsessed with the whereabouts of its leading lady. Like everyone these days, she’s probably grown tired of it and has started a new blog with a flashy new blog theme…or maybe her circumstances have changed in a way I’ll never know or be techno-savvy enough to figure out. I am going to achieve peace of mind by imagining the former. In any case, she describes her experience with a kind of beautiful, simple but mature voice that I find really refreshing. I’ve pulled out a small example that you can find on the latest entry of the site:
“It has taken me these last three months to work away certain habits I’d acquired in Iraq after the war. It’s funny how you learn to act a certain way and don’t even know you’re doing strange things- like avoiding people’s eyes in the street or crazily murmuring prayers to yourself when stuck in traffic. It took me at least three weeks to teach myself to walk properly again- with head lifted, not constantly looking behind me.”
It was one particular post that immediately brought to mind a character from the play – Layal, an artist. The blogger (who goes by river) is describing a situation in the media regarding a woman who was raped by a member of the government, and the response of the media (which was to provide a platform for the government to accuse her of being a number of things, none of them worth reciting). “It takes a lot to get the energy and resolution to blog lately. I guess it’s mainly because just thinking about the state of Iraq leaves me drained and depressed. But I had to write tonight.” (Tuesday, February 20, 2007)
I am reminded of that sense of “what now” that Layal expresses in the play…in her introduction, she seems similarly compelled to stay and use her artistic voice within Iraq, so that someone remains to approach these vastly painful subjects, live with them, make them their own, and express it all to a wider audience. Both Layal and river feel the exhaustion of this experience and yet continue. I can’t tell you how compelling (and strangely unnerving) it was to see this artistic representation of an Iraqi woman so mirrored in one of the bloggers – I know they’re not the same, but holy cow did it ever become real for me.
As this has been somewhat of a lengthy entry, I am going to wrap it up here and reveal more exciting blogs next week. I will recap the names of the blogs discussed here for linking purposes, and urge you to visit them, and read back through the archives. Seriously. But I also want to close by going back to an idea I introduced in my first post – what theatre/art is to me, a person who misses 85% of the various “points” due to total lack of theoretical/educated understanding. For me, it was the “holy cow did it ever become real for me” moment – that is the point. Cause an artist has internalized something, mulled it over, and provided something back for us to grapple with in a way that is a thousand times more relevant than a newspaper article, which is why I LOVE these people! (and do, truly, believe in the investment) And yes, I did just quote myself there earlier. It’s a blog so whatever. I do what I want.
HNK’s Blog: Diary of an Iraqigirl (by Hadia)
May 13, 2010
This week has been a change of pace, and I feel a bit at a loss as to how to approach this blog entry at the moment. Let’s start with context. Turns out there is little in terms of inspiration on a satellite dish, where I’ve spent more time than ever lately. It’s like a reality vacuum over here and suddenly everything has melted away into an oblivion of tiny, digestible dramas and all of the controversy that could possibly arise from ranking hotness. I guess this is my little escape from reality. So, for the time being, I redesigned the twitter account profile. That was my way of getting moving, feeling productive…avoiding the TV. If you haven’t yet, I recommend you add us for some exciting tweets – @seventh_stage. I hear there maaaaaay be some fun stuff goin down on there!
Progress on the play marches on despite my ridiculousness, and thank goodness it does. Everyone is working hard with only 8 days til go time on May 19. I thought this might be a good time to look at context in the play – some of the historical moments discussed in the script. I found it extremely interesting researching these things as I read, and this is a nice little perk you get from reading and google-ing simultaneously. I think it’s important to also mention here that director Kelly Straughans production will be representing women from various contexts of war, broadening the themes somewhat.
So to begin – one of the most striking references was to an incident that occurred in the first Gulf War at the Amiriyah Bomb Shelter. This incident is discussed by character Umm Ghada, or “Mother of Ghada”:
“Here, on the ceiling, you can see / charred handprints and footprints / from people who lay in the top bunks. / And here a silhouette of a woman / vaporized from heat.”
And this is what my research has turned up on this reference: On Feb 13, 1991 an unknown number of civilians took shelter in an air-raid shelter. Most were women and children as the men had left to give them privacy overnight. U.S. forces mistook this shelter for a military command site, and struck it with a laser guided “smart bomb”. 403 people lost their lives, with the top floor being killed by the bomb itself, and the bottom floor being killed by the water supply boiling up beneath them. An intensely sobering read, the images added a bit of extra understanding – seeing that gaping, massive hole. I also found it very interesting that a woman named Umm Greyda, who lost 8 children in the bombing and guides visitors at the memorial site, is so beautifully echoed in the character Umm Ghada. But you won’t fully know what I’m talking about til you see the play…
The show opens with a monologue by a Mullaya, a woman typically hired to lead mourners at a funeral. She talks about the water in the marshes being diverted, and the lush landscape disappearing, and I got interested in the story behind this. Apparently Saddam Hussein drained some environmentally and socially significant marshes located in Southern Iraq.
The area around these Mesopotamia Marshes is considered the cradle of civilization as the first cities and state systems are said to have emerged from here. Wikipedia told me this. And then CNN told me that Saddam “smarty pants” Hussein got super mad one time at a group of people (the Ma’adans, descendents of the Sumerians who were the first complex society from within the Mesopotamia marshes) for uprising against him. So he drained this massively important 8,000 sq. mile environmental resource in retaliation.
Clearly a really well thought out move for his country in general (although there is lots of oil underneath them as well). An interesting article about the politics, and recovery of these marshes (now less than 7% remaining) can be found HERE. Popular belief puts the biblical garden of Eden in this formerly lush, marshy area but of course this is disputed somewhat…by both historians and non-literalists.
So there you have it, a bit of interesting research I’ve uncovered about some of the historical moments captured in the play. Of course, this may be old news…it actually is, literally, old news. But a lot of this stuff passes one by when you have no reason to notice it. I will leave you off today with a new twist on my blog pick for this week. As I mentioned earlier in this entry, the Seventh Stage production of 9 Parts of Desire is going to feature actresses representing women from various areas in conflict. I therefore thought it might be a good idea to shift the focus to a blog by a couple of women located in Somalia…not only because their blog is great, but also because they provide extensive links to other female Somali bloggers. This is a place where, much like Iraq, war has been a part of their history for a very long time and therefore they share this experience with our Iraqi bloggers and characters. Enjoy!
May 19, 2010
SHOWTIME!!
As we speak, the actors are busy preparing themselves for tonight…how exciting! As we speak, I’m eating lunch and thinking about the route I’m going to walk to the theatre…how easy for me!
Thanks for following along with me up to this point. Lead up to the show went a whole lot faster than I anticipated, and now I feel like I just got my blog feet wet. I don’t think the internet has seen the last of me. This has been an fantastic experience, research has been some of the most fascinating reading I’ve encountered in a very long time, and I have a feeling the show is going to be the perfect climax to everyone’s hard work. I think this entry is going to be a bit more from me about the material itself, as tonight everyone is going to meet the characters properly.
I have a confession about the first time reading through the play. I felt really really sad. Layal’s use of the word whore, her perfect articulation of a relationship with the regime…the American’s phone calls from family in Iraq – “they didn’t stop until they heard my voice”. I have to admit that the weight of it is extremely heavy. But I also feel like its such a gift that I should be given some of the weight of it, as though if we all actually understood then it wouldn’t be such a terrible weight for the women in these contexts…I like to think that if we did understand, something would have to change. Maybe I’m being totally ridiculous in believing I’m any closer to understanding from reading a play and a few blogs. I’m being presumptuous and there are a thousand perspectives I haven’t considered and I never ever can really understand. But I’m also tired of being cynical and saying “ya, but I’m gonna go back to my favorite comfy position on the couch and forget about it by 1 episode of The Hills”.
Slowly, after spending a few minutes feeling the emotion, you start to relax and the anger starts to subside and then what? I’m not sure where you go from there when you’ve opened your mind to a new person, or people. And I don’t know what you do when you know there is pain and need. I try to hold on to these feelings of rage and sadness and outrage and passion but I never can.
In the end, the character I felt the most was the American, to be honest. I loved Layal, I loved all the characters, and I know she was moving the story along and saying the most about the collective experience, but I was shaken to my core by the American. Maybe cause I can relate to her feelings of helplessness. Of course I can’t come close to touching that kind of pain, I can at least imagine it. Some of the other stories were of a pain beyond anything I could conceive of.
I don’t want to suggest, hours before the performance, that you’re heading towards a few hours focused entirely on the pain of being a woman in Iraq. It definitely goes far deeper than this. I am just talking a bit about what struck me, what resonated, and how I felt all things considered. I am going to send off with this, as I think this is basically all I want to say for the moment. I’m sure it’s a bit cliche, not the most critical or academic reading, but like I said in blog post #1, whatever. I do what I want.
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