Volpone: From Rehearsal to Performance

In our final weeks in Myanmar, Bond Street Theatre and Thukhuma Khayeethe premiered our quite unique version of Volpone, an adaptation of Ben Jonson's 1605 play. The play is a fusion of styles, combining Italian commedia dell'arte with a Burmese dance to the spirits, and addresses the particularly relevant theme of personal responsibility in a country just moving from strict military rule to a certain amount of personal freedom. With freedom comes responsibility! 

Check out photos from the process below:

The Bond Street and Thukhuma Khayeethe teams discuss the script
(L-R: Nyan Lin Aung, Ngwe Ngwe Tin, Zin Mar Thwin, Kyae Zan and Soe Moe Thu. 
Not shown: Soe Myat Thu, Thila Min, Michael McGuigan and Joanna Sherman)

Rehearsal sure is tiring!

A dusty dress rehearsal at Gitameit

Our smallest audience members listen to the live pre-performance music at our second performance -- in a squatter settlement just outside Yangon. Wah Wah (in the blue dress at right) played the Burmese harp, which can be seen on the chair next to her, and the violin. 
 The audiences stayed enthralled and attentive for the entire hour and a half show!  And eagerly contributed to the ending in which the audience gets to decide who is guilty and who is not and why. Most important, they understand that they have a voice in their future -- they can speak out against injustice and have a responsibility to do so. 

Audience participation at the final show in the lovely township of East Dagon in Yangon.

Bond Street Theatre and Thukhuma Khayeethe give a huge thanks to all those that made this production possible, especially the Theatre Communications Group's In the Lab Grant program that supported the entire mulit-year process, the Gitameit Music School, and all of our supporters!

Volpone Premieres in Yangon

People have been asking, why Volpone?  How did you manage to make that make sense in Myanmar?  Did they catch the British humor or understand the context?  Well, it was easier than one might think -- human beings have the same flaws and foibles everywhere. Adjusting the characters to Burmese society was not a big leap!  

The tough part was the verbal translation -- translating from old English to new English to American to easy American to Burmese to clever Burmese. Even the humor slipped easily between cultures. It's a great pleasure to know that what makes people laugh is the same everywhere you go. People love to laugh.

[It reminds me of our first performances in Afghanistan in 2003, just after the fall of the Taliban regime. We took a comic show to small towns where people had never seen a show, since all of the arts had been banned under the Taliban. There were still many Taliban-sympathizers in the audience and we had no idea if we'd be welcomed or shot. In fact, they were rolling in the aisles (figuratively speaking) -- the children along with the white beards!  Everyone loves slapstick! ]

The other reasons for doing Volpone is the content and message. Both companies believe that theatre artists have a unique opportunity to facilitate discussion around social issues and, in Myanmar, that has not been an option. All outlets for discussion were censored, and all public material had to pass government scrutiny beforehand. We hope that this production will make bold first steps. The story is bizarre enough to only obliquely reflect reality and anger any leftover censors. And, hopefully, it will provide an exciting model for social engagement through theatre for both performers and audiences in the future.  

Meanwhile, Yangon is a city in transition! Newly opened to foreign trade, I was shocked to see shops like Armani in a newly refurbished airport that had only had local handicraft stalls for years!  So it was only appropriate that, against this backdrop of change, Bond Street Theatre and Thukhuma Khayeethe premiered our Volpone in a space that was quite literally still under construction.

Volpone premiered at the new Gitameit studios, with workers pouring concrete in the next room and bamboo scaffolding holding up the stairwell. Nonetheless, the show was a success, with laughs all around, and an opportunity to test the material and the interactive ending. Since it was at Gitameit, among artists, we got some great feedback and ideas. Up next: two more performances in more daring spaces around Yangon!

Check out photos from the rehearsal process below, and stay tuned for more updates:

Updates from Myanmar

Greetings from Yangon, Myanmar, where Bond Street Theatre has just wrapped the second week of rehearsals for Volpone, our show in collaboration with Burmese theatre group Thukhuma Khayeethe.

Those of you who have followed Bond Street's adventures over the years might remember that we frequently rehearse at the very cool Gitameit Music School in Yangon. This time we were lucky to be the first group to rehearse in the "new" Gitameit studios. Well, lucky might be a little strong, since they are still actively constructing the building, which meant dust, nails, sparks and concrete everywhere. Concrete steps newly poured..."hmm, any steel reinforcing in there?" we wondered as we made our way to the third floor. 

The best thing was the group of workmen who traipsed around during our warm-ups and rehearsals, watching us with great curiosity. One of them was heard to say, "What are they doing? They're just playing!"  Yup. That's why they call it a play.  

After one week, they started some serious welding in our space and we had to move. For our second week, we rehearsed in a small Buddhist Monastery located near the home of director Thila Min. Note: monasteries make great rehearsal spaces!

Our rehearsals so far have included practice in traditional Burmese dance, learning a traditional Nat dance, a spirit dance that (interestingly enough) is about the joys of drinking. We have spent our meetings with TK over the years sharing physical performance techniques, so we speak the same language theatrically and can jump right into the work. Our latest addition to the mix was introducing the style of the Italian commedia dell'arte. Now, in the third stage of working on Volpone, we are easily blending our mix of physical vocabularies.  

We are working all day -- 10am to 5pm!  What a luxury!  Morning and afternoon sessions are separated by lunch at one of the street side stalls. Yes, I know they say don't eat street food... but this is what they have! And it's great food, freshly made from fresh produce from local farmers! 

Next week is tech week and the cast and crew will be assembling set pieces and costumes for our debut public performances in the following week!  It's been a whirlwind process, and the next week is sure to be no different. If there's one thing we've learned about street performances, it's that they are always full of surprises! Stay tuned!

Rehearsing at the New Gitameit Studios

Street Theatre in Myanmar

We landed in Yangon, Myanmar and, after 24 hours of no sleep, immediately made up for lost time. Still a bit jetlagged, we met with the whole gang from Thukhuma Khayeethe yesterday, our intrepid and inventive partners in Myanmar since 2009. Since our last visit just a year and a half ago, there were two marriages and three children including one set of twins!   

This week we will begin our rehearsals for Volpone, our adaptation of Ben Jonson's 16th century play. A dual-language production, the show tackles themes of greed and corruption but, since plays in progress have a way of taking on a life of their own, we'll see how it manifests these or other themes.

The challenge, beyond the obvious hurdles of creating successful theatre, is that Thukhuma Khayeethe is trying to create a culture of contemporary theatre where there has been none over the last 5 decades. Traditional theatre abounds, and this is what the tourists want to see, but contemporary theatre has been forbidden under the military regime since, as we know, theatre is dangerous! It can expose uncomfortable truths!

In addition, it was our intention, now that the military regime is (mostly) gone, to bring theatre directly to the people by doing our plays in the streets or parks. There are no venues for contemporary theatre, so it's is a logical place to perform... but how would an actual play be received?

People do see dramas on TV, so the idea is not unknown, but they don't see theatre. They love comedy, so we have to combine both, with the added complication that we intend our Volpone to be interactive with the ending decided by the audience. Will they respond?  Will they participate?

Since our last trip, Thukhuma Khayeethe has also started a coalition of four young theatre groups that also want to do modern theatre. TK is the oldest and most experienced group, but it is really encouraging to see a new movement starting up. 

With this interactive show, we will be examining all these questions with Thukhuma Khayeethe, and continuing to figure out how to use theatre to spark discussion and bring taboo topics to light without having anyone end up in jail.  With performances in public spaces as our testing ground, and a newly opened government, we have a unique opportunity to experiment with all possibilities while refining the show.  We can't wait to see where the coming weeks take us!

A Blog With Few Words: Myanmar Update 3

From Michael: Hey Kids!  Tired of blogs filled with words?  No?  Well, since our goal here in Yangon has been  writing a play and a training manual, I sure as hell am tired of words, so this blog entry will use pictures as the jump off.  

First up:

These are our good friends in Thukhuma Khayethe, Nyan (left) and Thila (right) getting ready for a show they donated to a local old folks home.  Notice that Thila is wearing a traditional longyi, or rather a traditional clown longyi.  You would know this because the pattern of the cloth, while perhaps appropriate for the Scottish Bagpipe Infantry, is really only appropriate for a Burmese table cloth - or a clown. 

This is pretty much all you need to know about the Water Festival, whose proper Burmese name is Thingyan.  Basically, sponsors (especially booze companies) build these reviewer stands / dance floors all around town for young people, especially young men, to fire water hoses and cannons at Toyota pick-ups filled with more youth, especially young men, who consider it a fun blessing to be doused in water.  The pickups will stop for a minute or two to be sure their passengers are thoroughly soaked.   They will line up at the bigger, more famous stands and wait their turn for the soaking. 

During this time taxis will cover their seats with plastic as passengers are likely to be dripping, and street-side revelers are apt to toss buckets of water into the taxi to soak their foreign passengers (we speak from experience).   This is why we do not actually have too many pictures of the festivities; we feared for the life of our Canon G-12.

Once we got the whole idea behind the Water Festival (soak everyone, especially the foreigners) we decided to stroll around the more peaceful side streets, where only the occasional reveler might gently pour a bowl of water down your back.  Our neighborhood around the hotel has lovely flowers in full bloom.  Atop a background of greens are yellows, reds, pinks, and white (pinks pictured here).  

We did taxi over to the state-manicured Peoples Park;  no water cannons allowed in the park, but we did enjoy running through the sprinklers.   In the area marked LOVE we hung out with a couple of park rangers, whose job apparently is to make sure that the young love-birds sitting in the cul-de-sacs keep their hands visible at all times.  Not sharing a common language, I showed them our mini-portfolio of pictures from our tours, and the images of us working with the Afghans elicited a lot of conversation between them.  The man then pulled a cross from around his neck, indicating that he was a Christian and, I think, inquiring if perhaps we were Christian missionaries working to convert the Afghan Muslims.   I'm not sure what brand of Christianity he thought uses stilts and outrageous costumes, but, no, that wasn't our job.

This is the table at the Gitameit Music Center around which Bond Street Theatre and Thukhuma Khayethe make our master plans for bringing a new version of "Volpone" into the world.  Playing the part of Michael McGuigan is Eugenio Barba of Denmark's Odin Teatret.  To his right, playing herself, is the wonderful Odin actress Julia Varley.  They were both traveling around Myanmar and their pass through Yangon coincided with our stay here.  We had a lovely afternoon together before they headed to Bali.

And here we all are outside the Gitameit gate.  Obviously Eugenio won the part of playing me because of the hair color.  

Next blog:  all the work we're doing (probably more words). 

Starting Anew in Myanmar: Update 2

Joanna Sherman's update from Myanmar on blending the East and West on stage, Burmese culture "opening up," and the future of theatre in the country.

Finally -- greetings from Myanmar!  All is going very well.  We have been having some fascinating discussions with Thila Min about Buddhism, life, theatre, making sense of the recent violence here, Myanmar cultural history, and... the play.  All endlessly interesting. 

Basically, we have been exploring how Burmese performance styles and US/European styles can blend in style, character, setting, music, dance, and structure of the play. We are watching DVDs of famous zat pwe performers and performances, looking mostly at structure: for example, they always begin with the Nat pwe, a dance to certain spirits to get on their good side. Otherwise these spirits seemed to me to be a bit shady or hedonistic (tricksters?) who could play some nasty pranks during the performance.  So perhaps we might start with such a dance -- what fun!  At the same time, the costumes and altar to these spirits are, as Thila says, very "bling bling", which fits right into Volpone's love of "bling".  The altar to the spirits could very easily become Volpone's altar to his gold, and the play does open with he and Mosca's worshiping their stash. 

We have had further discussions on where the show will travel, what kind of venues, and who would our audiences be??  These are huge questions since modern theatre is really unknown!  Just like Afghanistan... for slightly different reasons.  In one, the government forbade it on religious grounds, and the other, the government forbade it on political grounds. As things loosen up, the Thukhuma Khayeethe folks seem to think it is time to take modern theatre public. But still, who will our audiences be?  The National Theatre here in Yangon still stands idle except for rentals for big events. But even the concerts lose money.  The zat pwe is very cheap and everyone knows exactly what to expect.  Could we do some scenes in the pwe?  Thila says not.  People go the pwe to have a night out of entertainment, but actual attention to what's on stage drifts in and out depending on personal taste, who's awake and who's sleeping, what's to eat, who you're with, etc.  It's a night-long picnic. Everyone knows the stories so no need to actually pay attention.  A serious tale (however comical) would not command attention with the pwe crowd. 

So we are thinking that perhaps cinemas might offer a venue, or maybe schools... we are starting anew here. There is no knowledge of modern theatre. If we succeed, we are opening a new door.  It is quite like what we were doing in Afghanistan with Exile Theatre -- first people who saw our work were aghast at what they saw in our abstract surreal storytelling... then slowly they all tried to mimic it.  (At least in Afghanistan they had a tradition in the Stanislavsky style from the Russians two decades before).  Here we hope Thukhuma Khayeethe can lead the way. I expect it will have a tough start, and that's why we are trying to cagily introduce some mix of East and West to ease in some new ideas.

We still have a lot more decisions to make about language, costume, character, staging, music, etc. but we are off to a good start.  We made a great start in our prior rehearsal process, and now (especially since things are truly looking like they are opening up... even just over the course of one year) we can really plan to take our show public!  Not just hidden away at Gitameit or the American Center or Alliance Francais. 

We have a hiatus now in our work on the play during the Water Festival.  It officially starts today and we will report!

Yangon News #1

Michael's update from Yangon on the current situation on the ground, the effects of history, progress, and the Water Festival.

Greetings from Yangon...
...where the weather is hot and the atmosphere is peaceful.  It's the calm before the storm, the storm being the New Year Celebration and the infamous Water Festival which starts today, Saturday April 13.   I'm getting the impression it's like being in New Orleans for Mardi Gras and Times Square for New Years.  We have an expectation of getting continually soaked by water cannons and blasters, and assured that my sins or bad karma or both are being washed away.  Another reason not to drink the water.

Joanna and I are here to flesh out the plans for a US - Burmese production of Ben Jonson's Elizabethan-era comedy, Volpone, which we plan to produce with our friends in Thukhuma Khayethe (Art Travelers Theatre Co.) with whom we've been training and performing since 2009.

Our first visit four years ago was under the watchful eyes of the military dictatorship, which kept the beloved lady Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.  Our last visit a year ago had seen Suu Kyi released and elected to Parliament, and a new "open" era coming in (hopefully).   Now a year later, we are getting the skinny from our friends on how things have been going.

If you have been following the news, you may be aware that there have been recent clashes and bloodshed between the Buddhists and the Muslims. To understand where this comes from, we have to take a step back and remember our cultural history.

First, the name Myanmar vs Burma.  In the Burmese language, and we are talking history here, the name of the country when written in official King's court documents is Myanmar.  When the commoners speak it, they say Burma. This notion of having special words for the King and other words for commoners is not rare in world languages.  The British, having had colonies all over the place including here, referred to this territory as Burma, partly to stick-it to the former royal rulers.  But there are a lot of ethnicities and religions:  the majority are Buddhist and ethnic Burmese, but there are also Muslims, Christians and Hindus who are Shan, Karin, Mon etc etc.  When the military took over somewhat after the Brits left, they changed the name to the more "inclusive" Myanmar (inclusive sounding, though the military was primarily Burmese, paranoid and brutal to anyone remotely dissenting).

There is a good primer and political update on this Burma - Myanmar - US relations issue at the Washington Post.

With that background and even a vague understanding of world politics, its pretty easy to guess what happens when a formerly oppressed people gets a taste of freedom and democracy. They use their new-found voices to yell at each other. Every under-educated charismatic bullet-head now figures their opinion is better than the next guy, and they get on the radio and say "ya know, these [insert ethnic group here] people are dirty and smelly and taking over our way of life. They should leave."  So yeah, there are ethnic tensions, these days particularly between the Buddhists and the Muslims. Myanmar shares a border with Muslim-majority Bangladesh, and the politics are akin to the immigrant situation between the US and Mexico.   Arizona, anyone?

More to the point, our friend Thila Min (director of TK) reports that people are happy to take their rights, but not the responsibility.  Freedom of speech can be used for good or for evil, but nobody wants to be responsible for the evil their speech might unleash.  Sound familiar? 

Thila's English is very good,  but I wouldn't have thought he knew a word like "crony", which he uses a lot to describe another problem: rampant crony-ism.  There is a great deal of deal-making, land grabbing and back scratching between politicians, connected merchants, and foreign interests, all to the detriment of the poor and middle class that the new openness was supposed to help. 

But, by and large, there are "onward and upward" kinds of changes going on. We've been staying in the same neighborhood through these years, and just in the last year we have seen many new and modern homes spring up, gigantic hotels, new car dealerships, all in formerly vacant lots. I don't know if they are getting any business, but the construction companies must be making a killing. The members of  Thukhuma Khayethe also hear the siren call of business opportunities outside of theatre work.  One of the finest clown-actors I know, Soe Myat Thu, is getting a lot of work instead as an English-French-Burmese translator for all the foreign business people descending on Yangon.

But the theatre work does go on. We have had some great meetings with Thukhuma Khayethe about our co-production of Volpone, and we're learning more about the culture and seeing how it might manifest in the play, which is exciting. 

Next: swimming in the Water Festival.

Moving Forward, the Role of the Artist: Myanmar Update 5

A semi-final update from Michael and Joanna in Yangon.

We're in the final days here in Yangon, and it's been pretty packed with excitement --  if you consider immersing yourself in Myanmar performing arts culture to be exciting (which I do).  This will likely be my last missive from these parts, as we’ll be swamped with preparing a "work-in-progress" performance of the work on Sunday before heading Stateside on Monday. 

The work with Thukhuma Khayeethe has good days and great days; there is still much work to be done if this show is to hit the stage, but we are off to a good start and look forward to continuing over the next year or so.

Last Friday Feb 3 was the opening of the 3rd International Festival of Contemporary Theatre and Performance at the French Institute.  When we made our plans to be here we actually didn't know until later that the festival was taking place, but we attended the Friday and Saturday panels, lectures and videos, and Joanna was invited to talk about our work along with Thila Min, the director of Thukhuma Khayeethe.   We've been making new friends and contacts, and joining in some spirited discussions.

Of the many topics (not just at the festival but also with our collaborators): 

¨      Now that there may be a new openness and permissiveness for contemporary productions, what will become of the traditional performing arts? (Since the military has been in charge there have been no new plays written and many of the old were banned, even burned.)  

¨      What will be preserved, or should be preserved, or not? 

¨      Should the public be given what it wants, or what the artist thinks it needs?  

¨      How much effort should be put into contemporary arts:  what if the current "freedom” doesn't last-- not only might censorship fall into place again, but might artists be exposing themselves to new harassment and imprisonment?  

¨      And who will support new work?   Many of the young people attending stated that the biggest obstacle to a life in the theater is the family: parents want their kids to get "real jobs"; an old story most keenly felt in struggling economies.

One of the local artists who asked many traditional vs. modern questions is Moore Minn, the impresario, director, and star of one of the few remaining large Zat Pwe performance troupes.  The Zat Pwe is a traditional form of performing arts that manifests at the larger festivals around the country.  It's a nine-hour marathon, beginning at around 9 pm and ending at 6 am. Depending on the company, the production may (or may not) start with dances and rituals to Buddha as well as the local deities called "Nat.”  This is generally followed with the singers in the troupe coming out individually and covering local pop songs.  Next, a stylized dance-theatre piece from the life of Buddha; a pop concert covering western hits; traditional high energy dancing by the male Minthar(s) and/or female Minthamee(s) possibly combined with the antics of the Lu-Byet comedians ("Mr. Not-at-all Serious"). There may also be short dramatic or comic scenes, depending on the aesthetics of the company director.

Joanna and I were invited to see Moore Minn's show that Saturday evening.  A strikingly handsome and serious looking man of about 40, he was introduced as one of Myanmar's preeminent traditional singers and dancers.  Thus, we had a certain expectation of a "traditional" performance, and indeed much of the standard menu as outlined above was there.  What we did NOT expect was his intense, spot-on, full hour Michael Jackson impersonation, complete with Thriller production value (break-dancing zombies), moonwalks, mime and crazy limbs akimbo. Especially fantastic from a you-gotta-be-kidding-me perspective was Michael Jackson singing The Macarena.

You could have lit the city of Yangon with Moore Minn's energy, which was most remarkable because he attended the conference all day Friday and Saturday, AND did all night shows Friday night and Saturday night (which he also drove to and from, about an hour outside of Yangon). When and where he got sleep I don't know.

Another big surprise was the total lack of applause from the 1000 or so spectators.   Not that they didn't like it, they know this guy and his work and they paid their not inconsiderable admission of $3 or so, they just don't express it.   And many stayed, as we did, for all 9 hours; though many of the younger set left after the pop stuff and the older crowd arrived for the comediennes and the dancing Minthars.

Okay, that's it for now.  Thanks for listening.  We'll post the pix and videos as soon as possible and send you the links when available.  Until then, stay warm, healthy and safe wherever you are.

Much love from Yangon,

Michael and Joanna

Volpone Rehearsals: Myanmar Update 4

After six rehearsals the show is really taking shape.   Well, I think so by watching the actors, though I don't understand a word they are saying (as they are improvising in Burmese).  Still, they are beginning to "embody" the characters and come up with some funny “bits". 

Volpone is a Shakespeare era comedy, written by Ben Johnson in that same "Shakespearian language" which takes some getting used to.   It's beyond even the best of our English speakers here (heck, it's beyond me a lot of the time), so Joanna and I have been 'translating" the Elizabethan into modern-ish English, while also cutting and editing so this three hour play runs more like 60 minutes.  Since these translations are not set into Burmese yet, the actors have been improvising to get the feel of the characters and the plot, which has a lot of twists and turns and intrigue.

Traditional Myanmar theatre has a lot in common with "traditional" western theatre (ie, Shakespeare and Commedia del'Arte).  Since the military junta has been in charge, traditional/classical Burmese theatre is all you could study, as contemporary theatre techniques and modern plays have been viewed with suspicion and heavily censored. Thukhuma Khayeethe (the local theatre ensemble) wanted to do a Commedia era piece that could lend itself to modern interpretations, and Volpone is a great bridge between the classical and modern.

The actors have a lot of clown and comedy experience from performing social theatre productions for children and communities around Yangon. Joanna, Anna Zastrow and I did a 10 performance tour in 2010 with the newly formed Thukhuma Khayeethe to local monastery schools with the Hand Washing Show in 2010.  They have several new actors and actresses added in the last year, and this will be their first "serious comedy".

So we'll see how it goes... 

Foreign Policy: Myanmar Update 3

Another update from Michael in Yangon, where all is still well.  

IT IS BETTER TO BE INVITED THAN TO OCCUPY

We had an interesting chat with one of the young (21) receptionists at our hotel, a very nice, friendly, good English speaker.  On the subject of food I mentioned that Joanna and I were both fond of Japanese food, and she kind of frowned and said that, well, they had a lot of trouble with Japanese people.  I asked, "you mean Japanese tourists who stay at the hotel".  "No," she said, "the Japanese people who invaded my country and did very bad things!"   She then went on to list a variety of hideous tortures, hardly exclusive to the Japanese but certainly used by their thugs when they ran amok in China and SouthEast Asia in the 1940's.  I did let her know that we've had some wonderful experiences touring in Japan and have some very lovely friends who are Japanese, and, well, after all that was several generations ago.  She was not swayed in her opinion. Just one of those reality checks concerning foreign policy: some people just don't forgive and forget.   BUT... we did a check with a number of other locals, and it seems that this kind of thinking not so prevalent. Most everybody else either likes the Japanese or is indifferent.

MAYBE IT’S BETTER TO WALK

Actually, most of the public buses here are Japanese made, with the steering wheel on the right side, like in England/Japan, but they drive on the right side, like in the US.  Which means they have to modify the doors, sealing the ones on the left and cutting new ones in on the right (the sidewalk side).  The buses look like hell, not just from that but being driven hard and fast.  Why? Because the buses are rented by the driver and the ticket taker, much like a taxi is rented from a cab company.  The passengers they pick up that day is their take (after the rental fee) which means the buses race each other to get to bus stops first.  It's pretty crazy.  It's not the kind of free market economy conducive to safety, but it's what they have at the moment.

Follow up Tid-Bit:

I mentioned in a previous email that the locals are happy that internet restrictions have lifted somewhat and they can now get You Tube.  I should add, however, that mostly all they can get is the opening page, not the actual videos which take far to long to download due to the slow connections.  But still, it's a start.

Visiting the Neighbors: Myanmar Update 2

Michael's Yangon update from January 22, 2012.

All's well that starts well here in Yangon.  We're working with 10 members of the group Thukhuma Khayeethe ("Arts Travelers"), four of whom we toured with on our last trip in 2010.  We've had three rehearsals so far.  Here's a little tid-bit from a recent rehearsal:

Our rehearsal studio is a rented, empty house in a suburban area in north Yangon called Inseine.  It IS pronounced "insane" but doesn't carry the same meaning--  though it might when we are through with it.  It is local to the famous prison of the same name where at least two of the actors were incarcerated several years for "political activities", in their pre-theatre days.

Anyway, we were doing one of those group circle exercises called Visiting the Neighbors, useful for ensemble building and character exploration.  It allows the actor freedom of physical and vocal expression.  Apparently, however, this neighborhood is not used to such freedom, because after about 10 minutes of what must have sounded like bedlam WE were visited by the neighbors, who demanded to know what the hell we were doing.  The offending character might have been yours' truly, who at the time was grabbing one of the actors by the lapels and shouting "Whaaaaat?!!!  He gave my money to WHOOOOOOO??!!!"   (Part of the exercise, of course.)

Clearly our theatre pals hadn't introduced themselves to the community and given them a "heads up" about what might go on.  We promised to be more "respectful".

More to come,

Watch this space.

What a Difference an Election Makes: Myanmar Update 1

Michael and Joanna left for Myanmar last Sunday to continue BST's collaboration with Thukhuma Khayethe (Arts Travelers).  Here is Michael's first update from January18.

Greetings from Yangon, Myanmar.

What a difference an election makes.  Today we met with our local collaborator, Thila Min of Art Travelers Theatre, and he was fairly giddy about how much has changed in the last few months.  The election was 4 or 5 months ago -- that is, the military regime handed over the government to "the people", though it was indeed one of the military favored parties that won most of the parliamentary seats. Since then, they have freed many political prisoners, Obama sent Hilary for chats with the government and the USA opened diplomatic relationships (we had an embassy here, but not an ambassador).   As Thila Min reports, people can now shout "freedom" in the streets, and say Aung San Suu Kyi's name without fear of imprisonment (until recently they had to refer to her as "the lady"; she being the opposition party leader lately free of her house arrest).  Heck, I just realized I can GOOGLE Aung San Suu Kyi's name and get results -- couldn't do that before!

They can now visit the websites You Tube and the BBC and Voice of America, previously all off limits. They notice there are WAY more tourists in town than ever before.  In fact that was a problem for us on our first night-- our two usual hotels were all booked, and all have raised their prices $5 per night.  We will be checking in to our favorite, Kung Lay Inn, tomorrow night.  We stopped by there and they still had our brochure on the desk from our stay in 2009! 

Our task here is to do some serious work on a play we've suggested to our collaborators in Arts Travelers: Ben Johnson's Volpone, a Shakespeare-era comedy about greed and con games (kinda resonated with us re: our collapsing US and world economy).  We're using the basic plot-line, but we'll update the language and situations.

We've been working with Arts Travelers in two projects, the last one being our tour around Yangon and the Mon and Katrin States with the Hand-Washing Show for kids.  Our hope is our version of Volpone will interest the sponsors of international collaborations to underwrite a tour of the show in Myanmar and the USA next year.  Their company has grown from the four members we worked with in 2010 to the 10 members they have now.  We'll meet the new actors for the first time tomorrow morning.

That’s the news at present.  We're pretty excited about being here and working with this energetic group.  

More to come,

Michael

Myanmar in May! Part II

Here is the continuation of our experiences in Myanmar in May:

It’s time to get this show on the road! May 15 we embark on a tour to the Mon and Karen States east of Yangon. We are going to perform for children in the monastic schools.


Monasteries run schools for poor children of the neighborhood who cannot afford regular public school (which charges tuition) and for children taken in by the monasteries because they have no parents or their parents are too poor to care for them. Sometimes these kids come from far away remote places and, therefore, live permanently at the monasteries, even those who still have parents. Many parents are away working at the border to Thailand where there is a lot of trade, and the children were living with relatives until they came to the monastery. So, essentially, these children are orphaned. They are “economic orphans” as some have termed it.

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When we first arrived in Myanmar, we were told that our initial plan of doing a tour around Mon and Karen States was not going to be possible due to security concerns with the increasingly sensitive political situation. Just in the past month, the situation has gotten worse with several bombings in Yangon as well as Mon State. The upcoming elections have created a lot of tension.

We are eager to bring our work to as many places as we can, and our Burmese friends were gung-ho to go as well. They know the local authorities well in the particular areas where they had planned for us to travel to and are not worried about getting permissions. (In Myanmar, foreigners, and locals as well, are not able to go just anywhere; you need to receive permission from the authorities, and especially if you wish to do such a thing as perform! Officially, public assembly of more than five persons is prohibited.) The embassy tells us to wait and see until after May 6, which is the deadline for all opposition parties to register for the elections and which might trigger unrest. In the meantime, plan on doing a local tour around the Yangon area. In actuality, what appears to have been a concern is the U.S. State Department visit coinciding with our being here, which could possibly cause friction. But everything goes smoothly and things are calm, so in the end we are informed it is fine to resume our original plan. Yey!

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Off we go in our hired van, all seven of us plus a driver. We leave early in the morning on the 15th and drive all day until finally we arrive in the late afternoon – at the beach! Wow. Nice. Our first stop is the small beach town of Setse (southern Mon State). The plan is to do a show in the early morning in the midst of the market. How fun! Unfortunately, the permission initially given is revoked and we are informed we must leave the area. Because our performance in Setse was nixed, it is deemed prudent to forego performing in the bigger town next door as well, Mawlamyine, because it’s the same regional authority presiding over both, and while we’re at it, it’s best to skip going to Kayin (Karen) state altogether, because of the checkpoint we have go through. Things look a little tense. So it is decided that we will head straight back up to Kyaiktho (pronounced ‘Chai-toe’) and see if we can still do some shows there. I sure hope so!

But first we take a dip in the ocean! Mmmm… it’s warm like bath water! After hot and dusty days in Yangon, and a long drive, it sure is refreshing to be by the sea. And how nice to wake up on the morning of May 16 in a quaint little seaside hotel (ok, a run-down rickety shack) right on the beach on what just happens to be my birthday! Good timing!

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Upon arrival to Kyaiktho after about a four-hour drive, we luckily get the green light to perform. We make our way up a little red dirt road to a small monastery compound. Stories of Buddha on giant placards line part of the way. A monk blows a whistle and after a minute children emerge from all directions, amass and trot off to the performing area, which is on a small hillside under a giant tree. We perform for about 200 children or so and they are a great audience, curious and excited.

After the show, we chat with the Sayadaw (meaning senior monk, or abbot, in Burmese), and Joanna asks him what issues we ought to address in our show, what do the children need to learn? Going to the toilet, says the Sayadaw. Many of the children come from the jungle and just go in the bushes, they need to learn to use the toilet. Unfortunately, I remark to myself, the toilets they have, at least the one I used, are so filthy it would be more hygienic to just go in the bushes! The toilets need to be kept clean if they are to advance good hygiene.

On this note, at another monastery, the Sayadaw affirms the importance of teaching the children to wash their hands but informs us that the children often have no soap to use (and sometimes barely water). Well, not much use preaching hygiene if the elements to facilitate it aren’t provided. So, we are teaching the lesson of the importance of washing one’s hands to the kids, but we apparently also need to teach the lesson (to the adults) of obtaining soap and water! Is soap really that expensive that they cannot afford a few bars? Well, some of the people in these areas can barely afford rice, so I guess in the end they have to make a choice whether to eat or to wash. In the future, perhaps we had better bring soap with us and hand out to the kids as part of the show! But that soap will, of course, only last so long -- I wonder what an effective long-term solution could be for this hygiene dilemma. Something to think about. Any ideas?

Our second day (May 17) we drive to Kayin (Karen) state, after all. The monastery phoned and insisted we come. Apparently, the Sayadaw there is greatly respected and exerts a certain degree of authority. So we are able to perform without a problem. We had a little adventure getting through the checkpoint, which I will not elaborate upon here, except to say we made it safely through, not to worry! The monastery here is a huge compound containing several large school buildings. One of them has a mural on the wall with the Kayin national flag and an inscription in the Kayin language behind a small free-standing blackboard. Many students who come here only speak Kayin (as opposed to Burmese).

The Kayins are an ethnic group that has been embroiled in a fight for autonomy for over sixty years. Sporadic fighting continues and the ongoing insurgency has resulted in thousands of refugees and many orphaned children. Outside of the one main city, Hpa-an, where we are, there is very little infrastructure and limited educational opportunities. Thus, many children are sent to a monastery, such as this one, in order to receive schooling.

We visit another monastery (back in Mon state), very small and very much poorer, and upon arrival I notice a little girl standing in the doorway. I approach to say hello. The other couple of kids around us are curious and spontaneous and playful, as kids are, reacting to my goofiness as can be expected. She is very serious, and her expression does not change. She remains in the doorway, not moving, not reacting. I wonder what has happened to her that she is so sad? During the performance, I keep an eye on her, sitting in the front row, to see what effect the show might have on her, to see if she’ll laugh. Her face lights up in a smile for a moment. I am informed that she is newly arrived from a remote area of Kayin state. Many of the children here come from a mountainous jungle region, which is extremely difficult to access. In order to make their way here, the children have to walk for many hours just to get to the nearest road for transportation. Therefore, the children do not go back during school holiday, they stay here at the school year-round. These are the children we perform for today. (It happens to be summer in Myanmar, so school is out and many children have gone home – most to help their parents work in the rice fields or sell goods). This particular child’s mother had recently died and her father remarried a woman who apparently did not treat her kindly. They left to work at the border, as is quite common, leaving her behind. Finally, she was sent here. She does not speak Burmese, only Kayin. So sad to see her so sad! And I wish we could have stayed longer to play a little more. I hope that our visit lit a little bit of light inside her heart.

While in Kayin state we go to a second monastery as well, a smaller branch of the main one. This one is out in the countryside and we drive for quite a long time. I didn’t realize this when I jumped up in the back of the pick-up truck! It’s a long, bumpy ride in the hot sun. As we drive, I suddenly hear music playing and we come upon a group of kids in the middle of the road who surround our vehicle asking for donations. In return, we get a cold drink. Just what I needed! At the school, we perform inside with all the kids seated on the floor, dressed in sailor-style white and blue school uniforms. By the time we start the show, the room is packed. There are probably four hundred children and adults in attendance. As part of an improvised pre-show, I say hello to the kids and decide to demonstrate my newly acquired expertise in Burmese (How are you, my name is Anna, nice to meet you, etc.) But all I get back are blank stares. It turns out, they don’t speak Burmese! So much for that. Luckily, at lunch I had picked up a few Kayin phrases which I had written down in my little notebook. "Asso lassan!" (Hello! in Kayin, spelled phonetically). This goes over much better. How are you, I continue. Applause! Now we’re talking!

I have so many stories, but this will have to do for now. More may follow later.


All in all we perform at seven monasteries in Mon and Kayin states, one in Bago on the way back to Yangon, and four times in the Yangon area, for a total of almost 3,000 children.

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