Theater in the Middle East

Description

A new way of understanding theater in the Middle East not as geographical but transcultural spaces of performance

The collected essays from noteworthy dramatists and scholars in this book represent new ways of understanding theater in the Middle East not as geographical but transcultural spaces of performance. What distinguishes this book from previous works is that it offers new analysis on a range of theatrical practices across a region, by and large, ignored for its history of traditions and cultures, and it does so by emphasizing diverse performances in changing contexts. Topics include Arab, Iranian, Israeli, diasporic theatres from pedagogical perspectives to reinvention of traditions, from translation practices to political resistance through various performances from the nineteenth century to the present. 

The book is, therefore, concerned with not just the theatrical content of specific or range of plays in a variety of mediums, from stage to the radio, but also political implications, changing imaginaries of home and exile, and practices of identity through a range of performances in both local and translocal settings. The book argues that there are indigenous performers, ranging from actors to producers and audiences, who (re)make theatre through the reinvention of traditions, pedagogy, media, and translation. The book also shows that while all theatre is performance what precisely “performance” means is contingent to the lived context of audiences and performers who make theatre in its diverse forms and also in response to conflict, war, occupation, patriarchy, home, and exile.

Introduction, Babak Rahimi (University of California, San Diego); I. Pedagogy and Tradition; 1. Teaching Middle Eastern theatre: challenges, opportunities, and rewards, Michael Malek Najjar (University of Oregon); 2. Harem entertainers: female performers in Qajar courts, Rana Salimi (University of California, San Diego); 3. Nehad Selaiha and the Egyptian theatre, Marvin Carlson (The City University of New York); 4. The re-invention of tradition in Moroccan theatre: from postcolonial hybridity to women’s empowerment, Khalid Amine (Abdelmalek Essaadi University, Tetouan, Morocco); II. Politics and Nation; 5. Artistic practice and production at the Jenin freedom theatre: the intersection of the personal and the political, Gary M. English (University of Connecticut); 6. Domestic arts: Sigalit Landau, Emily Jacir, and Israel-Palestine, Shelley Salamensky (University of Louisville); 7. Radio drama by and about Syrian refugees: reimagining the nation on Souriali, Edward Ziter (NYU); 8. No demand no supply: documentary theatre transforming the mainstream media, Sahar Assaf (American University of Beirut).

Sujets

• Arts
• General officer
• Performing arts
• General
• ART

Informations

• Publié par: Anthem Press
• Date de parution: 27 juillet 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781785274480
• Langue: English

Extrait

Theater in the Middle East
Theater in the Middle East
Between Performance and Politics
Babak Rahimi
Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com
This edition first published in UK and USA 2020
by ANTHEM PRESS
75–76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK
or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK
and
244 Madison Ave #116, New York, NY 10016, USA
© 2020 Babak Rahimi editorial matter and selection; individual chapters © individual contributors
The moral right of the authors has been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020936152
ISBN-13: 978-1-78527-446-6 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 1-78527-446-5 (Hbk)
This title is also available as an e-book
To Nasrin Katouzian
Artist, Painter, and the kindest mother
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Transcription
Introduction
Babak Rahimi
PART I PEDAGOGY AND TRADITION
Chapter 1 Teaching Middle Eastern Theater: Creation, Challenges and Rewards
Michael Malek Najjar
Chapter 2 Harem Entertainers: Female Performers in Qajar Courts
Rana Salimi
Chapter 3 Nehad Selaiha and the Egyptian Theater
Marvin Carlson
Chapter 4 The Reinvention of Storytelling Tradition in Moroccan Theater: From Postcolonial Hybridity to Women’s Empowerment
Khalid Amine
PART II POLITICS AND (TRANS)NATION
Chapter 5 Artistic Practice and Production at the Freedom Theatre: The Interpenetration of the Personal and the Political
Gary M. English
Chapter 6 Domestic Arts: Sigalit Landau, Emily Jacir and Israel-Palestine
Shelley Salamensky
Chapter 7 Radio Drama by and about Syrian Refugees: Reimaging the Nation on SouriaLi
Edward Ziter
Chapter 8 No Demand No Supply: Documentary Theater Transforming the Mainstream Media
Sahar Assaf
Notes on Contributors
Index
ILLUSTRATIONS
2.1 Dancers and musicians at the Qajar court, late nineteenth century. Courtesy of Harvard University, Institute for Iranian Contemporary Historical Studies.
2.2 Forugh al-Dowleh and her daughters. Courtesy of Harvard University, Institute for Iranian contemporary historical studies.
2.3 “Appearance of a prostitute woman”; description on the Ministry of Culture card: “Two female prostitute—their clothing and makeup.” Courtesy of Harvard University, Institute for Iranian Contemporary Historical Studies.
2.4 Two women and a male impersonator in male clothes with short but feminine hairstyle and no beard or mustache. Courtesy of Afshin Arami.
2.5 “Little Girls of the Court” and “Two Women and a Girl.” This photograph belongs to the album from the Firouz Firouz Collection. Courtesy of Harvard University, Institute for Iranian Contemporary Historical Studies.
7.1 Publicity Image, We Are All Refugees .
7.2 Radio SouriaLi.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book owes its existence to the support of the Department of Literature and the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of California, San Diego. I am deeply grateful to my colleague Shahrokh Yadegari, who provided the logistical support in organizing a conference on the subject of “Theatre in the Middle East,” from which several of the chapters in this volume originate. I am also very grateful to Soodabeh Malekzadeh for her diligent work in copyediting the volume. Many thanks to Maryam Mianji for introducing me to Sayna Ghaderi, whose photo appears on the book cover. Ghaderi’s photography is reflective of the innovative form of performance art culture that this volume seeks to identify. Finally, I would like to thank the contributors who have generously provided their expertise on the subject of theater and the broader question of performance in the Middle East. Our collective hope is to (re)present the region, known as the “Middle East,” from the prism of expressive action and performative agency. Perhaps these collected essays could also be viewed as performative markers in contributing to what the late Polish playwright and theorist Jerzy Grotowski once described as “theatre’s transformative power of self-exposure” and, above all, in disclosing the secrets of the human condition.
With the aim of scholarly thoroughness and accessibility to a broader readership, the present volume adopts a system of transliteration of Arabic, Persian and Turkish inspired by the model used by the International Journal of Middle East Studies ( IJMES ), with modifications and elimination of most diacritical marks except when translation passages from the original text are included. In addition, all years mentioned in the volume relate to the Common Era unless otherwise stated.
TRANSCRIPTION

Persian and Arabic
ء
ʿ
ب
b
پ
p / -
ت
t
ث
th
ج
j
چ
ch / –
ح
ḥ
خ
kh
د
d
ذ
ẕ
ر
r
ز
z
ژ
zh
س
s
ش
sh
ص
ṣ
ض
ż
ط
ṭ
ظ
ẓ
ع
ʿ
غ
gh
ف
f
ق
q
ک
k
گ
g /-
ل
l
م
m
ن
n
و
v / w
ه
h
ی
y
ة
-at
ال
al-, ʿl-
ّ
Double consonant

Vowels and Diphthongs
Long آ
ā
Long و
ū
Long ي
ī
Shortا
a
Short ُ
o
Shortِ
e
Short ی
i
َی
ai
َو
au
ِی
ei
ِو
eu
یه / یة
-ieh
INTRODUCTION
Babak Rahimi
The eerie, minimalist set design on the stage evokes the ominous unfolding of an incident. The metal staircase and a large, circular tube, covered with plastic stripes on a shadowy back wall, set the background of a stage, designed for a theatrical narrative under a cloak of foreboding. Several wooden benches, delineated with bluish shades on an unkempt floor, induce an awareness of emptiness, amplified with reflections of bright lights that float off several hanging lamps that are tied to long wires from the dark ceiling. The single piercing bluish light through the mysterious tube is the most disconcerting to an audience that has its first encounter with the play through such disconsolate scene design.
The uncanny combination of color and dark shades uniquely distinguish the brightly lit yet gloomy indoor setting of this 2016 production of Arthur Miller’s 1964 Incident at Vichy at Iranshahr Theatre, Tehran’s first privately run theater. 1 The ensemble of several men and women, sitting on a bench or standing, as they anxiously wait for their fate in detention after a police roundup of Jews, invites the audience to a tantalizing performance of a traumatic experience to be unfolded in Vichy France in 1943. The location is a metaphoric setting for the banality of evil and, concurrently, the human denial of such peril, ironically, as a means for survival. This one-act play, which has been on revival for its depiction of dehumanization and moral predicament under the shadows of the Holocaust, has undergone a translative transformation in postrevolutionary Iran. With this unique performance at the Iranshahr Theatre, the play has now taken on a new life.
On a stage that fuses realist and abstract themes, the unnerving ambiance of a chain-wired fence, symbolizing militarized detention, has a haunting effect on the audience. The dark, securitized space of detention becomes intrinsic to the performance of Iranian actors who seek to depict an “incident” of moral and universal significance, though translated for an Iranian audience. What translates is a tense relationship between the realism of human futility, best personified by Leduc, a Jewish psychiatrist, and the idealism of Von Berg, Prince Wilhelm Johann, a nobleman from Austria, whose ultimate act of courage allows Leduc to escape detention and seek a better life. There is an ostensible design of humanism in this performance, a desire for human agency and a shared sense of guilt, which has the potential for the realization of humanity, best depicted by Von Berg.
Translated and directed by Manijeh Mohamedi, one of Iran’s foremost theater directors and the lead artist of the famous Payvand Theatre Group, the 2016 staging of Incident at Vichy is significant for its dramaturgical, political and philosophical undertones. Depicting in what Miller once described as a play of theatrical linguistic significance for expressing “commonness and humanity,” the Payvand Theatre Group performers with veteran actors s