Tag Archive for: Michele Lowe

INANA AT THE FESTIVAL

/by

War destroys lives. But war also destroys a peoples’ culture, their history, their heritage, their identity, and their souls. Michele Lowe weaves an intricate tale that’s both a love story and an ode to the treasures of the unique far-reaching civilization that developed between the Tigris and Euphrates. The story’s centerpiece is a sculpture of the ancient goddess Inana…the Sumerian goddess of fertility, love and war…the soul of the country. The statue of Inana is entrusted to Yasin, the museum curator who attempts to save this ancient treasured statue before the US invasion of his country. Amidst a background of international intrigue and marital discovery the situation in Iraq is mirrored in the life of this curator and his new bride Shali, and their arranged marriage. This poignant love story is an epic struggle to preserve and protect the innocence and beauty of a culture that is being destroyed.

Inana The Sumerian goddess of fertility, love and war.

THE CAST OF INANA by Michele Lowe:

Barzin Akhaven will portray the role of Yasin Shalid who is an Iraqi and the chief of the Mosul Museum. Yasin has a deep and protective love for his country.

Barzin Akhaven

Zabryna Guevara will play Shali Shalid…Yasin’s new Iraqi bride. Shali is uncommonly smart and naturally curious. She longs to return to Iraq and will do anything necessary to get there. She is strong, but hides her strength.

Zabryna Guevara

James Rana will portray Abdel-Hakim Taliq an Iraqi bookseller. He’s extravagant, literary, emotional, intelligent and stubborn. In his heart, he too is an optimist like Yasin.

James Rana

 

Gregor Paslawsky will play Emad Al-Bayit. He is Shali’s father and a gregarious, larger than life Iraqi sculptor. He is an erudite and cultured artist who loves his country. He is also charming, clever and extremely persuasive.

Gregor Paslawsky

Reema Zaman plays Mena Mohammed, Shali’s younger sister. Mena is naive, youthful, and literate. She yearns to understand how the future world works…but she still clings to old Iraqi customs. Reema will also play Hama Shalid…Yasin’s first wife. Hama is an attractive, strong, modern and intelligent Iraqi-born nurse.

Reema Zaman

Jonathan Raviv plays two roles: Mohammed Zara and a Iraqi Messenger. Mohammed Zara is an Iraqi man. He is Yasin’s assistant at the Mosul Museum. He is a sensitive, introverted, put-upon worker who has the potential to step up to the plate.

Jonathan Raviv

 Michael Gabriel Goodfriend will portray a British waiter and Dominc Colon, a British currator at the British Museum.

Michael Gabriel Goodfriend

 

Ed Herendeen

PRELIMINARY SKETCHES FOR INANA

/by

I want to share with you Robert Klingelhoefer’s preliminary sketches for the Set Design for INANA by Michele Lowe.

Ed Herendeen

PASSION FOR NEW WORK

/by

We are the CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN THEATER FESTIVAL. We are the theater of today…the theater of the Now. We are producing five new American plays in rotating repertory that are present and immediate. This is who we are, what we are and how we will be remembered by future generations. We are responsible for helping to create the destiny of the American theater. We are paying attention to the world. We are listening to contemporary writers who are attuned to our world and whose stories help us define these tumultuous times.

The artists at the Contemporary American Theater Festival are united by their passion for new work. We are united by newness. We are united by this quote from American playwright Steven Dietz (CATF 2009):

“The theater is not about nostalgia. The theater is not a museum. Plays don’t hang on walls, oblivious to time. The theater is a rehearsal of the present moment.”

Great stories beg to be told. And true artists are compelled to tell them. Playwrights are the theater’s storytellers. Max Baker, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, Jennifer Haley, Michele Lowe, J.T. Rogers and Lee Sellars are the storytellers of the 2010 Repertory. Their stories will broaden our minds, engage, provoke, inspire and ultimately connect us.

I have selected five new plays by these six artists… because they have written original stories that embody an independent spirit and a distinctive voice. They believe in the power of story. They believe in the power of sharing the most private of feelings in the most public of spaces–the theater. They are not afraid to confront pain and difference, conflict and joy, in the safe environment of the theater.

We all share a passionate belief that we can grow as a society only if we find the strength to confront and consider ideas and issues that may make us uncomfortable. We share the belief that a community without art has no voice, no memory of our stories and aspirations…a community without art is no community at all.

 I believe that making art…making theater…especially in this moment… is a form of social activism. It is a statement of belief in the power of community.

I have always believed that a contemporary theater must aggressively go to the edges of society and tell the stories that no one else will tell. To involve people at the deepest level…we need stories. Stories fulfill a profound human need to grasp the patterns of living–not merely as an intellectual exercise, but within a very personal, emotional experience. To do this we must engage our audience with the power of story. We must engage their emotions…AND…the key to their hearts is a story.

Please share your ideas and comments with me.

Ed Herendeen

WORKING WITH PLAYWRIGHTS

/by

One of the things that I love about my job is the opportunity to collaborate with the living playwright. My passion for directing new plays began in Graduate School. Directing a new play is risky because new plays are produced without a safety net of tradition…there is no production history to fall back on. Everything involved in doing a new play is done from scratch. The success of a new play is invariably founded on the successful collaboration of the artists involved. This is what we do at the Contemporary American Theater Festival…we develop and produce new work with the playwright. And this experience really turns me on.

Last week I had the opportunity to meet with Michele Lowe (INANA) and Max Baker(EELWAX JESUS) while I was in New York. We looked at preliminary set designs and discussed production concepts etc. Hearing their ideas and feedback was incredibly important. It is exciting to collaborate with these writers during this important pre-production period.

I have been in constant communication with J.T.Rogers RE: WHITE PEOPLE and Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig (LIDLESS) and I have been trading emails RE: my directors concept for her play. Frances is in China doing research and J.T. is in Afghanistan working on his latest play BLOOD AND GIFTS. Our conversations have been stimulating and productive.

All five of our 2010 playwrights will be in residence in Shepherdstown at various time throughout the rehearsal and performance process. They are an important  part of the creative process. They play a vital role in developing their plays at our Theater Festival. We are a playwright inspired theater and we listen to our playwrights. We encourage and welcome their ideas and suggestions. We involve them in every step of the creative process. For example: Yesterday… Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig and I were  discussing the Sound Design for LIDLESS. I emailed her my idea to create a percussion soundscape of “cell doors/cage doors/locking doors opening and closing.” I also suggested using “birds” in the soundscape. Here is her response:

“I really love this bird idea, and it makes me think about nature soundscapes as a whole–and using sound as an element that provides different information from what you see visually. For example, since the grays, the chain-link fence, is already suggesting the entrapment, the getting stuck/being in a cage is already expressed visually, I wonder if the soundscape would be effective focused around things like birds, ocean, wind, static, etc. It is interesting to me that the ocean is something that can always be heard at Gitmo, and that white noise is used to disorient, and that white noise often sounds very much like the ocean, played at a different pace…And then of course Bashir talks about how he always found ways to change terrible things(i.e. moans and screams) into wind whistling through trees, etc…So that could suggest something too that any noise that sounds ominous has a transition point to a nature sound, etc…So maybe since visually we are getting the chain link fences, the harshness, the metal, that an organic soundscape could open things.”

I asked Frances if she heard any specific music in her play. She offered this intuitive suggestion for me to consider in the Sound Design:

“If there is any kind of music/tonality, I imagine that perhaps it is used during Bashir’s hallucinations, and when he talks to his daughter…perhaps the acapella voice of a woman singing a Pakistani ballad/lullaby. Without instrumental accompaniment. We never feel the presence of Bashir’s ethnic heritage in language, etc…so maybe there is a subtle way to integrate it into the soundscape. This could also be used to add a haunting element, as Bashir is haunted by the past he left and  that is gone forever to him…(his dead wife, his young daughter.)”

As you can imagine…this is terrific feedback from the writer. Her intuitive ideas are something that I can really run with. I can integrate her suggestions into my concept for the production. It gives me a starting point as I begin my collaboration with the Sound Designer.

This is one example of the kinds of conversations that I have with our writers. I am interested in hearing your reaction to this playwright/director conversation. Please share your comments on this blog.

Ed Herendeen