Notes from the Director of UnCommon Ground

[TE'A]

In January 2010, Radha Productions entered into a local partnership with the George Washington University, Department of Theatre and Dance to collaborate on a TE'A Process, which produced, UnCommon Ground, a theatrical performance piece exploring the theme of being young, Muslim and female in the Nation’s capitol. Spanning two academic semesters, the project included fifteen young women from George Washington -- and 2 from George Mason University -- who formed the theatrical company, and over thirty-five community members who gave their time to engage in insight conversations. The result is a creative, deeply personal theatrical performance piece, which touches on issues of identity, faith and connection. The GW TE'A Company premiered UnCommon Ground at George Washington University on December 10th, 2010. The Company will take the show on a tour of colleges and universities in the DC area in the Spring of 2011.

Under the Director of Leslie Jacobson, the company engaged in a creative workshopping process.

Here is a note from director Leslie Jacobson that sheds a unique light on this process:

For the past 16 months, I have experienced the great joy and challenge of creating a theatre piece with a group of enormously gifted and dedicated university students and a colleague on the faculty of The George Washington University’s Department of Theatre and Dance, in collaboration with Radha Kramer, Founding Director of the TE’A Project.

Each Insight Conversation that a non-Muslim student had with a Muslim student, in collecting stories for this project, stimulated a series of questions reverberating in the minds of the student actor/playwrights about identity, faith, core beliefs and values – and many other matters. For most of us, identity is filled with hyphens: Muslim-American, Agnostic-Russian-American, African-American, French-Irish-Egyptian, Korean-Catholic-Mexican, Lithuanian-Austrian-Jewish-American – you get the idea. And for many students attending a secular university, religion is scarcely part of their identity at all – although spirituality may be. So, coming into contact with students for whom faith occupies a large space in their lives was provocative and stimulating. And recognizing distinctions between religious and cultural practices became important.

The “journey of exploration, discovery and connection” in the subtitle to this performance piece became one of self-discovery, as much as one of discovery about others. The theatre rehearsal hall provided a safe space in which to give vocal, physical, and emotional life to ideas and beliefs that, while enormously powerful, are usually insubstantial.

We were able to explore freely – time is a great friend to this kind of process, and the many months we had developing material were essential to the outcome of our work together. The piece that emerged from our collaborative stew represents the diverse experiences, ideas, and beliefs of many individuals.

One of my favorite collaborative moments, was during a workshop we had with guest artist Fred Johnson. He had worked with Radha Kramer on the New York TE’A Project, Under the Veil, and we were able to bring him down to DC to help us add a musical dimension to the play. I knew I wanted live music, if possible – our actors have lovely voices, and it always feels more powerful to me when the music is live, rather than recorded. Fred developed a signature song for our piece from seeing the developing material and working with our company. It was magical to experience.

I had had an idea of creating a song weaving the music and chant of three religious traditions together – the People of the Book: Muslims, Christians, and Jews. Fred enabled us to actualize that idea with great beauty and dignity. It is one of my favorite moments in our show.

We are all deeply grateful to the women and men who took the time to share their stories with us; and to The George Washington University Department of Theatre & Dance for providing a home for this collaboration. And for me, personally, the journey has been especially sweet, with traveling partners Radha Kramer and Jodi Kanter. My admiration for the creativity, the spirit of generosity, and dedication of everyone who worked on this project is boundless.

 

The credits on the program cover are complicated to list – but they reflect a creative process that includes many unique and compelling voices.

Material written and developed by

George Washington University students Christine Alexander, Xhesika Bardhi, Madeline Hendricks, Leah Holstein, Laurel Gwizdak, Brenna Markle, Jessica Merron, Amanda Newman, Brianna Spahn, Elyse Steingold, Melissa Ventre, Ariel Warmflash;

George Mason University students Nawal Rajeh and Joy Alisa Wiskin;

GW Theatre & Dance faculty members Leslie Jacobson and Jodi Kanter;

Guest Artists Vanessa Thomas and Fred Johnson;

In collaboration with Radha Kramer, Founding Director of the TE’A Project