BRING ON THE CLOWNS

The Sun Will Carry The Day

2011-02-07T20:50:00.003+02:00

No matter how awful it may look.
And how bad it can be.
And how scared you feel now.
When it's so bad and you can't see it any other way,
Find comfort in the unpredictability of life.
Surprises will come your way.
The wheel of fortune never stops turning.
And the sun will find its way to shine through.

Way of Life

2011-02-07T20:36:00.003+02:00

It all comes down to what you've got & how you use it.

Ocular Truth

2011-02-07T20:26:00.003+02:00

And then you get shot in the eye for seeing the truth.
The kid is well. The kid is hurt.
The day will come when he sees through you.
He'll protect himself & the kids like him.
He will speak.
And you will listen.

She's Strong, She's Fragile

2011-02-07T19:24:00.005+02:00

Someone somewhere left her behind.
She does not know that.
So She does not feel abandoned.
She feels lost.
If you ask her, She lost her friend along the way.
She's secretly waiting.
She has been waiting too long.
She's standing strong.
She's stubborn, she's naive, she's proud.
She's reassured... and sometimes not.
She's standing strong... and so it seems.
Some things are endless. And some things fade away.
Some things can endure time and some fall in despair.
She's standing.
If only someone somewhere comes along & befriend a dusty, maybe broken dear.
If only she knew that someone somewhere is thinking of her.

Memory Game

2011-02-07T01:53:00.008+02:00

Reminds me of something, something I've forgotten.
Reminds me of someone, someone I've long forgotten.
Reminds me of days, long long forgotten.
Reminds me of nothing at all... all is forgotten.
You can play tricks on your memory if you really want to.
And it will work. Eventually. If you really want to.

Live It

2010-11-05T23:16:00.010+02:00

There are forgotten dreams you never thought you would forget.
There are unspoken words you never imagined you would hold back.
There is sadness in every heart.
There are things in this world you never knew existed.
There are feelings you never felt before.
There is beauty in the mundane.
We forget to live.
We forget that life is a miracle.

Here's To The Future

2010-11-03T04:39:00.010+02:00

The future. It's right there.
But we're still not there yet. You know nothing of it.
Do not let the future steal your present.
You live now. And only now.

Sweet Surrender

2010-11-03T04:39:00.008+02:00

If what I feel for you is not love, then give it a special name for it's very beautiful.

17 seconds

2010-10-31T16:22:00.002+02:00

If I forget the day I first kissed you, then I forgot all about you.
But remember, today is the day that you kiss me.

Some Kind Of Miracle

2010-10-14T21:54:00.006+02:00

I believe that unicorns exit in a far away sparkly forest.
A butterfly will follow you if you're in love.
A fairytale could one day be your true reality.
Volcanoes are entrances into the fiery underworld.
Fireworks are magic from the skies.
And a shooting star is a wish sent to the heavens.

Staring At The Sun

2010-10-01T19:25:00.006+02:00

My path led me to a wall.
I see the streak of sunshine that no one else sees.
It touches my cold skin & I know it's there.
I also know that I'll get to the other side.
Someday. Somehow.

Scars & Souvenirs

2010-10-01T19:20:00.004+02:00

Stuck inside a glass box. I can see the outside, it's beautiful. it's not my reality. I want to break the glass and reach out. It's gonna hurt my hand. it's gonna hurt.

Limbo

2010-09-28T18:42:00.009+03:00

I'm here with you & this is the real world. It's so tough. How do you do it?

Beyond The Silver Glass

2010-08-29T20:10:00.011+02:00

There's this place where time can not touch & you don't need to hurry.
You don't even need to think.
A place where you can just lay there on the grass & do nothing at all.
Where you can watch the stars for as long as you want.
Where you can meet a friend & laugh for as much as you want.
Where you can sit in the arms of your lover & do absolutely nothing at all.
Where you can lay there all by yourself & not feel lonely.
Where you can climb a tree & see the view from the top.
Where you can listen to the sound of the waves & feel the breeze going through your hair.
Where you can collect sea shells & throw them back to the sea.
Where you can hear the music coming from the sky.
Where you can remember moments that make you smile & you do.
When you can read about a legacy that never ends.
A place that has no ends.
A place where no one is leaving.
Where you can ride a bicycle & peddle away like a child.
Where you can run, jump, dance & sing as loud as you can.
Where you can do everything except waiting for there's nothing else left to wait for.
Where you can think of the other world go by without you in it.
Think of the people rushing through the best moments of their lives.
Rushing through it all.
Left with mere memories.
There's time & memories fade away.
But it's a place where memories don't fade.
Where memories go no where.
Where memories are your here & now... forever.

Birthday Wish

2010-08-23T21:07:00.001+02:00

Scream 'light'

2010-07-19T17:48:00.006+03:00

It's pitch-black. It's moonless. It's starless.
Bleak & grim.
It's gloomy. It's dusky. It's shadowy.
You're always in doubt.
This place is awfully familiar. I've been here before.
You walk & you talk... in the dark.
Flash.
You look up. See the light.
The light has become a distant memory.
"Light"
You're in doubt.
This place is awfully familiar. I've been here before.
Inhale. Exhale.

Rushes From The Heart

2010-07-12T20:38:00.005+03:00

You disappoint me sometimes.
I thought you would try.
Try again.
Try harder.
You give in. Just like everyone else.
We grow older & the passion of the rebellious teenager leaves us.
This is your story.
Having it easy will give no story.
The things you fight for defines you
Hold on to that nice dream, even if it hurts.
Time flies by.
At least you'd then know you didn't give up.
At least you'd then know that there's nothing that you left undone.
You'll be there.
And I'll be here.
And we'll have our story to tell.

The Pheonix Inside

2010-07-12T20:19:00.003+03:00

You savour every special moment, you know it could be your last.
You live.
Every moment becomes special & you don't miss a thing.

Life Force

2010-07-12T19:42:00.002+03:00

A new you is about to spring forth.

If this not Love, it's Madness

2010-07-12T19:40:00.003+03:00

I am melancholy when thou art absent;
look like an ass when thou art present;
wake for thee, when I should sleep,
and even dream of thee. When I am awake...
If this is not love, it is madness, and then it is pardonable...

William Congreve
(1670-1729)

Tongue-tied

2010-07-12T18:39:00.002+03:00

It's the story of hello/goodbye.
And the writing on the walls.
Are all the things you see once you're about to leave.
The good.
The bad.
The memories.
Now you've seen the writing on the walls.

Mess It Up

2010-07-10T03:46:00.004+03:00

Photography by: Jean-Jacques DECLAMPE

Mind drifting.
Somewhere else.
Where I'm not. But I'd rather be.
Slow.
Fast.
You blink. It takes time.
You give in.
Head relaxed.
And the tree is staring back at you.
Twirl.
Your mind drifts again.
New ride.
It's a beautiful tree.
No traps this time.
What's in is what's out.
And twirl.

What If?

2010-06-15T02:54:00.007+03:00

Photography by: Jean-Jacque DECLAMPE

It's either red or blue.
Live in search for truth. The search for 'real' truth.
The known.
Red or blue.
Doubt it. Question it. Risk it.
The unknown.
Red or blue.
Live the life you know. What you believe you know.
Or gamble your life on a reality you've never tasted.
Red or blue.

Dodge

2010-06-13T04:30:00.006+03:00

It's time to talk.
The talk you played in your head. So many times.
The one you're still figuring out. The one you can't figure out.
You've been told to speak your mind.
Your mind.
Mind.
Thinking.
No words. Makes no sense.
Even to you.
Especially to you.
Let it wait.
The clock is ticking & no one's waiting.
It's your turn to talk.
Blank.

Your Stand

2010-06-11T18:00:00.006+03:00

Photo by: Jean-Jacques DECLAMPE

Too big to fall.
Head hits the floor. Eyes blink.
Things are different.
Looking around. You're small.
Know the right relationship. Between you & the things around you.
Stand up again. And your stand on things have changed.

Drift Away

2010-06-11T17:48:00.005+03:00

Too cold.
Been standing here for long.
All the same.
The sounds. The familiar hum.
All the same.
The glowing headlights.
Shadows fly by.
It's one of those rainy busy days.
When everyone is minding their own business... a bit too much.

Love Shoots

2010-06-11T17:42:00.006+03:00

Photo by: Jean-Jacque DECLAMPE

You protect yourself in so many ways until one day you forget the reason. The shot will get to you. It always does. You saw it coming. The universe listens & you were right.

Light/Dark

2010-06-11T05:00:00.005+03:00

There comes a time when the feelings that were once so alive freeze.
The feelings of fire, they fade out.
The open heart grows colder & closes up.
You become detached. The touch that you longed for stiffens you up. It's strange.
It reminds you of your guilt. It reminds you of your shame.
It reminds you that you're flawed, too.
It reminds you of the things you accepted when you thought you had no choice.
It reminds you of your pain. That touch is painful. It stabs you in the gut.
That soft touch shatters you. It reminds you that you're already broken.
It reminds you that you've been very wrong.

I'll Look You In The Eyes

2010-06-11T02:49:00.003+03:00

Anonymously waiting...

Even When Everything Seems Utterly Pointless

2010-06-11T02:43:00.003+03:00

You can hide all you want. All day long. Or you can take a walk. And return to your hiding.

When You're No Longer In Awe

2010-06-11T02:34:00.005+03:00

There's always a way out. Out of this place you feel sucked in. You're not trapped. You know you can make your way out. But you wait. A sign. Sometimes there are no signs. Sometimes that's a sign. Look around. When the beauty disappears and everything looks the same, you'll find it, it glows. That's your way out.

It's A Short Ride After All

2010-06-11T02:30:00.003+03:00

It will go by so fast... too fast. Savour every second. And try to remember it as it really was.

If I Fell

2010-06-11T02:28:00.002+03:00

Things will come right.

Think Big

2010-06-11T02:24:00.003+03:00

Scream it out loud on the wall.

Distractions

2010-06-10T21:25:00.004+03:00

Wherever I am, I want to be somewhere else.

You've Been Found

2010-05-30T18:49:00.005+03:00

Even when you're lost, you're somewhere, you just don't know it. Get to know it.

A Hard Day's Night

2010-01-04T22:23:00.007+02:00

Hurt. Doesn’t make sense. No words.

Turn away. Look ahead. Blurred.

Words trapped. Choked up.

Air. Can’t breath.

Chest heavy. Heart full.

Hurt. It's a feeling.

Hide in bed. Head on pillow.

Alone. You are alone.

No glory. It’s not romantic.

If you want to cry, just cry. And you cry.

Doesn’t stop. And you cry. And it hurts.

The "History of the AUC Theatre" Radio Documentary

2009-12-09T04:26:00.025+02:00

History of the AUC Theatre

Amer

9 Dec. 2009

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

LEAD-IN:

The American University in Cairo’s Theatre Department has been up and running for more than 20 years creating magic on stage and producing generations after generations of talented actors, directors, designers and producers. The theatre has carved its place in the Egyptian theater arena capturing the hearts and minds of audiences from different ages and backgrounds with plays that may remain etched in their memories for years after. Our reporter Nermine Amer talks to theatre graduates and professors about what made this art establishment what it is now.

(fade in music)

(nat. sound of footsteps on stage followed by “Are you watching closely?” (:8))

(music fades down)

(documentary music fades in)

Do you want to know how one of the most prestigious theatres in town has evolved over the years? It all began when C. Worth Howard, head of the English department in the 1920s strived to emphasize the importance of drama in the study and understanding of the English language and as a creative tool for self-expression. Leila Saad, who was studying English & Comparative literature at AUC in the 40s and is a current Theatre professor at AUC talks about the art before the theatre department was established.

SAAD: “we were constantly putting on productions… major productions… it was under the English department, yeah” (:5)

The first play was performed by young men, students of AUC, in the dorms in 1926. At the time many students had joined the endeavor presenting performances, while the boys played female roles when necessary. The world of the theatre gradually expanded, plays were often presented in assemblies, ceremonies and for the public. Students managed all that had to do with the productions, from constructing scenery to costumes to ushering and selling tickets. Howard, the English language department head that encouraged this, became very popular among students and an AUC theatre house, Howard Café, was named after him. And the success of his endeavor led to the founding of the College Players student club, which was later named “The Masker’s Club”. Mahmoud El Lozy, theatre professor and AUC graduate, class of 1976 remembers how it all started.

LOZY: “The earliest thing that I know of, in the 60s, there was a club, it was a student’s club, called The Masker’s Club…and uh…it was a faculty member in the 60s and it went on until the late 80s until they created the department, what they had was, it was a faculty member from English department, was the director of the theatre, having some administrate position and he would direct one play per semester and teach a course per semester either of drama.. dramatic literature, Shakespeare, or acting.” (:36)

The Masker’s Club was active until the late 1980s when the theatre department was finally established. The first stage to hold AUC’s major annual productions was the Wallace Theatre. Wallace held productions for more than 20 years until the theatre was moved to the New Falaki building in 2001. Sherif Nakhla, theatre graduate, class of 2003, who was a student around the last 3 years of the Wallace before they shut it down talks about what made Wallace so special at the time.

NAKHLA: “The Wallace had seen so much theatre and so much drama and so many, so many people must’ve gone on so many personal journeys in that place so it has a very kind of spiritual tone to it and the… people that taught us used to act there and everything” (:15)

The Wallace theatre moved to the New Falaki building and was renamed “The AUC Falaki Mainstage”. Even though the New Falaki theatre offered better technical facilities and could hold more seats for its audience, students who got attached to performing in the space and the atmosphere of the Wallace had initially found it hard to cope with the move. Nakhla shared with us his own memories of the move.

NAKHLA: “ So when they closed it down, it was with “Grease”, I remember, and, and I was in that play, we were striking the last set and it was something that was kind of emotional for everybody, and, and when we went to the new Falaki and even though it was crisp and clean and efficient and it was hard to get used to, and I was actually in that play, too, the opening play, I think it was “Comedy of Errors” and it was a better place to learn technical theatre but the Wallace was an intimate space and you just kind of feel it when you go in there” (:33)

The activities of the “Howard café” were also very popular among students and theatre lovers. Theatre students and people interested in showcasing their talents would meet there and perform sketches and short plays every week. The faculty was very supportive of the idea and encouraged students to pursue it.

LOZY: “it was basically a group of students who were doing sketches, and short plays and things they’ve written and also music, musical performances, I mean any kind of performance oriented events and we decided that ok we’ll let them have it, they wanted to be, at first, a club that meant to be under the supervision of the Office of Student Affairs and Student Union and they would censor them and they would perform I think every other Tuesday and it was called Howard café because they served coffee and brownies and little biscuits and stuff like that” (:31)

How the theatre students were perceived by the people around them did not really change through out the years, they are still seen as the crazy, eccentric and weird group. Saad talks about how they were seen in the 40s.

SAAD: “Perceived as strange and different because it’s not for everybody but that doesn’t stop people from pursuing their dreams” (:10)

Lozy talks about how theatre people during the 70s and 80s were looked upon:

LOZY: “I mean in the 70s, it was just like you know we were sort of weirdoes, we were sort of like eccentric, we were not really serious but since it was an extra curricular activity, it was ok because it was no major, I think later on in the 80s, then it became more of a sort of ‘these are the sinful people’” (:18)

Even Dalia Kholeif, who’s a young theatre graduate, class of 2005, shared similar sentiments. In a few words she described how her group thought they were seen by others at her time.

KHOLEIF: “We were always seen as the weird, crazy people” (:8)

Even though the Theatre community was seen as a closed one and was perceived by some as eccentric and strange, it did not stop people from other majors from participating in its productions and activities. Kholeif says that the theatre brought together people from different backgrounds.

KHOLEIF: “I remember during my time, I had a lot of friends who were acting in plays and they weren’t theatre majors or minors, they were for instance mechanical engineering majors, psychology, mass comm.” (:14)

Political and social issues in Egypt have had an effect on student actors and directors throughout the years. It was sometimes an inspiration to many and theatre became in a way a medium in which they communicate their feelings, fears, likes, dislikes and concerns about what’s happening around them. Nakhla talks about how their surroundings affected him and his theatre group.

NAKHLA: “ Our theatre group were very active around 2001, and that was the time when a lot of protests had started to begun and basically there was an obvious public awareness all around the world and I happened to be studying theatre and journalism and the time so maybe I was thinking about it in kind of working around these themes more than theatre students but I think there was a general kind of inspiration and influence from what was going on at the time” (:33)

AUC has moved in 2008 to Kattameya outside Cairo, which created controversy on how this could affect the productions’ viewership. Some believe that the plays will cease to attract large audience simply because it is so far from the center of the city as meanwhile other old-hands like Saad think it won’t really make a huge difference because true theatre lovers would follow the theatre wherever it goes.

SAAD: “I don’t think it affected, I think people who really want to see the theatre, come to the theatre and if it’s good theatre, they’ll come to it, and we’re making things much easier by having tickets available at the downtown bookstore and bus services from Tahrir and back for all performances” (:20)

The Theatre department continues to produce a season of plays, sponsors student directed plays and hosts visiting productions in its three theatres, The Malak Gabr Theatre, Gerhart Theatre and Howard Theatre.

Nermine Amer, A-U-C News.

(Music fades out)

Sources:

Mahmoud El Lozy

Leila Saad

Sherif Nakhla

Dalia Kholeif

Music:

Soundtrack from the movie “The Prestige”

& “Death is the road to awe” by Clint Mansell.

To download an mp3 version of the audio documentary click on the title of this post OR follow this link:

http://www.archive.org/details/HistoryOfTheAucTheatreFinalDocumentary

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Medea: A Perfect Tragedy (Part 2 of 2)

2009-12-09T03:00:00.004+02:00

“… [A]nd that action complex in which the change of fortune involves a recognition or a reversal or both” (Poetics).

Aristotle believes that the plot of a tragedy must involve recognition (Anagnorisis) which is a shift from ignorance to knowledge which leads to friendship/ close blood ties or hostility of happy or unhappy people. It also must involve a reversal (Peripety) which is a change from a state to its exact opposite without conflicting with Aristotle’s law of necessity and probability (i.e. logically, this action had to happen or is likely to happen) (Poetics). In Medea, a perfect example of a peripety is evident. As Jason is about to get the refined upper class life he had wished for with his new bride Glauce, with the hope of living happily ever after, suddenly all is taken away from him through the interference of one vengeful and bitter Medea, who had planned to kill the beautiful Glauce and her father. There is another reversal when Medea is about to slaughter her children; Medea was first extremely happy and accomplished for successfully poisoning Glauce and her father King Creon but her mood/tone is suddenly and completely tarnished by a sad and gloomy air when she remembers that it’s time to kill her own children. Recognition in Medea seems unclear but Medea’s minute of uncertainty (of whether to kill her children or not) can be considered a sort of recognition. At this point she grows weak and is completely ignorant/unaware of what she is saying or what to do but just the thought of leaving her enemies unhurt and people laughing at her for it (her reputation) makes her shift to knowledge, with insisting determination to continue her plan and slaughter her children with her own hands.

“I cannot bear to do it. I renounce my plans. I had before. I’ll take my children away from this land. Why should I hurt their father with the pain they feel, and suffer twice as much of pain myself? No, no, I will not do it. I renounce my plans. Ah what is wrong with me? Do I want to let go my enemies unhurt and be laughed at for it? I must face this thing. Oh, but what a weak woman even to admit to my mind these soft arguments.” (Medea 1018-1026)

One can also look at this scene in a different –even paradoxical view- to what is formerly suggested, because again the elements of tragedy are subtly featured in this play and are open to interpretation. As recognition can be seen when Medea is completely unaware/ignorant of what she is planning for (killing her children), her uncertainty whether to kill them or not is a result of knowledge and a sudden realization. In a moment of sanity, Medea seems to realize the magnitude of what she is about to do, and of the possible life-changing consequences of her actions. This shift to knowledge makes her weak and in a way brings her back to ignorance but this time her ignorance, in the sense of overlooking/ignoring the present knowledge, is voluntary. In other words, after moving from ignorance to knowledge, Medea makes a conscious decision to ignore the facts and instead act on her plan despite of all the possible misery.

Aristotle also believes that a scene of suffering is one of the elements that the tragedy’s plot must have. A scene of suffering exists in Medea when Jason sees the blood of his children appearing from under the doors of the room where Medea slaughtered them. In this scene, Jason is engulfed by a piercing agony and a feeling of great misery. This scene near the exodos has a very important role in arousing pity and fear through a brief display of the conclusion of Medea’s plan.

Mimesis (to imitate an action) with accordance to the law of probability and necessity is seen in the play Medea, when the central character seeks revenge and wants to destroy Jason. She instantly makes a plan to achieve this, in a way compelling Jason to draw out similar feelings of agony and hurt (Medea was hurt when Jason betrayed her by taking a new bride). Aristotle believes that one of the formal elements of tragedy is dialogue (actors speaking in verse), dialogue too is used in Medea when for an example Medea asks Augeus, king of Athens to promise to protect her in Athens in return for a cure to his sterility.

“Swear by the plain of Earth, and Helios, father of my father and name together all the gods…that you yourself will never cast me from your land, nor, if any of my enemies should demand me, will you, in your life willingly hand me over.” (Medea 730-735); it is a dialogue and it does have a poetic feel to it.

Medea: A Perfect Tragedy (Part 1 of 2)

2009-12-02T10:19:00.005+02:00

“Zeus in Olympus is the overseer of many doings. Many things the gods achieve beyond our judgment. What we though is not confirmed and what we thought not god contrives and so it happens in this story.” (Medea 1390-1394)

If one judges by Aristotle’s theory of tragedy, then Euripides’ Medea is a perfect tragedy and Medea’s character fits perfectly with the characteristics of a tragic hero. Although Aristotle did highlight elements of weakness in Medea, criticizing certain plot aspects, it is still arguable that Medea conforms to his definition of a “perfect tragedy,” in so many ways. However, interpretation is a key in approaching such a text, where the features covering the requirements of Aristotle’s tragedy are rather subtle and are subject to argument.

Aristotle believes that a tragic hero is either an aristocrat or someone of elevated social class like royalty; the hero’s personality has a flaw that negatively affects their judgment resulting in their tragic fall (Hamartia). For the story to be realistic the hero isn’t morally too good or too bad, the tragic hero accomplishes to excite the feelings of pity and fear in the audience (Catharsis). Medea does match all these characteristics for she is princess of Colchis and a sorcerer. Medea’s flaw is her being extremely passionate. Her passion greatly empowers her; her love for Jason, her jealousy towards his new bride Glauce (the daughter of Creon king of Corinth) and her rage at his betrayal are the basic elements that drove her to her doom. Medea possesses heroic qualities like her willingness to do anything for the sake of Jason, and like later when she confronted him and sought revenge in the name of justice. But these qualities still do not make her too virtuous because Medea’s intelligence, courage and pride are essentially manifested in cruel actions; violent, murderous and tricky. The play’s tragic end successfully elicits pity and fear (Catharsis). Fear is spurred through the idea of a mother killing her own flesh and blood, Medea murders her children in order to destroy Jason and break his heart, in the end leaving him with nothing to value. Pity is elicited for how Medea paves the way to her own misery; by destroying everyone that is dear to her including her own children, pity for how her fury has led her to madness.

Medea fully conforms to Aristotle’s tragic structure in another sense. The Prologue, for instance, (followed by Parados which is the entrance of the chorus) is presented in the play’s opening by the nurse who summarizes with grief the past events that led to Medea’s current – and rather piteous- state. Then, the Episodes/Dramatic Scenes that show the whole development of the story’s plot and central character. In between episodes, there is a choral ode/song by the Chorus who in the play represent the women of Corinth. The chorus is like commentators to what is happening, it sometimes talks directly to Medea through dialogue either sympathizing with her or trying to advise her not to slaughter her children. The Exodos, the last scene after the last choral ode, is Medea’s glorious exit. She departs in a large chariot pulled by dragons, a queen in her own right, leaving behind a miserable Jason drowning in his own loss.

- TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK -

PROMO for my short radio documentary "The History of the AUC Theatre"

2009-11-25T22:17:00.006+02:00

Video Promo:

Description: Theatre happenings through out the years.
Song: An Angel Went Up in Flames

Audio Promo:

Producer & Narrator: Nermine Amer
SOT: Mahmoud El Lozy, AUC Theatre professor & Theatre Alumni, Class of '76
Music: Death is the Road to Awe, Clint Mansell

Have you ever wondered about the history of the AUC theater? Do you wanna know how the theatre world evolved? What inspired or moved generations of student actors across the years? Have you heard of the Howard Cafe? Wallace? Or the Maskers Club?

SOT: Mahmoud El Lozy

Visit my blog at nermineamer.blogspot.com to listen to the documentary on December 9.

Modern Dramatic Experimentalism (Part 3 of 3)

2009-11-25T10:00:00.000+02:00

To read Part 1, follow this link:

http://nermineamer.blogspot.com/2009/11/modern-dramatic-experimentalism-part-1.html

To read Part 2, follow this link:

http://nermineamer.blogspot.com/2009/11/modern-dramatic-experimentalism-part-2.html

“Happy Days” on the other hand is exploring an experiment to find out on what basis human beings get confirmed on their senses and themselves. Beckett again presents a very complex yet important idea through a play that is strange and charming at the same time. The way it’s written is very creative; it absolutely puts you in the mood of the play right away. You are reminded of some truths that you might know but have managed to ignore. It’s a play that makes you agitated, frustrated and anxious. Its untraditional form makes you laugh at serious things (same thing in “The Skin of our Teeth”, you laugh at things like the ice age and Noah’s ark) and you cry at funny ones. This disorientation and anxiousness that the writer puts you in helps you reflect the truth of the human condition. That’s why I think Beckett wrote “Happy Days” in this experimental form.

"Wait for the happy day to come when flesh melts at so many degrees and the night of the moon has so many hundred hours.” Winnie said (Happy Days)

This quote shows how Winnie is a psychologically complex person, she contradicts herself. She’s showing her eagerness and impatience towards death but at the same time she desires a life that never ends. I think everyone is full of contradictions just like Winnie; the family in “Six Characters in Search of an Author” constantly contradict themselves too. Her wish to die reveals a truth that she hides from herself and the idea that life is nothing but empty hours is disturbing. She seems very optimistic about life most of the time and she thinks everyday no matter what happened is a happy day yet she hopes to end life. This shows that the inward truth (Winnie’s truth) is very different from the outward appearance.

“Something of this is being heard, I am not merely talking to myself, that is in the wilderness, a thing I could never bear to do – for any length of time. (Pause.) That is what enables me to go on, go on talking that is. (Pause.) Whereas if you were to die – (smile) – to speak in the old style – (smile off) – or go away and leave me, then what would I do, what could I do, all day long, I mean between the bell for waking and the bell for sleep? (Pause.) Simply gaze before me with compressed lips” (Winnie)

The physicality of the character shows how helpless she is (She’s buried to her waist in Act I and to her neck in Act II). If you look at the details of this play you won’t understand it because it is in fact meaningless but if you look at it as a whole you’ll get what it’s about.

The central character “Winnie” too breaks one of the conventions of theatre (the actors are suppose to pretend they can’t see through the “fourth wall”) where at some point in the play talks about the audience’s reaction to the play.
“What’s she doing? he says – What’s the idea? he says – stuck up to her diddies in the bleeding ground – coarse fellow -What’s it meant to mean? … And you, she says, what’s the idea of you, she says, what are you meant to mean?...Why doesn’t he dig her out? he says – referring to you, my dear – What good is she to him like that? – What good is he to her like that? – and so on – usual tosh –…”, Winnie said (Happy Days).

Beckett invites us to watch Winnie’s life day by day, see how boring and monotonous it is, how she deals with it all, how each day is a happy day to her. He wants us to examine our own lives and consider them as “happy days”; he wants us to look at happiness as a concept, look at our every-day behaviors and think about the end of our life.

From my point of view, modern dramatic experimentalism originates from the need to express new methods of responsiveness. All the themes in experimental plays are “presented” because almost all the characters in these plays give the illusion that they are part of it (an illusion of reality) when they are not and they break the fourth wall a lot. The playwriting technique of the plays is very different. They have shorter lines, unfinished phrases and a very domestic language to it. All of them have the idea of “A play within a play” or “A play about a play” which is very untraditional. The aim of plays is not to expand the public appeal anymore; it just needs a “gifted” audience according to Ortego y Gasset.

“A man likes a play when he has become interested in the human destinies presented to him, when the love and hatred, the joys and sorrows of the personages so move his heart that he participates in it all as though it were happening in real life”.

What amazed me the most is that the authors of these plays managed to present the stories or situations they have in their plays in a very truthful way that engages the audience’s attention and interest yet you can’t call any of these plays realistic. The authors didn’t try to make the illusion that these imaginary characters are like living persons. You are always reminded that you are watching a play. Even though you know none of this is true, the play takes hold of you nonetheless, challenges your mind, broadens your imagination and thoughts, makes you examine your life…etc. It’s as if you are a character yourself and I think that’s the beauty of it.

Modern Dramatic Experimentalism (Part 2 of 3)

2009-11-18T10:00:00.003+02:00

To read Part 1, follow the link:

http://nermineamer.blogspot.com/2009/11/modern-dramatic-experimentalism-part-1.html

In “Six Characters in Search of an Author”, Pirandello is writing about ‘a play within a play’, the idea itself is odd and is unconventional so that the oddness is not only in how it’s presented. The absence of the author throughout the whole play and not at all appearing at any point (unlike the characters) makes the audience wonder what the author’s aim is and what’s he intending. It forces the audience to think about the author to the extent that the author almost haunts the characters, the actors, stage manager and even the audience.

“Ridiculous? Ridiculous? Is it my fault if France won't send us any snore good comedies, and we are reduced to putting on Pirandello's works, where nobody understands anything, and where the author plays the fool with us all?”, The Stage Manager said (Six Characters in Search of an Author).

There’s also a very interesting part in the play where the Father ponders upon the act that defines him as a character (i.e. the reality of his character).

“We have this illusion of being one person for all, of having a personality that is unique in all our acts. But it isn't true. We perceive this when, tragically perhaps, in something we do, we are as it were, suspended, caught up in the air on a kind of hook. We perceive that all of us was not in that act, and that it would be an atrocious injustice to judge us by that action alone, as if all our existence were summed up in that one deed”, the Father said (Six Characters in Search of an Author).

The idea of the play is so eccentric that one can’t think of any other way this idea could have been presented. The idea conveyed is mainly that the theatre (being a medium of story-telling that captures our imaginations) is at the end of the day limited and can’t tell you the whole truth; it also raises such important questions as how to define human existence. I suppose Pirandello decided to write in an experimental form and defied conventional logic because this way is the only creative and interesting way to provoke people to think about serious matters in life like reality and delusion and the nature of the theatrical world itself. Pirandello presents characters that aren’t fully developed; he intentionally does that to highlight certain characters so that the audience knows that the key roles are the Father and the Step daughter because these are the two who have different stories (i.e. we don’t know the truth). Just like Beckett, Pirandello too isn’t trusting “meaning”; he breaks down the possibility of meaning itself, he rather concentrates on the bigger picture (the enactment of it). The dysfunctional family we see in “Six Characters in Search of an Author” is rejecting any schemes as to how the play could move forward and yet they need some sort of closure to their story thus contradicting themselves.

-TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK-

Naguib Mahfouz's "The Thief & The Dogs" - Movie Summary

2009-11-18T10:00:00.002+02:00

Although The Thief and the Dogs is a very famous movie written by Naguib Mahfouz, it was the first time for me to watch it. I really liked the story and how it represented a human’s experience living in Modern Egypt/the life in the late 19^th century. The story has a very depressing, tragic and gloomy tone to it. It has a very strange style to it as it has a lot of flashback and forwards that shows the viewer the exact stream of consciousness and thought that the center character goes through, which was very interesting and intriguing. At the beginning, it shows how life in prison is difficult, depressing and filled with suffering that is completely torturing and disturbing to one’s mind and feelings.

The story begins with Sa’eed Mahraan (the central character), who has just been released from prison where he stayed two years because he was caught stealing. He is filled with extreme hatred and insists on taking revenge on and confronting his ex-wife and her husband Ilaash (who was his former employee) who betrayed him and told the police to arrest him. They completely ruined his life; his hatred grew more and more each day especially when his daughter didn’t recognize him and was scared of him. When Sa’eed sees the success of one of his old partner and mentor, Raouf Ilwan (who as a journalist, uses Sa’eed’s crimes in writing successful stories to help the police investigators capture him), he can’t help but hating him too and avenge him. He is very driven by what is happening around him to the extent that he no longer thinks wisely. Even when later he is given the opportunities to change and live a happy settled life, he doesn’t take them and ignores them. He accuses everyone around him (society) and claims that they are guilty of leading him to who he is now and that he shouldn’t be blamed at all. This makes the likelihood of him changing almost impossible.

Even though he resisted the authorities till the very end, he was killed by the police. Sa’eed is a very lost person, he only finds satisfaction when he gets what he desires and even then he never finds emotional peace. In this story, Naguib Mahfouz was trying to investigate the frustrations and discontents in the failure of that time’s revolution to bring real justice and change. He wrote a story with interesting characters in a way that makes anyone relate to their dilemmas, their obsessions and their aggravations. It’s a story of a man who has lived his life in pain and greatly bent on self destruction. I enjoyed the movie very much and I feel very eager to read the story and see Mahfouz’s written description of every little detail that adds so much meaning to the story.

Listening Journal #4: Long Form Documentary #2 - The Trouble with Hubble Bubble

2009-11-15T10:00:00.001+02:00

Producer: Nicola Humphries

Series Producer: Perminder Khatkar

Narrator: Connie Hark

Title: The Trouble with Hubble Bubble

Length: 24 min. 17 sec.

Link to the documentary:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/asiannetwork/documentaries/troublewithhubblebubble.shtm

The documentary is about the harmful effects of shisha (hookah/water pipe) on one’s health and how a great amount of people is unaware of the fact that shisha is actually worse than cigarettes. Some of them are aware of the health risks but do not take it as seriously as they should.

What’s most interesting about the documentary is the use of background music that really fits the story. Shisha mainly comes from the Middle East/Asia and the use of Middle Eastern/Asian music really adds to the story. It was not distracting and made the documentary more interesting and unique. The choice of the songs was very good. How the music fades in and out is very well done. The documentary is also very informative and the great amount of research done to produce such a piece is very apparent. There was a good variety of different and diverse people interviewed, from health experts, shisha users, doctors…etc.

The quality of the narrator’s voice and the sound bites are very good. The background music does not overshadow the narration at all which was very well done.

I like how elaborate the documentary is and I believe the length of the documentary was fine.

Modern Dramatic Experimentalism (Part 1 of 3)

2009-11-11T11:09:00.005+02:00

Plays like “The Skin of our Teeth”, “Six Characters in Search of an Author” and
“Happy Days” are plays that are very experimental and do not have the traditional form that the majority of people are accustomed to. The authors of these plays chose to write in this particular fashion for a reason. They broke the dominant conventions of form, structure and character development, yet these plays turned out to be very successful. “The Skin of our teeth” for example won a Pulitzer Prize.

I believe that the authors were trying a different approach, an approach that is more direct and more creative; they were looking for different means of expression. They shape the plays in a way that forces you to live the play with the characters and/or actors, to feel a certain way and to provoke the audience’s views to be driven to a particular direction.

Picture below is from: The Skin of Our Teeth

In the “Skin of our teeth”, characters tend to break the fourth wall over and over again and talk directly to the audience.

“I hate this play, and I don't understand a word of it” (Sabina).

Even though the play is not realistic at all (in terms of what exactly is happening), it has a very profound idealistic content.

"My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither but just enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate--that's my philosophy" (Sabina).

The play has a certain complexity to it but Thornton Wilder made sure his themes and motives were very clear to the audience.

“Oh, I've never forgotten for long at a time that living is struggle. I know that every good and excellent thing in the world stands moment by moment on the razor edge of danger and must be fought for—whether it's a field, or a home, or a country"(Mr. Antrobus).

His ‘absurd’ style is unique because it was all in how he presented his themes; his themes were presented in a very interesting and funny way that creates an enjoyable performance. There was a part in the play were the audience are forced to help the actors “save the human race” by bringing chairs from the auditorium to burn in the fire place. This is a very creative way to force audience to participate and by this you are making them feel a certain way and by doing so, you are making them directly feel what’s happening, and even change their beliefs and views in regards to the issue you’re addressing in your play. Here is when the author achieves the aim of his experimental play.

-TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK-

An Overshadowed City

2009-11-11T01:24:00.005+02:00

LEAD-IN:
Converting extra rice straw into fertilizer, instead of simply burning it off could be the solution to a problem that has haunted and plagued the residents of Cairo for almost a decade now, the “black cloud” descends and covers the city during the otherwise nice months of October and November.

The Ministry of Environment said it has made progress in reducing the black cloud. Mohamed Abdel Razak, environmentalist and observer, says that the ministry is doing the best they can do to solve the problem.

ABDEL RAZAK: “They are doing a lot of effort to solve the problem as soon as possible. I think they have already made progress. The cloud appeared only 40 hours this year compared to 190 hours last year, which shows that they are active about this. Ending this completely will take some time.” (:19)

Hundreds of thousands of farmers burn the surplus of their rice stubble following harvest in preparation for a fresh farming season. The government claims that they’re making efforts - some say unsatisfactory efforts - to tackle the problem.

People in the streets have had enough of inhaling the fumes that the burning produces. Sara Atef, a 25-year-old pharmacist complains of having breathing problems and says there’s a lot of action yet to be taken for the problem to be solved.

ATEF: “Reducing rice-staw is not enough, the government should do more because it’s a combination of things that make this a bigger problem… like pollution for instance, air pollution, fumes from cars and buses on the streets, these things make it harder for people to breath and to go about their daily lives, so I think they should tackle the problems, all at once” (:33)

Even though the ministry of environment is saying that they are doing the best they can to reduce and eventually stop the black cloud, Cairo residents are asking for more effort to be done, some still believe it’s getting worse and worse each day.

Nermine Amer, AUC News.

It's the Human in You

2009-11-04T10:00:00.003+02:00

I believe in defending and fighting for the voice-less. Animals are part of Mother Nature and they deserve to be fought for. All over the world, there’s a lot of animal suffering that often goes unseen and unheard of. In Egypt, the number one cause of animal suffering is negligence. I believe negligence is a form of abuse. When I get really mad about people here not treating animals right or are not showing any sympathy towards them, people tell me it’s because they are just uneducated about the matter. I don’t understand this reason. It’s something you’re born with. It’s the human inside of you. A dog deserves a happy life in a warm place instead of wandering the cold streets; a cow deserves to be free in a land to walk through instead of stuck in a cage all day. What’s so hard to understand?

It breaks my heart walking in the streets everyday seeing how these cats and dogs are hopeless, alone with no sense of a home. Thinking about the fact that they will probably die soon if left in these conditions greatly saddens me. I walk down the streets of barking dogs, some furious, some look depressed and cats looking for anything to eat in trash bins, I know something is wrong. I make it a point to stop and feed some of those helpless cats and dogs and I’m angered by the way people look at me while I’m doing that. Some think I’m spoilt to have the time and money to feed cats and dogs in the streets, some just stand there laughing at me… I bet they’re calling me “the crazy cat lady”. It’s sad, and I don’t understand it. I don’t do it for fun, I feel I have an obligation to stop and feed these animals, take care of them, and do whatever I can to help because if I don’t, I know I won’t be able to sleep at night. Sometimes I feel I want to take them all home with me but I have four cats already, all rescued, all very territorial and I know I can’t afford taking care of more than four cats.

When I pass by a pet shop and see those helpless little animals in cages waiting for someone to take them, all I can think of is that for many, if not all of these animals, a cage that they can barely fit in with food and water is all they know. I believe no living thing deserves to be treated this way. I know I am not an animal fanatic; I’m a person who loves animals. Animals are such a crucial part of our natural environment. I strongly believe in helping animals and bettering their lives.

Epic Theatre Vs. Aristotelian/Dramatic Theatre

2009-11-04T10:00:00.000+02:00

Epic Theatre is a theatre movement in mid-20th century that is greatly linked to German playwright Bertolt Brecht who called it his modern theatre; it’s also known as Brechtian acting.

The goals of Epic Theatre are what make it so different. The main purpose of the play is to only present ideas and not to imitate reality. It encourages the audience to think and then make judgments and act. It clearly shows the audience an argument with its different viewpoints. Due to the fact that the audience is only an observer, he remains at an emotional distance from the action thus always aware that it is watching a play. It’s an enacting of reality and not reality itself. It should be able to change the human being because if the audience can be critical about what’s happening, it’ll be able to know its causes and effects and will be able to change it in their own real lives. Brecht deliberately used unrealistic techniques in set design, light and visuals to always remind the audience that this is not even close to reality and that they are watching a play. Brecht wanted actors to make a balance between “being” their characters and showing the audience that the character is “being played”. The actor must always remember that he is an actor and that he is only portraying the feelings and emotions of his character. Epic actors are only narrators and tools of representation. They narrate the events and do its actions only to make the audience understand the situation. For example, in A Man’s a Man, widow Begbick breaks the fourth wall and comes out of character and talks to the audience about Brecht which is a great example for narration. The character represents one individual and this individual represents all human kind. Brecht wanted to create productions that are entertaining and that provokes people to think and learn. An epic play consists of scenes that exist by its own and doesn’t connect to the scene before or after it. In A Man’s a Man, scenes can exist by their own (like scene 9).

Dramatic (Aristotelian) Theatre on the other hand is not the opposite of epic theatre but has different goals and techniques. Dramatic theatre treats its audience as passive and can not be reached except through their emotions. The dramatic stage fully embodies the plot/event. It fully involves the audience by putting them into the action thus endangering emotion in him. For example in The Skin of our Teeth, the audience are asked to get chairs from the auditorium to ‘save the human race’ by burning them to keep themselves warm. It makes the audience very involved in the play and what’s happening to the extent that it doesn’t give them a chance to look at the play from a distance and reflect. Scenes are linked to each other; in The Skin of our Teeth, scenes lead to each other. It presents you with the world as it is so the audience leaves the theatre believing that life is unchangeable and inevitable. Dramatic theatre allows the audience to see a representation of reality encouraging us to accept it without thinking so that’s why it gives you a sense of inevitability and fate. The audience identifies with the characters through terror and pity. Dramatic theatre’s illusion of representing the present event doesn’t encourage the audience’s reflection on what’s happening and on the themes presented.
According to Aristotle, to achieve unity of action and maintain its illusion, the dramatic play must consist of scenes that are linked to each other and that lead to each other leading to a climax of catharsis (evocation of intense fear and pity).

Brecht believed that theatre should not play with the audience’s feelings but should appeal and influence his reason/mind. It should encourage the audience to have a more critical attitude to what’s happening on stage. He wanted to reach ultimate objectivity from the audience’s side instead of identifying with the characters. This way the audience will learn the real truth about their society and world.

Brecht refuses to assume that the audience could only be reached through their emotion but through their minds so he doesn’t want the audience to relate to the characters and become emotionally involved with them (breaking empathy for characters) at all but make them think about their own life and this is where change will come. He did present feelings but he did that from a standpoint critical to the feeling.

Feelings and identifying with the characters affect the audience’s objectivity and reasoning. Brecht believes that the Aristotelian thought on feelings (The audience feels exactly what the character on stage feels) wears out the audience. Feelings alone are not enough for transformation and change; thought and reason are the keys.

Interview with Egyptian journalist Pakinam Amer

2009-10-28T08:34:00.005+02:00

Intro/lead: It’s in storytelling, verbal and visual, that Pakinam has found what she calls “personal legend,” a phrase first coined by author Paulo Coelho and describes a person’s proper path in life. It’s a path that, she says, has opened her eyes to both beautiful and unpleasant realities that this region is enduring. Nevertheless, the changing tides in the Middle East and the shifting political and social landscape, and the discovery of “new” freedoms in Egypt have continued to fuel her passion albeit the presence of challenges and difficulties born with the social and political experiment that people in Egypt are now undertaking.

Q: Pakinam, what kept you moving forward? Why didn’t you give up?

A: Well, I could have been driven off my path. But I have been lucky enough through journalism, blogging, and photography, to come in contact with incidents that gave me courage. Also, the people that I’ve met have made a huge difference. They made me witness a sort of … a modern-day miracle, you know, how the will of a few people, a few visionaries –,you know, human beings like you and me with ideas- can change the world.

Q: You’ve recently embarked upon a journey to the United Kingdom where you lived there for more than a year to do your masters in Investigative Journalism. As I understand it, it was a UK-based course that focused on UK law and politics and was meant to help you work in England. Why did you decide to come back?

A: Because no matter how much I spend there, I know I’ll be more of an expert on my country than anywhere else. I speak the language, well, it’s my mother tongue and I’ve already worked here for more than three years. And Egypt is rich with stories. It’s rife with political, social and faith-related stories, so is our region, the Middle East. It’s a reporter’s heaven.

Q: You’ve been taking some interest in filmmaking recently, am I right?

A: Yes, that’s correct. Well, I have started scratching the surface of filmmaking and shooting for television first during my post-graduate studies in the American University in Cairo (AUC). However, in London, where I was based until a month ago, I delved a little deeper. The close encounter with the world of TV and film, you know, working behind the camera and video editing was enough to make me yearn for more. I really felt that I had tapped into this fresh talent inside of me. I felt it was always there but it was hidden.

Q: Do you plan to work on it?

A: I already started to – slowly but surely. When I was in London, I didn’t waste much time. I started buying movies like crazy. My wallet and bank account suffered a lot because of this. I started watching many of the classics and international movies from France, Germany … Sweden, Russia. It’s a whole new world really. I’ve also taken two intensive workshops in filmmaking and directing at the London Film School, in addition to taking part in script clubs and Q&A sessions where everything, you know, from production, editing to lighting and sound or what have you, was discussed.

Q: So are you gonna start making your own movies now?

A: Well, not right away. I have a rather primitive video camera. But I plan to experiment with that first. I’m hoping that taking loads of short courses and workshops will prepare me for a full-blown study of filmmaking; perhaps back in the UK or even the US. I don’t want this to be a hobby that I do on the side. I plan to turn it into a career … and I don’t care how much time this will take. I know that most people don’t like starting from scratch. But I think it would be an interesting challenge.

Q: So do we understand that one day you plan to leave the journalism world and plunge into that of cinema?

A: Well, I’ll never stop becoming a journalist. As a journalist, I have naturally always been a storyteller. So no, I don’t see it that way. Plunging into the world of filmmaking is not a change of careers; I simply see it as an extension of my work as a journalist, perhaps an evolution, you know, a natural evolution into … using the full extent of my senses and talents to communicate, you know, my ideas to the masses … and … to help the masses communicate, you know, their dreams and fears to the world.

Pakinam has been an inpsiration to family and friends.

Q: What do you think of Pakinam?

As a mother, i can't be more proud of my daughter. I respect people who follow their dreams with a passion and that's what she's doing.

-END-

Running time: 4 min. 50 sec.

Love, Death, and Travel Through Imagination (Part 2 of 2)

2009-10-27T12:00:00.002+02:00

Click on the link to read Part 1:

http://nermineamer.blogspot.com/2009/10/love-death-and-travel-through.html

-CONTINUED-

The theme of voyage/travel is also present in A Simple Heart, because Felicite’s only way to escape boredom and the fact that she is being trapped in her inside world was by traveling with her imagination. Felicite too escapes her ‘inside’ world (her reality) by living and imagining the outside world. Imagination is the only way the outside world is entering her life. Flaubert was a master of rational and realistic details; he has provided many particulars to express and communicate the idea of how boring Felicite’s life is, and in turn transformer her into flesh and blood for the readers and made her tragedy almost touchable. Flaubert considered the visualization of scenes to be the most important so as the readers could identify with Felicite’s environment. The accumulation of details (like a lot of people dying around her, the cards, the clock, the rain) from the moment she was born until her death serves as physical representations of Ennui and Routine. From my point of view in Baudelaire‘s poems, travel with imagination to an “ideal” unrealistic world is a tragic flaw because it is what leads one again to a depressing “spleen”. While with Felicity, imagination is not her tragic flaw (in fact she doesn’t have a tragic flaw), her main (and arguably only) flaw might be her innocence. Her innocence, even if it leads her astray or more likely misleads her into escapism, is then again the origin of her simple heart and mind and her goodness.

Baudelaire uses the theme of love to make the comparison between the ideal and the spleen more noticeable. He is comparing good (beauty) with evil (sin) and shows how love for beauty tempts one to make sins and gradually makes one fall towards Satan. Women have a big role in Baudelaire’s love poems because they show how Baudelaire’s feelings towards them are quite contradictory. Baudelaire’s “love” is sexually explicit and romantic which is clear in his erotic imagery. Moreover, love reminds him of mortality as the poet remembers that love is impossible because of the cruel reality.

In A Simple Heart, the theme of love is used in an entirely different way. Felicite’s endless search for love despite all her losses leads to something more beautiful and more important than love itself. Felicite’s need for someone to give her great passion in return made her relate to a parrot, above all. Her parrot Loulou which entered her life was the only one who provided that to her to the extent that Felicite’s love for Loulou has gradually turned into an obsession and adoration.

Death is another theme present in both works. In Baudelaire poems, death is a theme that apparently he likes to use repeatedly. Baudelaire was fascinated with this theme and was dedicated to creating very shocking bizarre images of death. Although he talks about escaping death (spleen) by travel and imagination (ideal, by images of luxury and comfort), he also mentions dreadful images (agonized demons and phantoms) that makes the likelihood of fatality more pressing (and depressing) to the reader. It also shows –in a direct blatant manner- the fearful image of death and the loneliness and seclusion death could bring. To Baudelaire, the real journey of death is the complete opposite of the imagined journey to the “ideal” he talked about. On one hand, it’s a journey toward something that is completely unknown (presumably a horrifying destiny according to Baudelaire) and it being unknown is fear itself. On the other hand, “The voyage” explains the voyage of death, where he describes what is unknown ahead of us as neither good nor evil but simply different and new (a new experience). Baudelaire doesn’t believe in eternity, so death is the only truth one knows and there is no real way to escape it.

The theme of death in A Simple Heart is not very differently represented. Flaubert has a very realistic representation of death. Throughout the story, Flaubert constantly repeats the idea that death is in ones everyday life, and that innocence, purity and virtue (of Felicite) is frequently tied very tightly with dishonesty and selfishness (of the outside world and of people around Felicity). The theme of immortality lies subtly in this story, showed when Felicite’s beloved Loulou dies and she turns him into a stuffed animal and puts him in a high place in her room so that his image will be lying there forever and it also evokes the idea that she’ll always look up to him and remember him (could be related to looking up to heaven where our loved ones are believed to lie eternal in endless bliss, or where god himself and his close ones lie). It could be considered a far-fetched interpretation that Felicite really considers her parrot to be god at all, or heavenly-related but due to her limited comprehension of faith and religion, she only misinterpreted and misplaced Loulou with the incarnation of the Holy Ghost coming down from heaven.

-END-

Long Form Documentary: Leila’s story (Listening journal- Entry #3)

2009-10-24T16:52:00.005+02:00

Producer: Julian Ruck

Narrator: Siobhann Tighe

Title: Assignment – Leila’s story 6 Dec 2007

Length: 24 minutes.

Link to BBC documentaries: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/docarchive/all

Link to podcast: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/worldservice/docarchive/docarchive_20071207-1540.mp3

The documentary tells the story of an Iranian girl who was forced into prostitution and sold for sex by her parents at the age of 9 and was later sentenced to death at 18. It sheds light on Modern Iran, the legal system there, the legal concept of child abuse and how the Iranian laws remain confused and inequitable to women and girls.

It started off by sound bites from the end of the documentary, which I thought was an excellent way to keep the listener’s attention through out the whole documentary, and these sound bites were very well chosen, because they were very intriguing. One was of Leila saying “it's fun. Don't you think it's cool?” when told that hurting herself and cutting her arm is not the answer.

The documentary was very interesting because it talked about the legal system in Iran, which is an important part of the story and at the same time the psychological state of this girl after all what she has been through. Leila was raped by her brothers, sold for sex, used for years by the man of her town. I liked how personal they make the documentary, how they described Leila to the listener through people’s impression of her “dressed in black, large eyes, warm face, innocent and trusting”.

There were sound bites from Leila’s lawyer and from the founder of the day center that Leila is currently staying at. Sound bites from Leila’s lawyer were very helpful. We get to know the opinion of the person who saved Leila from her death sentence about the matter and why she appealed her sentence. She explained that to a poor family who suffers from drug addiction, their daughter is a property and can be sold. We then have a sound bite from Leila confirming that. She said that her whole family was suffering from an opium addiction, and through her prostitution’s money they paid for the drugs. Leila was sold to an Afghani man and she was his “temporary wife” for almost a year, when one day the police arrested everyone in the house, the temporary husband was jailed for 5 years and Leila was told that she was sentenced to 5 months in prison but she later knew she was going to be hanged. Lawyers believed that she wanted to be sold and that it was her choice and they blamed her for not leaving the house and informing the police.

The lawyer accused the judges of ignorance about what sexual charges are all about and for believing that the woman is always guilty and a woman’s testimony in court carries less weight than a man’s. I believe a documentary like this can open people’s eyes on things that happen in Iran that often go unheard of. It was good to know how Leila is living her life now, things are better for her but we know that it will never be the way it should’ve been if she wasn’t been subject to all that she has been through. The girl is still learning the basics of life, how to express herself and how to overcome some behavioral problems.

The quality of the narration was very good and clear. The sound bites were placed very nicely in the documentary and helped it flow well. I like how personal they make the issue by bringing Leila and her case closer to you through her opening up and speaking about her story herself. They included little details that made the piece more emotional and created sympathy towards Leila, like how she had imaginary toys growing up and how naïve she sounds. The length of the piece was perfect; it had my attention through out because of how interesting and shocking the issue is so you naturally want to hear more about it and more about the girl (the victim).

Why not?

2009-10-21T00:30:00.003+02:00

I’ve always been fascinated with the supernatural, the things that I don’t quite understand.

I believe in magic, lucky charms, I wear a few amulets, I’m fascinated by Greek mythology, I’m partial to superstitions and I am aware of the fact that none of this might be true. But for some reason I want to believe in them. I like to believe in them.

We call all that “myths”, “illusions” and “superstitions.”
But because something sounds unfamiliar or illogical does not automatically mean it is fiction. I still remember X-Files’ Dana Scully’s famous quote: “Nothing happens in contradiction to nature, it happens in contradiction to what we know of it.”

Don’t get me wrong! I’m not asking people to have blind faith. Indeed, and as the saying goes, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. I’m only suggesting that we keep an open mind – or at least be a little bit more tolerant of personal quirks, like my affinity for everything fantastic.

For example, mirrors send my mind reeling with stories. In ancient times, mirrors were thought to be gateways to other worlds and realities, some believed they protected us from evil, told us the future, or revealed the truth. I am one of those who like to believe that they reflect back a glimpse of the human soul. The same applies to reflective objects, paintings and photographs. There’s more to a portrait painting than just color and form.

A mirror sure tells you something about yourself and it takes a lot out of you to give you back that simple reflection. It has been thought that a mirror, like a picture, keeps part of your soul. That’s why, sometimes, you can’t stop looking – you can’t get yourself to part with your twin, the one that seems to be trapped behind the shiny glass surface.

I personally have a love-hate relationship with mirrors. I am an actor, and when I was younger, performing and role-playing in front of a mirror was my life. From imitating people to making faces to reading the news to playing doctor to giving Oscar speeches and dressing up … it all happened in front of a mirror. Even so, I’m well aware of the power of reflections, the very thing that enthralled Narcissus and led him to pine away.

Let me tell you of a story that simply creeps the hell out of me. The story goes that there were days when the world of men and the world of mirrors were not as they are today. Once upon a time, the people behind the mirror invaded this world and after many battles, the world of men prevailed and stripped the creatures of the mirror from their own shape and reduced them to mere reflections. It is believed that one day they will throw off the spell and awaken once again. It says, “The first to awaken shall be the Fish. In the depths of the mirror, we shall perceive a faint, faint line, and the color of that line will not resemble any other. Then, other forms will begin to awaken. Gradually, they will become different from us; gradually they will no longer imitate us; they will break through the barriers of glass or metal, and this time they will not be conquered … some believed that before the their invasion, we will hear, from the depths of the mirrors, the sound of arms”.

In light of all the strangeness of our world, can’t there be a teeny tiny possibility of this actually being true? Why not? Hold that thought.

Love, Death, and Travel Through Imagination (Part 1 of 2)

2009-10-21T00:29:00.000+02:00

“A Simple Heart”, a short story written by French poet Gustave Flaubert, is considered one of the best stories he had written; it was given excellent reviews and was admirably received. What is intriguing about it though is the fact that the approach to this tragic tale is rather new and is different; you see the story through the eyes of a woman who would not attract you if you passed her on the street, whose life story is not striking or is a subject of controversy. The protagonist, the center of both the story and the events and who readers are invited to see the world from her perspective and through her eyes, is a poor illiterate and humble woman. Her world is simply all about routine and her life is filled with the most boring details. Like the title suggests, the tale is as “simple” as the woman that Falubert describes and chooses to tell the readers about. In all her simplicity, Felicite has a power that most men –and many women- might not have: the ability to love –receiving and giving love- no matter what life brings. Although Felicite suffers the loss of her loved ones throughout the play, she never stops loving. Her love even becomes centered on a parrot, her Loulou, to the extent that she adores him like a god and is extremely devoted to him. Flaubert writing a simple story about love and goodness is something unusual, because it’s not usually one of his themes. In this story many themes are presented, like the theme of death for instance (how the death of Loulou affects Felicite), love and the idea of travel through imagination as a way of escaping reality. These are themes that were used by many poets too; one of these poets is French poet Charles Baudelaire who is called “Father of Modern Criticism”. In my opinion, Baudelaire is one of the most gifted of the French poets. He wrote The Flowers of Evil, a piece which had a lot of Flaubert themes. But despite the fact that these themes were presented differently, they had common thoughts or a common subtle “tone” nonetheless. One of the most interesting commonalities in themes to me was the idea of travel/voyage through imagination to escape the world we live in (a.k.a. Reality).

The theme of Travel/Voyage in Baudelaire’s poems especially “Spleen and the Ideal” is an escape of a world full of pessimistic themes of eviction, perish, decay, sin, pretense and deception that is controlled by the Devil. Baudelaire says that humans either use fantasy and imagination as an escape from all this or are always trapped in the boredom of Modernity/Modern life. According to Baudelaire, Perfection is only present in erotic love, voyages (imagined) and beauty (that is often extracted/ created from evil or the ugly reality). Traveling with your imagination to a mythical world or an ideal universe of one’s own creation will make one reach ultimate happiness, comfort and total perfection which is the poet’s dream (in other words Eden, which means “an ideal harmony of being”). While the latter option seems to be a good one, it’s not real and it’s not even close to reality. “Spleen” symbolizes everything that one doesn’t like in this world like death, loneliness, despair, pain, crime, and physical or psychological illness. It also symbolizes Modernity (the city) invading nature and infecting it with routine and boredom (Ennui).

Baudelaire provides excellent images to accomplish his aim of creating an ideal world to the reader.

“And of an infinite pervasiveness.
Like myrrh, or musk, or amber, that excite
The ecstasies of sense, the soul’s delight” (Correspondences 12-13)

He creates an image that successfully stimulates and arouses the reader’s senses as well as images of lavishness, bliss, comfort and warmth that serves well the description of the “ideal”. The “ideal” is like an escape from the “spleen” and the boredom of cruel reality. It’s an escape from this reality through travel for an example. Travel through imagination is nothing but a fantasy, at the end it is an imagined state of living in an ideal world full of delight and bliss where loss, death and mortality do not exist. Creating a fantasy by imagination and living it urges one to lose the sense of mortality - which is arguably a very illogical escape (or temporary escape) from the fear of death (Spleen) that fills a lot of people. It is a virtual escape from the inevitable, one can say, and a pretence that life’s tragedies do not exist (like putting your head in the sand plus dreaming and fantasizing about what life should or could be as opposed to what it really is). Consequently, Travel shapes the plot in a way that unavoidably leads to a disappointing and sad spleen.

-TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK-

Public Service Announcement: EFB's "Overcome Hunger" Campaign

2009-10-13T15:50:00.007+02:00

Local Contact: 6 Nafoura St., Cairo, Moukatam.
Organization: EFB – Egyptian Food Bank
Contact Info: 16060, info@egyptianfoodbank.com, www.egyptianfoodbank.com

Heading: EFB’s “Overcome Hunger” Campaign.
Airdates(s): November 2009 – December 2009

40 seconds

SFX: (sound of plates and cutlery – dinner table being
cleared)

LADY 1: Wow! Look at the amount of food left! What are you
gonna do with it?

LADY 2: I was gonna throw it away.

LADY 1: Think of all the poor and hungry.

LADY 2: But what can we do? We can’t donate food, can we?

MUSIC: (Fade in Gypsy King’s “Lord Of the Dance”)

ANNC 1: You wanna know how you can help?

ANNC 2: The Egyptian Food Bank is the answer.
EE-EF-BEE.

ANNC 1: By your partnership with the EFB to overcome hunger in Egypt, you not only feed the needy, but also contribute to lessening crime rate and building a healthy society.

ANNC 2: And all this is one phone call away. You can send money or simply drop off food donations, any time, any day.

ANNC 1: For more details call 16-0-60

ANNC 2: Because it’s NOW more than ever that we need your help in this battle against hunger.

ANNC 1: Let’s make sure everyone in Egypt has enough to eat.

MUSIC: (ends)

World Vision Report: “Ultra-Orthodox Women Go to Work” (Radio Journal-Entry #2)

2009-10-13T03:37:00.007+02:00

“Ultra-Orthodox Women Go to Work”
Length: 7 min.
Reporter: Daniel Estrin

Link: http://www.worldvisionreport.org/Stories/Week-of-October-10-2009/Ultra-Orthodox-Women-Go-to-Work

The feature is about ultra-orthodox Jews in Israel and their approach to unemployment and work in general. It talks about how unemployment to them was never a problem because they spend their time studying their religion instead of holding down jobs and how this is starting to change when some women decided to lead the way and enter the job market. Some men devote their life to religious study and they get paid for it but the pay is so small that it doesn’t support the family well. Some men started seeking part time jobs.

I find this story very interesting because it’s very thought provoking to know how different women think about this. It’s interesting to see women from their backgrounds breaking from their traditional role in the house and going into the job market. You get to know how different women feel about it. Most of them have no skills but they get to take special courses to prepare them. Any job they take has to be rabbi approved and has to have a women-only environment. Some women think that they have a responsibility to support the house by financing it while their husbands are focused on religious studies. They believe that this is how they support the house with respect. Some women think it’s satisfying to work and are proud that they are doing what they do.

Quality of sound was very good. The sound bites and nat sounds were very smooth and fit very well with the story. The use of nat sounds was very good. I liked the nat sound of people praying at the beginning, the sounds from the supermarket and the sounds of someone teaching. The sound bites were very informative. They were all of women talking about their personal thoughts and experience on working. I liked the sound bites of the American Israeli ultra-orthodox Jew, I though it created diversity. I also liked the photographer’s sound bite and found it very interesting and used well in the story.

Quality of the reporter’s voice was very good. The length of the newscast was perfect and it was enough to create a well-rounded story.

NPR & BBC Newscasts (Radio Journal-Entry #2)

2009-10-13T03:36:00.006+02:00

NPR

Title: NPR Hourly News Sum

mary
Reporter: Paul Brown, from Washington.
Length: 4:45
Link: http://www.npr.org/?refresh=true
Then click on “Hourly News”.

The newscast started by a story about president Obama speaking at Texas ANM University in college station. Obama was speaking on the subject of community service. The second story was about Afghani officials investigating the alleged fraud during the recent presidential elections and how the results, which will soon be reached, will determine whether there will be a run off election or not. Reporter Jackie Northam has more details on the story. The third story was about the search of an F16 pilot in the South Carolina coast after two military jets collided and then there was a short report from Catherine Welsh on the situation. The fourth story was about how senate democrats are trying to put together a health care bill that merges a finance committee with a health committee version. It was followed by a sound bite of Finance committee chairman talking about how optimistic he is on the passing of the resulting bill. The fifth story was about a bombing in Pakistan where at least 11 were killed. The sixth story was about a woman accused of kidnapping and assaulting Elizabeth Smart. Reporter Howard Burgess had more on the investigation of whether the woman is mentally incompetent or not. The seventh story was about the treasury secretary is saying that government support system for the economy should be removed or else the recovery would be slow and in danger. The last story was the recent sudden increase of oil prices.

The overall newscast was interesting, it had news from different places on different subjects, it had political, economic, financial and social news. The quality of the sound was very good. There weren’t enough sound bites in the piece. I was expecting nat sound of police and chaos on the streets in the Afghani bombing story. The announcer voice was very good and he had good delivery although he stuttered once in the newscast.
The newscast wasn’t too long or too short although I expected to hear a little more on the story about the oil prices increasing.

BBC

Title: BBC News Summary
Reporter: Sue Montgomery
Length: 5 min.
Link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/worldservice/meta/tx/summary5min?size=au&bgc=003399〈=en-ws&nbram=1&nbwm=1

The newscast started with a story about the United Nation’s human rights council voting to endorse a report into the Israeli offenses in Gaza, it accuses both Israel and Hamas of war crimes. Sound bite of a reporter providing more information on the matter, the council urges them to conduct credible investigations and suggests referring them both to international criminal court if they don’t. The second story was about the suicide car bomb attack in Pakistan. It was followed by a sound bite of reporter Ali Makbour reporting from Islamabad. The third story was about the French foreign ministry urging its citizens to leave a state in West Africa for security reasons. A reporter reporting from West Africa followed it. The fourth story was about a review of primary education in England that recommends that children start school at the age of 6 instead of 5. The story was followed by a story about one of the leading banks in America, Bank of America, losing around 1 billion dollars. It was followed by a sound bite of a reporter stating that the Bank’s chief executive will receive no pay or bonus for 2009 and that it was announced that he would retire at the end of December. The following story was about the governments of Southern Sudan and its works for independence. The last story was about the memorial museum at Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp, launching a page on the social networking site Facebook to help engage a younger generation of people and to discuss potentially controversial renovation works at Auschwitz.

This newscast was interesting. It covered a variety of news. I was interested in the last two stories the most and I was disappointed to see that they had no sound bites at all. The quality of the sound is very good although the level of the sound was a bit low. Use of sound bites was good for the stories that had them. The quality of the announcer’s voice was very good. She stuttered a couple of times in the newscast, which I think, is fine. The length of the newscast was fine. All stories had almost equal amount of time. For some reason the language itself of the script is a lot simpler than the language of NPR. I had difficulty understanding some of the language in the NPR stories.

Unethical and Offensive Print and T.V. Advertisements: Offensive Portrayal of Women

2009-10-11T21:34:00.000+02:00

Advertising is a very powerful and influential medium therefore it plays an important and great role in shaping society's views of women by how it portrays them. Unfortunately, most of the images of women in advertisements are unjust to the nature of women, negative and misrepresentative of women and their roles in society. The audience is usually large and ranges from people concerned with the ad to families and young teens.

The women in advertisements and ads usually are in their mid twenties wearing provocative and revealing clothes. Some of those models in advertisements have a pose and facial expression that are daring and sexually explicit which will surely offend women because these women are not conservative dress-wise and even in emotional communication and relationships. Generally, when women are seen as sexual objects, they are treated as such in society (Women's Images in Magazine Advertisements: How Far Have They Come?).

The Gucci print Ad:

This ad is definitely offensive to women because it tries to show the women’s ‘‘place’’ in the world which is at a man’s feet as shown in the picture above. In this picture, the women is visibly distressed and is using her right hand to hold her dress down and cover herself, clearly leaving you wondering in a series of events what might have occurred right before this women ended up on the ground. This ad enters into the ties commonly made between sex and violence in fashion advertising. This ad is totally humiliating to women. It shows that they are inferior human being which totally harms human rights. This is not the portrayal we-women-want to see in ads because it shows that we live in a very shallow minded society that is full of stereotypes and misrepresentation. Women must be given their right to be fairly represented in all media sources.

The Maker’s Mark print Ad:

This ad is also an offensive ad to women because of the words in it. What is it
about selling alcohol that makes advertisers want to belittle and insult women...does it really make men feel more powerful? This ad simply says that alcohol is apparently better than women (great body and fine character). Moreover, it promotes something that is unhealthy; drinking alcohol is very harmful to people’s health. This is an ad that encourages people especially teenagers (due to the use of the word ‘girlfriend; which applies mostly to teenagers or young adults) to drink alcohol. This ad doesn’t serve the welfare of our teenagers and young adults and is insulting women and encouraging the idea that it’s normal to belittle women and that it is accepted.

Winston’s print Ad:

In this ad, Winston tries to convince young women how tough and cool they can be by smoking while waiting for a man, we hope the man arrives soon before lung cancer sets in. This ad underestimates women intelligence by convincing them of silly, unhealthy and immature things to do. This ad also promotes an unhealthy habit that would really and is affecting people (especially teenagers and young adults). Smoking cigarettes is very unhealthy and causes young cancer. The ad encourages young women to smoke because this is way, they will look tough and cool which is a very vague, untrue and immature idea.

Dooney and Bourke’s print ad:

“Dooney and Bourke has been running a series of print ad similar to this in the past 6 months” (reclaimyourculture.com). The female model in the ad is positioned in a vulnerable way as if she is being threatened, she is naked (so possibly sexually threatened) and totally helpless, she has a large red star on her eye; evoking the idea she has been a victim of violence. I believe there is no effective point or reason for making the model pose nude even if she is covered (she is not fully covered though). The point actually is not that the female model is nude but her pose in general and how you get the feeling that she is threatened. I don’t know the reason why they always want to promote the idea that women are insecure.

BMW’s print Ad:

This ad for BMW serves to objectify women and particularly to objectify sexual relationships between men and women. According to BMW "the ultimate attraction" is their fancy car, women are still an attraction, but just not "the ultimate attraction". The car has the most power in this ad, then the man, then the women. Showing that an object (car) has the greatest power is simply unethical and illogical. Clearly, having a magazine photo on a women's face as you are having sexual intercourse with her is demeaning and degrading.

There are a lot of offensive T.V. ads; they all show women as only ‘sex objects’ and nothing more. They dress in a very provocative way, and totally revealing clothes and use facial expressions that are sexually explicit. The ad usually concentrates on the woman more than the product it advertises. They include female models dancing and the model talking in a sexy and attractive tone. I consider the people who like these kinds of ads totally pathetic and very shallow. Using sex in ads is totally unethical and not needed at all. The ad could be as effective and maybe more if it is clean and respectful.

These are the ads we want to see. Positive ads that make women look good and don’t demean women. The first is for Eileen Fisher, "Women change the world everyday." This is a very positive message and is showing women wearing respectful comfortable-looking clothing.

The second ad is for Liz Claiborne, "Feel comfortable." Finally, this is the message we-women-want to hear from a clothing ad.

The outrageous advertisements I showed earlier are ineffective and unethical because they demean and dehumanize women by reinforcing the stereotype that a women's primary identity relates to her being a sex object, harm women's right and is greatly offensive. Negative portrayals of women could greatly affect people and might convince some men (by putting a spotlight on such images of women for a long time) that these portrayals are actually true or at least have some truth or background to them. Generally, when women are seen as sexual objects, they are treated as such in society. These advertisements definitely harm women's rights because it promotes gender inequality and is totally disrespectful of women (especially to women activists and feminists). Valuing women only for their appearance and dehumanizing them is against women's rights. It also reflects an 'oppressive' view of women's role in society because in spite of all women's achievements in the work field that places them on an equal stance with men, she is still seen as someone whose basic role is providing physical pleasures and an inferior human being. This offensive, insulting and disgusting portrayal of women is completely unethical and doesn't give them their full rights as human beings.

Women should stand for their rights and fight back because they are creative human beings who deserve to be portrayed and treated as such so as to gain back their dignity, pride and self esteem. The portrayal of women and girls in advertisements as sex objects is a common form of violence against women and girls. Our society is supposed to be an enlightened and humane society where everybody, especially women and girls, are treated with decency and respect.

Media watch and monitoring systems should be supported and authorized. It is sad that these offensive and insulting ads of women are out there in the open. We strongly urge those concerned in the advertising industry to take the necessary action to ensure that these advertisements are stopped immediately. The media should be encouraged to avoid presenting women as inferior beings and should present them as creative human beings as well refrain from exploiting them as sexual objects and commodities. It is also really unfair that women are left out and not given the opportunity to contribute so women should have increasing and progressive participation in decision making at all levels in the media.

A Tribute to a Phenomenal Set Designer, Eugene Lee

2009-10-06T12:27:00.012+02:00

I am just about to finish a set designing project and looking back at the process brings a smile to my face. It was a truly rewarding process and I've had a lot of fun with it. There were so many exciting challenges that reminded me of why I love theatre and why I love set design. This post is a tribute to a phenomenal set designer whose approach to theatre and set design never fails to influence and inspire me.

When asked about what he enjoys the most in his work, he answers, “Nothing makes me happier than an impossible space and an impossible project”. Eugene Lee, son of Eugene and Betty Lee was born in Bertoit, Wisconsin in March 9th, 1933. He got married to Franne Newman, a costume and set designer who he frequently co-designed shows with. Franne’s projects as a set designer were always co-designed with her husband at the time, Eugene Lee. Lee got married again to Brooke and lives with her in his home in Providence with their two sons. Brooke works as a painter and also works as Lee’s manager. Lee grew in quite a theatrical family. His father was an actor and his mother took backstage jobs in community theatre so theatre really ran his blood. When Lee was young he used to make little things and play with them. His family taught him that if he wants to learn something, he would have to buy a book and learn it from there. The way he learnt things was through a “learning by the book” method. He would buy a lot of books and figures out how to make things work.

Lee attended Berloit Memorial High school. He has BFA degrees from the Art institute of Chicago and Carnegie Mellon University. He has an MFA from Yale Drama School and three honorary PH.Ds.. At yale, he studied alongside legendary set and lighting designer Donald Oenslager. Lee has been resident designer at Trinity Rep since 1967. He is the production designer for NBC’s “Saturday Night Live”. Other New York theatre work includes Alice in Wonderland, The Normal Heart, Agnes of God, Ragtime, Uncle Vanya, Ruby Sunrise & A Number.His most notable credits are The Homecoming, Snow Boat, The Hothouse,The Pirate Queen, Wicked, Seussical, Ragtime, The Bells, A Moon for the Misbegotten, Sweeney Todd, the musical & Candide.Lee is on the faculty of Brown, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and Carnegie Mellon.When asked about what he has gotten from teaching, he said:
“You end up adopting half the people you teach. It’s such a funny, hard business to get going in”. As for himself, the people he knew at Yale where the ones who started Chelsea and produced Slave Ship and Candide.

Lee won three Tony awards for Bernestein’s Candide (1974), Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd (1979) and Wicked (2004).Those three shows won him three Drama Desk Award for Outstanding set designs. His set design for shows like The Ruby Sunrise, Ragtime, The Hothouse & Alice in Wonderland got him nominations for several prestigious awards.
Lees style is very unique and several directors and producers referred to him as a genius. He first came to international attention when he designed Slave Ship and Candide at the Chelsea Theatre Central in Brooklyn. His work on the musical Candide at the Chelsea Theatre Center of Brooklyn and on Broadway are chronicled in great detail in Davi Napolean’s book, Chelsea on the Edge: The Adventures of an American Theatre. The book also describes his work on Slave Ship and other productions at the Chelsea. He worked with light designer Kenneth Posner both on Wicked & The Pirate Queen.
When Lee designs a set, he often redesigns the theatre, repositioning exits, lights booths, even walls to accommodate the play. His audience frequently find themselves inside, on top or under sets that are not fixed. The computer has been the standard tool for set designers to create sketches but Lee is old fashioned and begins his process with a pencil and a sketch pad. He likes to use real material. He uses real, rusty metal, not painted wood. He creates set doors and windows that actually open and close. He puts the audience close to the actors and makes their seating uncomfortable if it’s right for the production.
Lee is a very unique and quite daring style when designing certain shows. His style is nowhere near traditional. His sets are very different from any set one might see before. He once designed a play called “The Visit” which is set in a train station. The play was performed in a real Providence train station, with passengers moving around the audience getting in and out of trains. The audiences were seated on benches.

Lee designed a play called A Moon for the Misbegotten in 2000, He said that the director was very specific about the environment of the set. Lee had six different ideas for the show and they all developed into models. He showed the models to the director and the director shows his favorite. The ideas he was playing with were all about whether he should go with inside the house or in front. He had terrible trouble deciding where the moon and where the sky is. At the end they settled on a house on a hillside of rocks and dirt. Although he likes to use real materials for his shows, for the dirt in this play they used dirt skins, they are like a rug and they come in rolled up. They looked like dirt and after working on them for a while; they were able to make it look very close to dirt. About using real materials, he said:
“I prefer to build out of real things. There is some humanity to it, some kind of history to the planks”. Lee wanted to tilt the house so “it looks as though it’s falling down and has an ‘earthquaky’ feeling, with landscape blocks that look like stones, like skulls, like the dead”.

Lee designed The Homecoming in 2007, Lee’s set had an enormous hole in the wall that apparently has been there for quite a while and seems to bother none of the four male residents. He was able to design a dirty floor of a suitably shabby and cut-down, post-war living room set. “Eugene Lee's setting did what was expected of it to suggest a home without a woman's touch, including the large gape in the plaster board wall that the men have no intention of ever fixing” - Simon Saltzman, a drama critic, said of the set.

Lee designed The Bells; it is set in an inn in a forgotten land on the edge of nowhere, as described in the script. Lee embodies this by creating a world of abstract reality. His color palette consists of shades of blacks and whites. Everything is meant to appear dead. The only colors that emerge in the frozen wasteland are those of blood.
Lee designed the set for The Pirate Queen in 2007, he has designed an impressively architectural setting that bursts through the proscenium. He redefined the proscenium of the Hilton Theatre with pieces of a period sailing ship, creating a frame that leaves room onstage for battle scenes and the show’s elaborate step-dancing numbers.The proscenium of The Pirate Queen is a kind of Elizabethan theatre made up of pieces of sailing ships. At stage right and left are imposing masts painted to look like faux-marbl. “The stage house of the Elizabethan theatre is supported by two large columns—they’re kind of like masts,” says Lee.

Lee designed a play called Mauritius, the most interesting part about the set of Mauritius is Lee creating a ceiling with light bulbs hanging down.The set changes into different places very quickly by pulling sets (a living room & a diner) out of the wall. Lee’s most successful design was the set design for Candide in 1974. He co-designed the show with his first wife Franne Lee. Lee revamped the Broadway theatre (a proscenium house) into one large playing arena with the audience seated on benches and stools. Planked platforms and levels from various patterns throughout the house. The orchestra is shown in the background.

Also one of his most successful projects is Wicked, the Musical.. Lee created a set and visual style for the play based on both W. W. Denslow’s original illustration of Baum’s novels and Maguire’s concept of the story being told through a giant clock. He defined his vision by creating a series of moving panels of gears and cog wheels that became the central image for the set. The panels and the wheels seem in constant motion during transitions from one song and scene to the next, rolling and sliding along the floor in grooves hidden by clouds of smoke. Monkeys fly from a tangle of vines that frames the giant fantasy clock. The set was made of steel, and other basic materials, aluminum, fiberglass, plastic, fabric and natural vines that serve as launching pads for the flying monkeys. The show has lots of crazy effects that one wouldn’t imagine possible. A witch in a sparkling blue gown a bubble blowing pendulum and a green witch in a black hat flies a broomstick through smoke were one of the most interesting spectacles. For the green witch’s flying scene, Lee designed a telescoping arm that the audience never sees because smoke and many fabrics of cloth hide it. They didn’t use a harness so that the actress would have freedom to sing.

*** For more information on the last play I set designed (opens Oct. 8th), check its Facebook event here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=127986933883&ref=mf

Looking forward to seeing you at the show!

Natural Sound

2009-10-03T22:39:00.005+02:00

10 NAT sounds

To listen to the NAT sounds go to: http://www.mypodcast.com/members/podcast-rec.html?action=list&pc=75451
OR
Click on the title of this blog post.

Log:

1. Traffic/Cars honking their horns. (10 sec.)
0 -10 sec.

2. Cat meowing. (7 sec.)
10 sec. - 17 sec.

3. Drill. (14 sec.)
17 sec. - 31 sec.

4. Washing dishes. (12 sec.)
31 sec. - 43 sec.

5. Scene from movie (dialogue). (20 sec.)
43 sec. - 1 min. 4 sec.

6. Channeling through the radio. (21 sec.)
1 min. 4 sec. - 1 min. 25 sec.

7. Mobile alarm clock. (11 sec.)
1 min. 25 - 1 min. 36 sec.

8. Phones ringing. (14 sec.)
1 min. 36 sec. - 1 min. 50 sec.

9. Toilet flushing. (11 sec.)
1 min. 50 sec. - 2 min. 1 sec.

10. Music (part of a song). (19 sec.)
2 min. 1 sec - 2 min. 20 sec.

Poetry: Profit & Delight

2009-10-03T00:01:00.004+02:00

Art or drama is without a doubt an important part of life. It is apparent that through art (of any kind) one can converse feelings, thoughts, uncertainties, anxieties, beliefs, values and much more. It is a medium where one is free to express feelings and ideas about personal and global issues and concerns. The aim of drama is something a huge number of theorists and dramatists has been arguing about for a long time now. In fact, considering the amount of different views and outlooks on the subject, it became very hard to determine what the aim of drama is or even narrow it down to one or two aspirations.
However, there have been a great number of views regarding whether the aim of drama is to entertain or instruct or both as well as debates on what brings pleasure to people. There have also been views on what drama reflects and if the reality it reflects can educate; if it is able to shape reality and if it has the power to change a person. One of the imminent theorists triggered a very interesting debate specifically on this subject. Horace argues in the Art of Poetry (The Epistle to the Pisos) that the poet’s aim when writing a dramatic piece is either to profit (instruct or teach) or please (delight or charm) or a good combination of the two.

“The poet’s aim is either to profit or to please or to blend in one the delightful and the useful” (Horace, pg. 74).
The first seperate two aims (profit or please) that Horace is referring too and the idea that drama might exist to accomplish one of these aims alone implies that pleasure and learning are two very different things and that they not associated to one another or even combined as one, thus proposing the idea that there is a contradiction between pleasure and learning. Therefore, it is important to analyze this contradiction.

“It is not just a matter of art presenting what needs to be learned in an enjoyable form. The contradiction between learning and enjoyment must be clearly grasped and its significance understood-in a period when knowledge is acquired in order to be resold for the highest possible price, and even a high price does not prevent further exploitation by those who pay it. Only once productivity has been set free can learning be transformed into enjoyment and vice versa”, Bertolt Brecht said.
When Horace triggered the debate of “profit or pleasure” a lot of questions relating to the relationship between pleasure and learning were immediately raised. The question of whether a relationship between them exists in the first place was also raised. According to Brecht, it is possible for learning to be consequently transformed into enjoyment unless the efficiency of the drama itself is set free. Therefore, even if learning and enjoyment are two different things, the possibility of them transforming into one another is tangible if set in the suitable environment (i.e. a good drama). One of the questions that the problem raises is: is it possible to instruct in a pleasurable form and consequently accomplish both aims of teaching and amusement? In fact, the solution can’t rely solely on this. Even if it is possible, it is not enough to transform learning into enjoyment and vice versa, it will only achieve both but there will be no transformation.
Brecht is actually referring to a certain class in society when he’s saying: “in a period when knowledge is acquired in order to be resold for the highest possible price..” , this makes us think about Horace possibly referring to a certain class in society, a class considering learning the useful and pleasure the useless thus creating the distinction between them. So this proposes the idea that the issue really depends on the audience.

Some theorists like Lodovico Castelvetro argued that drama and poetry is only created to amuse and delight; when people are presented with subject matters that they understand and are familiar with, they feel happy. This in fact is very true of the nature of drama and its effect on the audience. One of the main reasons why drama gives people pleasure is the fact that it is observed that it reflects and shapes reality and might actually cause change in who you are and what actions you choose to do. But does this amusement and entertainment educate you in any way is the question.
Some theorists like Diderot gave primacy to the knowledge one gets out of drama; Diderot claims that if pure amusement (even if incited by tragedy) doesn’t add something to the knowledge of the audience then it is simply useless and hollow. Some theorists like Juilius Ceasar Scaliger says drama can do both, but also gives primacy to the education poetry brings people. Scaliger supports his argument by saying that when poetry tells of tempests and wars; all is for the purpose of to teach and the way poetry is told is what’s pleasurable. John Dryden too believes that drama can achieve both instruction and pleasure.
“a just and lively image of human nature, representing its passions and humors, and the changes of fortune to which it is subject, for the delight and instruction of mankind”, (John Dyrden).

In order to answer the questions relating to learning and pleasure and if they can consequently lead to each other, it is important to identify what gives people pleasure. According to Aristotle the audience experience pleasure through “Catharsis”/”Katharsis” which is a dramatic term that refers to the purgation of emotions or an emotional climax that evokes the feelings of pity and fear in the audience. For example, in a tragedy the audience is relieved at the end because they detach themselves from the hero’s misfortune that they greatly identified with throughout the play. There is a certain pleasure that comes with the knowledge that you can actually detach yourself from the hero’s misfortunate situation so this could be an example of drama that amuses you through instruction and learning from the hero’s fault or basically making things clearer thus making the message more deep.

We also need to know what does drama really reflect and if what it reflects teaches people or not. Drama reflects the beliefs, issues and events of societies past and present. The subjects for theatrical representations include family, hard work, children, social struggles, war, disasters, the market…etc. These subjects come from the reality around us which when seen in front of our eyes in a theatrical work enlightens the audience and identifies right from wrong actions. The aim behind these representations is not only to explain and show the world as we see it but also to change it, which can force us as human beings to change in order to do that. So as a result we had instruction. The distinction that was created between learning and amusement is not set by an unbreakable rule; in fact it wasn’t always there and shall not continue to be. According to Brecht, knowledge is just a product. It is obtained in order to be resold.

One should understand that in the 16th century profit is greatly linked to values of a contemporary class of educated people while pleasure is linked to the values of the traditional aristocracy. If indeed enjoyment of learning depends on class situation then it is crucial to know what artistic appreciation depends on. Artistic appreciation can depend on one’s political stance for example. Artistic appreciation for a lot of people seems to be a product of extreme factors, like specific pressures, manipulations, popularity, exposure of a certain art, the like to follow the current going style, cultural bias and many other factors. I can’t deny that for a few it is due to a real desire to learn from art and appreciate it but unfortunately they are a minority. Some people actually do have a sense of like and dislike which they utilize when they are choosing art for the sake of their own pleasure. This is unfortunately missing or very weak in a lot of people and instead replaced by the factors I mentioned above. Prominence, taste and appreciation in art is totally subjective. It is almost impossible to establish a rule or an objective standard or norm to judge artistic greatness. Of course the consensus of critics is considered the common criteria. Therefore, the market is usually what determines what is great and what is not. It is apparent that there will never exist a work of a certain artist that everyone would like because the factors influencing their likes are very diverse.

Therefore, enjoyment of learning greatly depends on the class situation. There are at least two social groups. The conflict between the ability to entertain and instructive values in a piece of drama is constantly sharpened. The increase in instructive value means an immediate decrease in ability to entertain. Moreover, affecting the audience’s emotions directly means less chance there is of instruction. Conversely, the more instruction there is, the less artistic enjoyment you get.
Moreover, it depends of the age group you are targeting and the needs of this group. The older audience tends to want to be enlightened and educated while the younger audience wants to be entertained. Therefore, it all depends on the needs of the audience putting in mind their social class and age group.

Now we find an increasingly clear conflict between entertainment and instruction especially when the artistic factors were negatively affected by the instructive factors. This proves that sometimes instruction and entertainment fail to exist at the same time unless they succeed in not conflicting with one another. The rise of Expressionism benefited the theatre by enriching its means of expression but it failed to see the world as an object of human activity thus losing its instructive significance.

John Dryden was able to clarify why the two ends of drama should be well distinguished and how they are equally important. He says that the main end of the poet should be to please because at the end this is what establishes his reputation, which is very important to the welfare of the poet himself. The great end of the poet though is to instruct and that pleasure is only a tool to reach this instruction. He gives primacy to the ability to delight and gives instruction the second place because poetry’s ability to instruct is only there as long as it delights. He differentiates between the ends of tragedy and comedy by saying that the end of tragedy is instruction and the principal end of comedy is delight and that it is debatable if instruction should take part in the end of comedy at all. Comedy may instruct but it’s not the main purpose. He thinks that comedy should not be based on anything that is serious or has any moral principle. To conclude, Dryden believes that instruction comes unconsciously and that it comes through one’s admiration of what’s happening on stage (plot).

Another argument could support the opposite of what Dryden concluded. If a good dramatic piece was able to reach instruction, then pleasure is the thing that comes unconsciously because for many people education, instruction and the feeling that something new has been revealed to them brings them happiness. Therefore, the end of instruction should be happiness and happiness is nothing but another name for pleasure. Therefore, the end of instruction should be pleasure. This proves that pleasure and instruction are related and associated to one another because they automatically and unconsciously lead to each other thus inseparable.

Horace’s usage of poetry to “educate and delight” as he puts it, is to highlight the concept of the power of poetry on human thought and conduct. It is very important to be aware of the power of poetry and understand its significance. He wanted to focus on the likeability of poetry to positively influence human thought and conduct. Therefore, linking pleasure and learning together as the aim of a poet is a very smart way to achieve that. Horace’s idea to purposely utilize poetry in a didactic way identifies the need for poetry to be delightful and entertaining while simultaneously instructive and useful. Actually Horace was able to accomplish something more and bigger than that because merging the two ideas of education and entertainment/pleasure in a way founds a new vision of teaching.

Main Sources:

“Bertolt Brecht: The Modern Theatre is the Epic Theatre.” Dramatic Theory
and Criticism: Greeks to Grotowski. United States of America. Holt, Rinehart & Winston,inc. 1974.

“Horace: The Art of Poetry”. Dramatic Theory and Criticism: Greeks to
Grotowski. United States of America. Holt, Rinehart & Winston,inc. 1974.

References:

“Artistotle: Poetics”. Dramatic Theory and Criticism: Greeks to Grotowski.
United States of America. Holt, Rinehart & Winston,inc. 1974.

“Denis Diderot: Encyclopedia”. Dramatic Theory and Criticism: Greeks to
Grotowski. United States of America. Holt, Rinehart & Winston,inc. 1974.

“John Dryden: An Essay of Dramartic Poesy”. Dramatic Theory and Criticism:
Greeks to Grotowski. United States of America. Holt, Rinehart & Winston,inc. 1974.

“Juilis Caesar Scaliger: Poetics”. Dramatic Theory and Criticism: Greeks to
Grotowski. United States of America. Holt, Rinehart & Winston,inc. 1974.

“Lodovico Castelvetro: On Aristotle’s Poetics”. Dramatic Theory and Criticism:
Greeks to Grotowski. United States of America. Holt, Rinehart & Winston,inc. 1974.

"9/11: The Falling Man"

2009-09-26T03:16:00.008+02:00

Everyday for almost a week now, I’ve been watching different documentaries about the 9/11 attacks on the towers of the World Trade Center. I suddenly got hooked on knowing different perspectives and new information about what happened that day. I remember how horrified I was when I first watched the attacks on TV. It was all so shocking and unreal at the time that I almost didn’t want to know about it or see any pictures.

Since 9/11 happened, I’ve heard a lot of thoughts and theories about what happened but I never really got into it. 8 years have passed since that day and now I’m interested to know more about it. There were a lot of very interesting aspects discussed in different documentaries, there was the political and conspiracy theories, and there was the whole talk about how 9/11 was an inside job and that it was all a scam. What I found even far more interesting were the documentaries that shed light on the human stories and the horror of that day. The stories told by journalists, photographers, fire fighters, police officers, street witnesses and survivors were heart breaking.

One of my favorite documentaries that I’ve seen was one called “9/11: The Falling Man”. It’s a 2006 documentary by American filmmaker Henry Singer about a picture of a man falling from the World Trade Center and the story behind that picture. The documentary had some interviews with some of the families that believe or know that their loved ones had jumped to their deaths from the towers. You get to see how different people think about it. Most of them considered it an act of bravery to accept death and be able to take a decision on how they’re going to die, choked to death by toxic smoke or jumping off the tower. What resonates in my head the most was something a man said about his wife whose body was found later on the street and was thought to have jumped, he said, “She flew”. The coroner's office refuse to call them “jumpers” and say that they were people who were blown out of the tower, forced to get out.

Something that the photographer of the images of those people falling said that made me think about how different people react to something as traumatic as what happened on that day, he said that he saw what happened and the people falling only through the lens of his camera and that it was somehow his way of isolating and sheltering himself from the reality of what’s happening. Another photographer is still very traumatized by the image of people falling till this day and still vividly remembers this falling lady in a blue jacket holding hands with another man.

Witnesses say there were people jumping in groups holding hands. A woman whose husband was stuck in the north tower told her he could see people jumping from the floors right above him because of the fire that was slowly spreading to where he was. She said he has been seeing people jumping from the floors above him for more than an hour. The woman does not know if her husband has jumped or stayed where he was until the building collapsed but you can never imagine what was going through his head seeing those people jumping from above him. It all makes you think of what you would have done if put in their position. And the thought itself is haunting and you don’t want to think about it, you don’t want to make a choice, it's too scary. In the documentary of the Naudet brothers, “9/11”, you could hear the very heavy and loud thump of people hitting the ground.

I’ve listened online to a phone conversation between a distressed woman stuck in one of the towers and a 911 dispatcher and the woman said something that when you think about is extremely sad and somewhat disturbing, she said, “Would you please stay with me on the line? I feel I’m dying”. She was scared and even though there were a few people in the office with her, she probably felt alone. She found comfort in the voice of the stranger on the other line telling her “You’re doing great. Stay calm”. Listening to the woman’s last words is haunting and reminded me of how small we are at the end of the day.

Follow the link to watch the documentary, “9/11: The Falling Man”*:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXnA9FjvLSU

*PLEASE BE ADVISED, THE DOCUMENTARY CONTAINS SOME GRAPHIC IMAGES.

“Three Books For Frugal Fashionistas” – (Radio Journal)

2009-09-23T02:58:00.006+02:00

(Click on the title to listen to the feature story at www.npr.org)

“Three Books For Frugal Fashionistas” is the name of the feature hosted by Robert Seigel about novelist Melissa Walker’s suggestions on fashion books. Walker, former magazine editor who has written four books for young adults, talks about three books that she really recommends. Walker talks briefly about each book and their authors.

What makes this story very interesting to me is that Walker is stating something that I’ve always believed in. I’ve always believed that fashion is not only for people who can afford to be fashionable and who value lavish extravagance, but for everyone and anyone who’s creative enough to be able to develop their very own sense of style. Fashion to me is all about originality and creativity. This is more or less what Walker talks about in this feature; she recommends three books, Fashion 101, Vintage LA and DV, that guide people on how to find their true personal style without it having to do with their bank balance.

The length of the feature was 3 min. 17 sec. Quality of the sound was perfect. Walker’s delivery was slightly monotonic but she didn’t really lose my attention since the whole feature is relatively short. There was not a single sound bite in the feature, which I didn’t like. I was looking forward to hearing something from any of the authors of the recommended books but seeing that the feature is more like a quick short report on the books, it’s understandable.

“Coco Chanel: The Orphan Who Transformed Fashion” – (Radio Journal)

2009-09-23T02:16:00.006+02:00

(Click on the title to listen to the feature story at www.npr.org)

“Coco Chanel: The Orphan Who transformed Fashion” is the name of the feature hosted by Renee Montagne and reported by Susan Stamberg. The feature is about Anne Fontaine’s new film “Coco before Chanel” which tells the real life-story of the young French designer Gabreille “Coco” Chanel, how she started out in the business and the inspirations of her unique designs.

The feature started off by describing Chanel’s beginnings and how her very early interest in designing came to being. French film director Anne Fontaine talks about her movie and about Chanel’s first introduction to a skill that later helped shape her future - sewing. Fontaine continued talking about how Chanel wanted to be special at what she does and how she observed the world around her with piercing eyes for inspiration and ideas.

It was a very interesting feature as it shed light on a story so few of us knows, a story of a fashion legend. We hear the very posh designer name Chanel all the time but little do we know that this designer was a singer in a very lower class cabaret and a survivor of poverty and abandonment before she became the legend she is today.

The feature was 7 min. 19 sec. long, which I believe was a good length for the feature as it successfully accomplished to include all the significant parts of the interview with Fonatine and the information about the film in a very compelling way.

The quality of the sound was great so was the use of all the sound bites. Most of them were either parts of the film (dialogue) or music, which fit very well with the flow of the story. The reporter delivered the feature perfectly as she made it sound like a story being told about someone we don’t quite know which thinking about it is exactly what it is. Being the fashionista that I am, I really enjoyed listening to this story.

Good Art Vs. Bad Art*

2009-09-16T03:55:00.013+02:00

*To listen to this podcast, click on the title of this post or go to
http://cache.mypodcast.com/cached/bringontheclowns_20090915_2103-497206-239053-3.mp3

How do we view art? Are we conditioned to appreciate certain things and not others?

For instance, when looking at a Picasso, are we admiring the art or the reputation of the artist? Do we even understand what we're looking at all the time or are we just trained to be in awe of the pieces that have shocked and amazed generations before us without knowing why?

Have you met someone who said he or she hated the Mona Lisa? or didn't appreciate the mystery of The Last Supper?

What makes art good or bad?
I asked my sister that very same question before deciding to talk about this. She said that art is something that she can understand. "I don't know what art is but I know what I like," she said citing the most famous and if I may say very honest refrain.

I decided to push it further. I asked her what was the last piece of art that surprised or touched her. Knowing that she lives in London and that she's a regular at the Tate Modern and the National Gallery, I expected to hear a famous name. She didn't pause to think. "It was a series of graffiti sprayed on a white divider cordoning off a construction site".

She said, "It was the best piece of art I've seen lately. It's avant-garde and it's non-commercial. The creator just wanted people to see it, just wanted to vent, to create. You can't transcend beyond that. It simply spoke to me."

Indeed, the first thing I think about when critiquing a piece of art is what it does to me. Is it shocking, pleasing, does it make me think, and how does it make me feel? The second thing that I notice is how the idea was communicated and this has to do with the concept and skills of the artist. Good art to me has to evoke a thought, memory or an idea.

Bad art on the other hand is simply a piece that doesn’t get to me in any way. If I don’t understand it and if I don’t know what I’m looking at, it would fail to evoke any feelings in me because there’s nothing there to relate to. It’s not personal.

I can't...I have rehearsal.

2009-09-12T22:52:00.002+02:00

That oh-so-common refrain is becoming more and more irritating by the day. I can’t remember how much I’ve said this phrase, but I bet my family and best friends are keeping count.

As a theatre student I always have an unadulterated commitment to rehearsals or practical assignments with nerve-wrecking deadlines. It depends on the job I’m assigned to; most days I multitask and I scramble to finish all and still find time for sleep. You might think I’m exaggerating, but try this for a week: working for five courses, learning lines for acting scenes, designing a set for one play and assistant stage managing for another while humoring your family and friends into believing they actually matter. If you can pull it off without becoming an expert at nail biting and pulling your hair out, meet me this Sunday to tell me how you managed. Oops, I just realized: this Sunday I’m booked.

As passionate as I am about the world of theater and drama, my busy schedule is unbelievable and it does become a burden. Whether I’m part of the creative team or crew, the hours I spend on stage, behind the stage or sometimes under the stage (yes, there’s used to be a scary dungeon full of props down there in the old campus) are endless. In fact, the theatre has become my second, er, first home.

I spend less and less time with my parents, my sister and my precious cats. I miss on so many social outings, parties and gatherings. And my friends are the best, they never fail to remember to keep me in the loop, they always have to let me know what they’re up to, they always have to let me know what I’m missing out on. So yeah, your social life gradually becomes non-existent.

My point? My schedule is crazy; classes in the morning, lunch at the university’s food court, or a snack of cheetos, chips or cookies (or all three mixed which I burn during the first five minutes of rehearsal) then going straight into rehearsal have turned me into a walking zombie.

Did I tell you about tech week? Edvard Munch's "The Scream" is quite expressive of how I feel (and look like) during this week. Technical rehearsals are usually 10 to 12 hours long and what a treat they are! Stuck in the theatre for hours and hours listening to the words “ACTORS HOLD, PLEASE” over and over again, you start to go slowly, but surely, insane. I remember when I worked as an ASM (Assistant Stage Manager), I filled every square of Sudoko that has been created, read all the plays I had to for my classes, braided all my friends’ hair (boys and girls) and the freaking rehearsal was still not over yet! Sometimes there’s a lot of waiting to do in rehearsal and sometimes it’s working non-stop; I can’t decide which is worse though.   Of course catching up on assignments for my classes is a whole different story. Finding me doing my readings in a pitch black corner backstage with a tiny flashlight is normal. It actually makes me appreciate the little things in life, electricity, childhood, and a vision that is waning by the year. It also reminds me of how my great great grandparents used to study. Since we’re usually done with rehearsals at 10 pm every night, staying up till 4 am finishing assignments and/or freaking out is also very normal … and of course since I’m too exhausted to do anything after midnight, the amount of typos and gibberish writing I discover in my papers and assignments the next morning is, well, you guessed it, very normal too and quite hilarious at times (and disastrous at others).

 I recently discovered this T-Shirt that reads “I can’t…I have rehearsals” printed on it. I decided to get me one – if anything, it makes a point or shows that I try. Check the link: http://www.cafepress.com/icantrehearsal   

The morale of the story? I love theatre, I’ d rather be doing theatre than anything else in the world and you know what, I just can’t help being whiny about it every once in a while. I’m a human with a passion but I’m only human :)

Radio Script - Noises Off

2007-12-09T23:00:00.000+02:00

The American University in Cairo is now showing a main stage production of the Tony nominated play Noises Off. Nermine Amer has more on that.

Noises Off is about a third rate theatre company trying to rehearse and perform a long run of a bad bedroom farce called ‘Nothing On’. As the show tours various cities, the play keeps getting worse and worse until all semblance of the play has vanished.-:11

- Nat sound: audience applause and cheers: 09

The play directed by (name) has been very well received. The audience got the punch lines and roars of laughter filled the auditorium. As a typical Egyptian convention to show excitement, the audience’s applause was heard several times in the middle of the play.-: 16

FILE/TAPE: Actor (name)-: 13

IC: “I didn’t understand why…”
OC: “…a good thing”

(name) is studying for a year abroad at the American University in Cairo. She says that the amount of work they went through to reach this result is humongous.

Now, she as well as her fellow actors feels that their work finally paid off.

Students took major parts in the creative process of the play. Noises off is the graduation project for Assistant Director (name). -:19

FILE/TAPE: Assistant Director (name)-: 11

IC: “Technically, it’s a very…”
OC: “…to do it”

Most of the audience members seemed to be commenting on the same thing. Everyone was amazed by the amount of work this play must have required so as to come out that good. Most of the people say that they are coming to see the play again and that they will bring more of their friends along. - 16

FILE/TAPE: Audience member (name)-: 7

IC: “It’s the best…”
OC: “…almost five years”

This is Nermine Amer reporting for AUC Radio.

Business of Ramadan

2007-12-09T22:52:00.000+02:00

“This is by far the worst Ramadan we ever went through, in terms of business of course”, (name) said.

Even though the holy month of Ramadan affects and helps revitalize Cairo’s social life, it doesn’t necessarily help it economically. Some food service businesses’ daily consumption deteriorates during Ramadan.

“According to the studies that the restaurant does, what caused this inactivity this year in Ramadan is the fact that Ramadan and the beginning of the school year started at the same time; the first month of school is usually a busy time for us”, said (name), Manager of Bon Appetite.

In Bon Appetite, the busiest time of the day during Ramadan is only Iftar time. 90% of costumers that come before Iftar are international students most probably studying at the American University in Cairo (AUC).

But during the rest of the year, the restaurant is active from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. everyday non-stop.

To compensate their loss in Ramadan, Bon Appetite tries its best to attract people to come have Iftar at their place. Consequently, a set menu is made offering complete meals that has all the things one would need during Iftar (including water and dates), each with a specific price.

The busiest time of the year in general is exam times because it’s when the majority of the students stay at university studying for several hours.

“70% of our consumers are students because of the American University being so close to us but people who generally dine in restaurants in downtown are of older ages because restaurants has calmer atmospheres”, (name) said.

Similarly, café Cilantro which is also a place right beside AUC, experiences the same thing. Fewer people come to Cilantro in Ramadan in comparison to the rest of the year.

“A lot of people come after Iftar but they are usually too full to eat so they end up only ordering drinks and this of course effects us”, (name), Manager of Cilantro said.

Cilantro is a bit inactive during Ramadan. However it is better than last year. This is because Cilantro is more popular as a place than last year. The place gets more popular year by year. Cilantro now has consumers from the age of 20 to 40.

“Cilantro presents no special offers in Ramadan or on any other times or occasions, because we have fixed items that don’t change and this is how Cilantro works”, (name) said.

Cilantro attracts a lot of people because of its strategic place beside AUC and a number of schools. Cilantro has a total of 80% Egyptian consumers and 20% foreigners.

However, (name), a 21 year old AUC student says, “I think that the places around university are pretty inactive in Ramadan because there are a lot of places that take the attention from them”. He explains, “People prefer to have Iftar in a place with a nice view like the Nile and go to Ramadan tents at nights because it has music and offers something different. In addition, some people spend their post-Iftar time praying and don’t go out at all”.

Ramadan in Cairo is most known for its pre-dusk chaos on the streets that- once the break fast starts- is quickly replaced by a feeling of tranquility and peace as people are in their homes eating with their families. It’s certainly the quietest and calmest period anyone will experience in loud Cairo. However, it certainly isn’t the best time of year for Cilantro and Bon Appetite’s business.

The Pitch: An Advertising Revolution

2007-12-09T22:44:00.000+02:00

The Pitch: An Advertising Revolution

The American University in Cairo’s (AUC) Development Organization (DO) is currently working on a photography advertising competition called “The Pitch”.

The Development Organization’s communication development committee is conducting an advertising photography competition this semester aimed at teaching participants the principles of photography and how to use programs like Photoshop.

The participants are expected to take pictures and work on enhance them through a series of workshops. The participant with the best print ad at the end will win the competition.

“The Pitch” is about developing talents, creating new tools of communication, entertainment and creating communication channels between us and AUCians”, (name), DO’s Vice President, said.

The project is still ongoing and the closing event will be on the 7th of December.. Two sessions of the workshop were made.

“My passion for photography is what inspired me to do this project”, (name), Communication Development Committee Deputy, said.

(name), one of DO’s active members, believes in the aim of “The Pitch” and contributed to the project by helping in organizing it and during the recruitment time.
Everything is going well so far although its member wished it was even better.

“The Pitch needed better financial and human resources”, (name) said.

The more DO gains in popularity at AUC and people have knowledge on the nature of its projects, the more its projects in general would work better and be more successful. Now, people tend to misunderstand the aim behind DO. Actually one of the negative aspects of “The Pitch” is that people don’t get the main aim behind it.

The fundraising committee is working hard so that “The Pitch” can get good sponsors.

The founder of DO is (name) and it was launched in summer 2007. “The Pitch” helped in the publicizing and giving exposure to DO.

When DO was launched, it was opposed by many people because they were under the impression that it was founded to take some kind of revenge (since (name) was running for the SU elections last year and he withdrew) so many complaints were filed against it.

Moreover, DO’s logo at the beginning was criticized, it was perceived as provocative for some people. So DO’s high board members decided to change the logo, and tried to show their positive intentions. People finally believed them

“I felt that I can be a more productive and effective member of the society by what I will be able to achieve through this activity.” (name) said on the reason she joined DO.

A series of mini cultural events is planned for next semester but nothing about that has been finalized yet.

“For next semester we will be working on “For a better Egypt” and awareness campaigns. Both are with the intentions of spreading awareness among AUCians and increasing their civic responsibility. Also we give them the opportunity to work and participate in the projects whether as members or as volunteers”, (name) said.

POLL:

Do you think “The Pitch” is a good idea?
Yes: 40%
No: 5%
I never heard of “The Pitch”: 55%

LINKS:

http://aucegypt.edu
http://aucegypt.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2393914769

Writing the Radio Script

2007-12-09T21:55:00.000+02:00

I decided to write on the play "Noises Off" that I've been working on for nearly 2 months now. Writing the script and getting the information for it was very easy. i knew all the information about the show. I personally know all the people i wanted to interview. I knew that they will be very honest with me. This was a fun assignment. I liked the freedom of selecting a topic. It made things a lot easier and more fun.

Writing for Radio in general isn't that fun to me, i prefered broadcast. I think my favorite stories were the ones for broadcast. I like the fact that certain parts of the story relied on the pictures presented with it.

Writing "The Pitch: An Advertising Revolution"

2007-12-09T21:29:00.000+02:00

I had a very hard time with this story. Eventhough I had everything I'm responsible for prepared (interviews, who i wanted to interview...etc) I had problems actually conducting the interviews. Due to my very busy schedule, i couldn't personally meet with the people i wanted to interview so i called them and asked them if they are willing to let me do an email interview with them. I made it clear that i need the answers as soon as possible (this was 3 days before my story was due by the way). Eventhough they seemed very serious about sending me back the interview ASAP, i never got them. I kept calling them to remind them of it and all i got was "OH! i'm sorry, but i'm very busy, i swear i'll send it to you by tonight" or "My grandma died" or "yeah yeah i remember the interview you're talking about but i have finals you know!"

The thing that drove me mad was that they never told me that they can't do the interview, i kept telling them, "if you can't do it then it's ok but you have to tell me that so that i can have time to see who else to interview so that i meet my deadline". They drove me mad, and i was stressed enough and I wasn't ready for their lack of professionalism and carelessness at all.

I decided to change the club (that was a day before my "extended deadline"). i talked to members from another club who were very helpful and sent me their answers on the same day. I wrote the story (i was very rushed of course) at the end. it wasn't the best story i've ever written of course but i'm glad i submitted it.

i got the answers from the first club i intended to write about after I submitted the story. As i expected their answers were very rushed, unclear, incomplete and full of spelling mistakes (And I'm 100% sure my questions were very simple, straight forward and clear). They didn't even apologise for sending it that late. It's very sad how these people "supposedly" are leaders of a club.

Writing "Business of Ramadan"

2007-10-06T16:59:00.000+02:00

Writing the “Business in Ramadan” story wasn’t difficult for me. It went very smooth.
One of the things that I decided to do to make the process easier was going to the restaurant or café after Iftar. I think this way the person I’m interviewing won’t be tired (because of fasting).

Whenever I ask for the manager, people working there were a bit taken aback and were like “Why? Is there anything wrong?” I thought it was funny.

I interviewed the manager of Bon Appetite and the manager of Cilantro. I was interested to know how the businesses of a restaurant and a café were going in Ramadan. I introduced myself and told them generally what my story is about. I had to ask them if they are ok with me using a recorder. They were fine with it. I also used my notebook to take notes of what they were saying but I’m always worried I’m not going to be able to write everything so I used the recorder just in case.

The two managers I interviewed were friendly and were pretty specific in their answers. I felt they were honest and helpful. I didn’t need to fight my way through to get the answers I wanted. They gave me very good quotes. They were accurate and clear.

At the end of the interview, one of them was like “Good luck with your story and May God be with you” which I thought was really kind and sweet of him.