The Play Is the Thing

ISU presents Romeo and Juliet

The hall was made for conferences at a reproductive health center with the most hideous curtains known to man - thick cream fabric with bold wavy patterns in navy and blood red, dizzying to the eye. I spun the space on its head so that we could use the balcony, making their platform our audience.
The stage was a configuration of wooden black risers, warped from years of rain and romping, splintered at the corners, hollow beneath such that even flip flops filled the room with elephant-like stomping sounds.
The costumes were jeans and t-shirts, Montagues in black and Capulets in white, some traditional Ugandan robes for the Friars, and an Ethiopian dress accompanied by a white eyelet parasol for the Nurse (played by boy of course).
The cast comprised of fourteen students from grades 8-12 of every nationality you can imagine: Congolese, Bangladeshi, Iraqi, British, Korena, Ugandan…
The transitions between scenes required the students to run around the entire building, mounting and descending stairs with the rapidity known only to teenage lungs and legs.
The students were brilliant: the intensity of their emotions heightened the language to such an extent that our little nothing of a play became the shot of adrenaline so needed at this school.
The student audiences giggled at the kissing and gasped at the fights, staring with wide eyes at the feat before them.
The parents were glowing.
The faculty and administration were slack-jawed.
“How did you do this in such a short amount of time?”
“You turned a sow’s ear into a purse!”
“Drama is back!”
The director of the school said he had never seen such amazing acting in any high school production.
I know this play backwards and forwards and yet they still moved me. When my lovely Romeo pronounced, “Is it even so?” after learning of Juliet’s death, tears welled up in my eyes.
After the final performance, the students hugged me and thanked me for being “the best director ever.” Seeing that I’ve never directed before in my life, nor even fully comprehend what it means to do so, I was and continue to be stunned.
And thus, a little triumph for Ms Eve was born.

Romeo and Juliet Rehearsal

rehearsal rehearsal rehearsal
Shakespeare in bite-size pieces
swallowed by young minds
slowly digested into truth

the clues are in the text
listen to each other
bring the language to life
voice body - body voice
put it in your own words
what if what if what if

a bare-bones production
the world slowly coming to life
a nascent form of brilliance
the spark of teenage stage kisses
lighting up the sky

Saturday Afternoon

Internet at home got too pricey to justify so here I find myself at school on a Saturday afternoon, sun blazing, gentle breeze pushing the swing-set like the ghost of a child. Feeling nostalgic today - a twinge of loneliness. The picnic bench where I sit is painted bright red, the red of grandma's kitchen table where she stacked the tins of brownies for Thanksgiving. I can hear the sound of the metal lids pop and smell the sweet chocolate wafting up from beneath the layers of wax paper. I can still see her hands, spotted, skin worn like your favorite set of sheets so thin you can almost see the invisible dreams gone by. I wonder what she would've thought of all this adventure. Everything here is strange: the giant leaves on the trees reminiscent of a Dr Seusse illustration, the argument in Luganda hovering in the air from the construction workers just beyond the parking lot, the brick red earth that sneaks into my apartment dusting the floor with the fine filth of Africa, the stench the reeks from the pores of poverty...
I could certainly use some company though the silence of empty classrooms is simply solace.

Performance Uganda Style

"O-Obama! O-O-Obama!"
we cheerleaders take the stage
red white and blue inspired
jumping like hot potatoes
the audience laughs and claps along to the rhythm of change
"Yes We Can" gospel roaring "Amen"
"America, America" harmonizing with contemporary African steps
real reactions taken to extreme in the body of a small white woman
with a big voice and a bigger heart
holding hope in the final moment
before blackouts and bows
the tension of the future hanging
delicate and thundering in the distance
so close we can all taste it
bittersweet

*National Dance Week Uganda performance at the National Theater (2/27-3/1) with Okulamba Dance-Theatre Company.