By Shaikha Alshamsi
UNIVERSITY CITY, SHARJAH – The desert of the UAE, and Bedouin myths and traditions emerging from it, formed the basis of a “devised theatre” piece developed during a workshop the American University of Sharjah’s Performing Arts Program presented March 21.
Devised theatre, as defined by director and Prof. Anthony Tassa, develops from an ensemble of players without use of a playwright.
“In our case, as in most, they become reliant on movement and gesture to tell the story,” said Tassa, the Performing Arts Program coordinator.
This presentation, he added, was the first stage of his theatre students’ rehearsal process.
Tassa said the performance also let them show the work they have done and receive feedback from the audience. This would be valuable, he said, to help the students develop a fully realized production.
He added that COVID-19 influenced his decision to avoid making this a traditional production, as he predicted students might be unavailable for some rehearsals.
“A devised piece allowed the freedom to make changes to the play when a student was absent for extended periods, due to quarantine situations,” he said.
Tassa added that the quarantine situation was the biggest challenge they have faced during practice. He said that this would be especially difficult to overcome in a traditional, non-devised effort as students would have to be included in every step of the process.
“We even had one young lady who went into quarantine the day before the presentation, so we had to make changes to the piece the day before it was presented,” he said.
Tassa added that the most efficient part of this process was using poems that students have written about the desert, and which form the basis for much of the piece, and discovering ways of staging them.
“It allowed students to see non-traditional forms and to understand the expectation of the audience in terms of accepting a willing suspension of disbelief,” he said.
Tassa said that they will continue to develop this piece further by looking for ways to “physicalize” the story more, solidify many movements, and add props and costumes as they get closer to a final production.
The piece, which currently has the working title “Mysteries of the Desert,” has been entered in the Prague Quadrennial, the world’s largest theatre festival. It will occur in June 2023.
“Acceptances are announced in May 2022 and if our proposal is accepted, that gives us a year to develop the piece into something truly special for presentation at the festival,” he said.
This piece gave students a good learning experience about theatre as well. “It was educational. I got to deep dive into a theatre format that completely relied on very personal emotional connection,” AUS student Vighnesh Prasad said. “Our personal stories gained a physical and theatrical dimension to it, which helped connect all of us as one cohesive narrative entity.”
