Working in Azerbaijan: "We really entered a different life"

This past February, Bond Street Theatre travelled to Azerbaijan to conduct a program with local university students, in collaboration with the US Embassy.

We landed in Baku and, with barely a moment to catch our breath, immediately hit the ground running. The capital of Azerbaijan, Baku is a sprawling urban center that is half old Soviet buildings, and half new construction made possible by vast sums of oil wealth. We had three weeks to create, rehearse and tour a piece of social theatre with students from the State University of Culture and Arts, a daunting task to say the least.

Azerbaijan is a tiny country located on the edge of the Caspian Sea, and politically dwarfed by its neighbors: Iran to the South, and Russia to the North. As a former member of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan is relatively new to democracy, and still struggles with corruption, with a government that does not look kindly upon dissidents.

Week 1: “You make us actually want to learn!”

Within this context, we began our first week by training 22 students of both the social sciences and the arts in Bond Street Theatre’s social theatre techniques. Our collaborative, exploration-based approach was a totally new experience for the participants, most of whom were used to authoritative teachers, and accustomed to a culture of individual as opposed to group achievement. The idea of an “ensemble” was a new concept.  One of the workshop participants explained that, “We didn’t feel any favoritism. This made us strong and feel like we have one shared goal,” while another proclaimed, “You make us actually want to learn!”

The students learned how to devise a performance based on their own assessment of social issues, and how to do this quickly!  For most of them, this was a rare opportunity to be asked their opinions on issues without authority figures demanding a set expected answer.

Week 2: Ideas in Action

From the initial group of 22 participants we selected 8 to create an original performance. The piece focussed on domestic violence, with the message that violence begets violence, and that breaking the cycle of violence in the familial context is essential in breaking the cycle of violence in society.  In countries where violent extremism is a continual problem, we find a strong correlation with the prevalence and acceptance of domestic violence.  A child who witnesses violence as a response to problems learns that violence is a valid problem-solving mechanism. The play addressed the idea that young women should make their own decisions about marriage, education, and other major life choices, rather than their parents or societal pressures.

While gender equality laws have been enacted in Azerbaijan, implementation remains poor, especially in rural areas. The youth were eager to share these stories, and to bring issues of corruption to light. The result was a brand new play, titled Moon Cycles, featuring both the students and members of Bond Street Theatre.

Week 3: Maybe Theatre

The troupe of students and actors toured Moon Cycles to five locations across the country, reaching well over a thousand people. The group even presented excerpts of the performance live on Azeri TV channel ANS TV.  After each show, we asked the audience to ask questions to characters in the play, which led to complex and insightful conversations. The actors had to respond to some challenging questions, and we observed their confidence and understanding of the material grow with each performance.

During the tour of the show, it came time to name the newly-created theatre troupe, and the name “Maybe Theatre” was suggested. Throughout the rehearsal process, the word “maybe” was used as a frequent response to suggestions. This happened often enough that it became one of the first words everyone learned in English. In a culture where learning typically does not involve open-ended questions, the name “Maybe Theatre” stuck.

The new Maybe Theatre plans to continue their work, improving and touring the show, and creating new social theatre productions. As one of the group’s members, explained: “In 21 days, we experienced things we never had before. When we entered the door into the space, we really entered a different life.”

Don't Abandon The Women of Afghanistan!

In an opinion piece on CNN, Paula Dobriansky and Melanne Verveer say:

"Nothing is more important for Afghanistan than building on the liberalizing achievements of the past decade and preventing a slide back toward repression.

This is why it is crucial to retain and expand the hard-won rights of Afghan women.  Gender equality isn't just a matter of moral fairness -- it's essential to the country's economic and political health and to ensuring that the nation has a secure, peaceful and stable future."

And this is why it is so important for our Afghan women's theatre troupes to get out there and get out the vote!  

You can read the full article here: Don't Abandon the Women of Afghanistan.

Deep Reserves of Courage: Jalalabad Update 6

Because of the stigma against theater, and now women participating in it, from the start we have had lots of conversations about what exactly the Bond Street Theater program is about, whether or not they are actually required to perform in public and their request to never be photographed or recorded at any time. We have had so many conversations about the photography! Apparently, a group of them had a bad experience with someone from the US Embassy posting their photos from another workshop online and it causing a real scandal in the schools and in their families. And so we have honored to not photograph them, or if so, only when they are covered or from the back. Although it’s unfortunate, I respect their request and understand the circumstances under which they are working. I think every day that they show up again demonstrates their deep reserve of courage.

Girls Group with Poems, blurred

We also had a close call yesterday when of the six girls who finally volunteered to work on the actual play, four of them pulled out! Apparently, there was a lot of rumors going about in their neighborhood about what this work entailed.  Everyone was thinking Bollywood. Luckily, we talked with the families, and today the girls returned with full approval and full energy.  We had a lively discussion in trying to arrive at the theme of their play. They are very eager to work on women’s ability to choose their own profession. So we broke down the problem, trying to arrive at the root causes, and ended up talking for about 2 hours! Tomorrow, we’ll hold the ceremony for all the girls who completed the training. I can’t believe how fast it’s going.

Girl's Session in the Afternoon

The men’s group is also in the process of selecting their topic for their play. They are such a great group as well—very energetic and talkative! Yesterday, we did a wonderful exercise of demonstrating a social issue using a fable or folkloric tale. I worked with a group illustrating corruption (which is rampant here) using the turtle and hare story. Another group illustrated the same topic using another animal scenario, with a sheep sacrificing its lamb to a tiger in order to continue to live on the field. It made me think of Toni Morrison's Beloved, and how, no matter the culture, when faced with oppression, people are forced to resort to the most heart-tearing sacrifices. It was very compelling.

Men's Group Scene on Drig Addiction 

Well, now it’s early evening and we will head back to the hotel.

Lots of love from this corner, and hope all is well in yours!

Sahar

Casting 'Round Gender Issues

Michael Reporting:

When we last left our intrepid artists (Bond Street Theatre and Simorgh Theatre and Film here in Herat, Afghanistan), the question was: in a culture where a sizable part of the population has reservations about men and women appearing on stage side by side, how do you get characters of one gender portrayed in performances by the other gender? To clarify, it isn’t so much an issue of men and women performing together, since Afghans do produce films and TV shows with male and female actors. It’s a question of who is in the audience.


Here in Afghanistan there is no “theatre audience” per se; no middle class with leisure time and an expendable income, nor any local theaters to go to. Actually, each of the four largest cities have an official National Theatre, but they mainly video their work in-studio and supply the tape to the local TV stations for broadcast. Only on special occasions do they perform live to an invited audience.

Performances are generally welcomed in schools and community centers, but these institutions tend to be segregated by gender. With all the social, political and religious codes to navigate, we decided to create separate productions with male and female casts to offer these venues.

We divided our US team accordingly, with Joanna and Anna working with the girls and I with the boys. It should be noted that “girls” and “boys” is being used to reflect the youthful age of our actors, ranging from 12 to 21 (with an average of 15). Despite their youth, we were greatly impressed by their enthusiasm, commitment and creativity.

For daily rehearsals we rented a local sports facility: a 50’ x 50’ room with matted flooring used by the local martial arts club. In the evenings we met in two small rooms at the offices of Simorgh Theatre. In the first days the US and Afghan directors wrote the scenarios; the girls would tell the story of the relationship between an abusive mother-in-law and her target: the daughter-in-law, and the boys would handle the abusive father and his target: the wife and kids. With the basic storylines and characters set, Monireh and Hakim (Simorgh Theatre directors) cast the parts. We went to our separate rooms (or corners) and started putting meat on the bones.

It was pretty remarkable how both sets of directors, working separately, employed many of the same “tricks of the trade”. Both shows start with a pair of clown-narrators: for the girls it was two trash-pickers, and for the guys two street laborers. Both sets of narrators discover they have control over the action, starting and stopping scenes with the clap of their hands or the blowing of a whistle. A healthy dose of mime is employed to represent teacups and automobiles.  (As I write these words I’m thinking, “this sounds vaguely familiar…”  Oh yeah, Bond Street Theatre’s Powerplay, circa 1984.  Joanna and I playing the Hosanna Brothers.  Exact same techniques.  Steal from the best, I guess!).

An opening bit of comic repartee leads to “hey, that reminds me of a story…” and this sets the stage for our narrators to “play characters” rather than “be characters”. Thus, the female narrators can play at being husbands and brothers, and the males play at being the wife and children, with a nod-and-a-wink to the audience.

Slightly trickier in the men’s show was the little 4 year old daughter. Her character is pivotal, being a catalyst for change in the father, and thus too significant to be played by a 16 year old male. To work around this, we have the father discover a piece of paper in his pocket, a self-portrait draw by the daughter (well, a crude child-like drawing make by me). This drawing became the avatar of the daughter, from which her story could emerge.

As we come up to our first performances, we New Yorkers feel pretty good about the choices that have been made. Still, only the audience can say if the choices are good, and considering that most people even in the big cities have never seen a live performance, we’re not entirely sure our choices are comprehensible.

Next: Final rehearsals, and strange translations.
Soon: The audiences weigh in (including two high schools, a woman’s prison, a drug rehab center, and the para-military police).