In progress:
A theatrical bent
By
Nigel Ryan
Alan Wright began working in the theatre in Glasgow and on the London fringe, where he stage managed many productions. For several years he was the technical director at the theatre department of the American University in Cairo and worked extensively with Al-Warsha, the independent theatre group.
Two months ago I directed and produced two plays, very short plays, which were put on in my apartment. At the time I felt I desperately needed to get back into theatre and this was the easiest way, after not having done theatre for several years, to do that.
I had been in the Gulf, working in advertising, because I needed to make money, and while it was financially rewarding it was not rewarding in any other way. It was a waste of energy, a waste of my energy. Basically I wanted to use my energy on something I was interested in.
One of the plays was by me: it was a five-minute monodrama which in the end I practically discarded when it came to performance. I had a specific actor in mind when I was writing the dialogue: the actor comes on stage, sits down, looks into the wings, brings on another actor, sits the other actor down, looks at the audience, thanks them for their attention and asks them to leave the auditorium and drink some tea. The actor I had in mind, though, was unavailable, so I had to do the role myself and it changed.
There's a lot you can say about the situation. I was trying to break away from people's conceptions, or rather my conception of other people's conceptions, of what theatre is about, of sitting down and being told a story.
I wanted to do something totally unexpected. That is what theatre means to me: it is something that makes you sit up and ask yourself what was happening, what was it meant to be. What was the director trying to say.
The second play was by Effat Yehia. It was a meeting between Scheherazade and Antigone, and it lasted 20 minutes. Effat was supposed to direct it but she was having problems getting things together so I decided that if it was going to happen at all then I would have to take over. So I ended directing both plays.
As far as I am concerned the project was successful. We were going to perform for three nights initially though in the end we only performed for two because the second actress was unavailable for the third night. On the first night we had 16 in the audience, on the second 20. People seemed to enjoy themselves and to appreciate the productions and for me it was very important that I had actually done something.
I hope to continue to produce and direct plays on this scale, in spaces that are not immediately recognisable as theatre spaces. Part of my reason for putting on plays in my apartment was to demonstrate to my colleagues in the Free Theatre Movement that you do not need a theatre in order to produce theatre. Theatre is more than the building, more than the play, than the costumes, set and actors. For me theatre is about surprise.
At the moment I am reading Arabic plays: to put on theatre in English I think limits the audience far more than is necessary. The audience was a problem point of discussion last time. Putting plays on in my apartment, I was worried about the official position. I don't know what the precise legal position is, but I was eager to limit the audience as far as possible. Normally you would go out and advertise as widely as possible in order to get the largest number of people to come along. I was going the opposite way, saying no, we don't want to advertise, no we don't want it to be generally known that there were performances happening in my apartment, one because of the size of the place and two, because I didn't want any official repercussions. And though I'm not sure what the exact legal position is I know that if people wanted to make problems then they could make problems.
Someone who came to see the plays was very excited and said that I could perform on their roof. There are any number of spaces around that might suit specific projects, it would be a matter of packaging the proposal.
The Tawfik El-Hakim play I've just read takes place in a hotel, it would be wonderful to put it on in a hotel. The spaces are out there, but the play must come first, I need to select a play and then explore potential venues.
There is no reason why this should not develop into an ongoing project. It's up to me to put the energy behind it. That's all that is necessary. But there are also other things happening. I have to find myself a job. I also write, and I'm working on a theatre project, a commercial project, that may happen in the Gulf.
So projects in hand: I continue reading plays with a view to production in places outside the conventional theatre, in locations that are not immediately obvious as theatrical venues, and I'm currently looking for a belly-dancer who can act. One of the most interesting things about the production we just did I had to keep repeating: we are doing this because we want to put on theatre. We have no money but theatre is not about having a budget. It is about using your imagination, about using what you have got. That is very important for me. We are doing it for the love of it, and not for any financial reward. We use our imaginations. We use what we have got. So if anyone is interested in working under those circumstances I am very interested in working with them. I can be contacted on Alaninline@yahoo.com.
