If You’re Near NYC, New Jersey, or New Haven, USA: Join ‘Doomed By Hope’ Theater and Discussions

Several contributors to the collection Doomed By Hope: Essays on Arab Theatre (as well as playwright Mohammad al-Attar) will be at Yale this week to lead workshops, presentations, and discussions:

There will also be a screening of “There Are Still So Many Things Left to Say,” a film based on an interview with playwright Saadallah Wannous at the end of his life.

All events, I believe, are listed below:

Tuesday, March 26, 2013 – NEW YORK CITY

Revolt in Syria: Violence through a Lens
Time: 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Location: Room 501 Schermerhorn Hall, Columbia University (flyer here).

Join us for a screening of short films and videos followed by a Q & A with Syrian playwright and activist Mohammad Al Attar and theatre director Eyad Houssami, editor of Doomed by Hope: Essays on Arab Theatre.

This program of short films and videos by activists, amateurs, filmmakers, and citizen journalists offers intimate perspectives on the tragedy in Syria today. The videos include new material from film organizations such as Kayani for Audio-Visual Arts and Abounaddara, which broadcasts emerging talent directly online.

The title is a tribute to the late Syrian activist Basel Shehada, who was killed in May 2012 by government shelling on the besieged city of Homs, where he was filming and training other activists.

Thursday, March 28, 2013 – NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT

9:45 AM  |  Classroom Workshop  | Open to all Yale Theatre Studies students

Dalia Basiouny and Margaret Litvin will be guest speakers in Dominika Laster’s Performance Studies seminar.  Basiouny will  perform extracts from Tahrir Stories.  Litvin will share her response and present on the “instant memorialization” of the revolts in Arab performing arts. For the first time, the theatre practitioner and author ofTahrir Stories will be able to discuss the political and social factors that have shaped her work on the stage with theatre scholar Margaret Litvin. Eyad Houssami and Dominika Laster will moderate the session.  To register contact Dominika Laster at dominika.laster[at]yale.edu

4 PM  | Master’s Tea at Pierson College  | Open to all Yale Theatre Studies students

Doomed by Hope: Theatre in Beirut, Damascus, and Cairo Today 

by Eyad Houssami with Dalia Basiouny and Mohammad Al Attar

In a world of screens and speeds so great, theatres are padlocked and threatened with demolition. Live public dialogue, as a literary and artistic practice, remains a luxury – if not an impossible cultural phenomenon – in the Arab Middle East. Decades of invasion, occupation, and internecine conflict have ruptured the intangible and tangible infrastructure requisite for theatre. And yet, despite the stifling forces of dictatorship and colonialism, theatre endures. In this talk, Houssami narrates the emergence of alternative infrastructures of and for theatrical artistry in such difficult contexts and discusses the opportunities and challenges of establishing an international, multilingual theatre company based in Beirut, Lebanon. The interactive presentation incorporates video, excerpts of performances and plays, and extracts from Doomed by Hope: Essays on Arab Theatre to share a story about contemporary theatre today.

8 PM  |  Film screening |  Linsly-Chittenden Hall, Room 101  | Open to the public – NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT

There Are Still So Many Things Left to Say

OMAR AMIRALAY, 1997 | SYRIA | ARABIC WITH SUBTITLES | 49 MINUTES

The film was based on an interview with the late dramatist Saadallah Wannous a few months before he died of cancer. Wannous narrates his somber and relentless reflections – an adieu to a generation for whom the Arab-Israeli conflict has been the source of all disillusion. The playwright recounts, with some regret for the lost opportunities that resulted, how the Palestinian struggle became a central part of intellectual life for an entire generation.

Followed by a discussion with Mohammad Al Attar, Dalia Basiouny, and Eyad Houssami with Ronald Gregg.

Friday, March 29, 2013 | 4 PM – NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT

Yale Drama Coalition (YDC) Theatre Workshop:  The Personal Revolution 

Dalia Basiouny (with Eyad Houssami and Mohammad Al Attar)  – Open to all Yale students.  Advance registration required.  For more information, please contact Kate Heaney: katherine.heaney[at]yale.edu

Monday, April 1, 2013 – ROWAN UNIVERSITY, NEW JERSEY

Dalia Basiouny performs her multi-media solo show Solitaire about women and political action, which connects the events of September 11th in the United States to the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. It highlights both events as main catalysts in the change the world has been, and will be, undergoing in the 21st century.

Syrian playwright and dramaturg Mohammad Al Attar and Beirut-based theatre director Eyad Houssami, editor of Doomed by Hope: Essays on Arab Theatre (Pluto Press, 2012), discuss theatre and cultural production in a time of revolt and civil war in Syria and beyond.

 In a world of screens and speeds so great, theatres are padlocked and threatened with demolition. Live public dialogue, as a literary and artistic practice, remains a luxury – if not an impossible cultural phenomenon – in the Arab Middle East. Decades of invasion, occupation, and internecine conflict have ruptured the intangible and tangible infrastructure requisite for theatre. In this talk, Doomed by Hope editor Houssami narrates the emergence of alternative infrastructures of and for theatrical artistry in such contexts and discusses the experience of establishing a theatre company based in Beirut, Lebanon.

Time: 6pm

Place:  Weiss Cinema, Bard College