Fiesta de San Ignacio de Loyola

I nearly forgot. On our way back from a walk today, we reached our parish church as the mass ended, and a few minutes later, some Ecuadorian members of the congregation came out of the parish hall, and danced, while everyone else looked on. July 31st is the feast of San Ignacío de Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order. Maybe there are lots of Jesuits in Ecuador? I don't know, but the women looked lovely in their embroidered blouses, with their shawls pinned to their huge straw hats.

I took one of the men for a morris dancer at first, because of his beribboned hat, except that I've never seen a morris man in a poncho and llama fur trousers. On the other hand, I never thought I'd see a devil figure, second-cousin to a Morris Fool or Beast, as master-of-ceremonies outside a Roman Catholic church, with the parish priest and congregation enjoying the show! We know the Spanish took Christianity to 'Latin' America: interesting to see that the cultural traffic isn't all one way.

Sorry some of the pics are a bit blurry, but I felt intrusive enough waving a camera behind the congregation. I wasn't about to weave through to a decent vantage point! And I'm not 100% sure I've got the right nationality (again - gatecrashing tourist) but I've searched online and in my precious Worldwide History of Dress, so .....90%?! If anyone can reassure me, or correct me, I'll feel much better!

While everyone else chatted, and waited to start, the man on the right gave the - fool? - devil? - a few pointers on his moves.

HITW

Merry Wives

I spent some pleasurable hours in Satwa yesterday, buying fabric for our upcoming school production of The Merry Wives of Windsor, a Shakespeare romp full of masculine folly, and female virtue, intelligence and wit. They don't write plays like that any more!

The original intention was to take the show to Delhi, where we had been invited to participate in a Schools' Shakespeare Festival. Unfortunately, our hosts had to cancel, but in the meantime, my students had spent their summer vacation learning their lines - in some cases, several hundred lines, and in a totally unfamiliar idiom. So the show must go on!

This is all tied into an IB Theatre Arts course, so we are going for fairly authentic staging: outdoors, under a canopy, though with the audience seated facing the stage, rather than either standing on three sides of the stage, or seated in encircling galleries (Shakespeare's 'wooden O') .

Accordingly, though the shows will be in the evening, rather than during daylight hours as they would have been in Shakespeare's day, we will simply have a 'daylight' wash of light throughout both play and interval, and not a microphone anywhere.

The Globe Theatre website features a very helpful virtual tour. I stood right in front of the stage for an entire performance a couple of years ago: it is a unique experience which I would love to repeat - and outside my day job, for which I'm on my feet most of the time, I don't usually stand up for anything!

However, Shakespeare does not have to be all crinolines and codpieces - we're going for authenticity, not a living museum exhibit! There is also the matter of making it accessible to a high school audience more used to rapid-action movies and TV than live theatre, and for many of whom English is their second language. Hmm.

So our production unfolds in a sort of timewarp of the 1590s and the 1950s. And just as our IB students have brainstormed staging and lighting which marries 16th Century and contemporary conditions and technology, so too our student designers have come up with a cross between crinolines and poodle skirts, and between slashed doublets and draped jackets. (Have I ever mentioned my immense admiration and affection for our students?)

Unfortunately, I backspaced over the Tudor image, and can't re-insert it, so I'll do it separately, but here are some 50s styles, and the colour combinations.


Sir John Falstaff, middle-aged reprobate (lovable rogue) will be in the drape jacket and narrow trousers of a much younger (and slimmer!) man, as will his three mismatched hangers-on. Add the slashed sleeves of several centuries earlier, and we get our crossover - but no-one's singing The Timewarp in this show!











Look at the skirts on these! The square neckline was almost as popular in the 1950s as in the 1590s.











Some creative decisions on layers, sleeves, hemlines and fabrics have stirred considerable anticipation of the final results!













These are the fabrics for our rogues: brown denim (to be distressed as befits a total slob with one outfit to his name); muted green cotton for someone with philosophical pretensions; royal blue velvet for our knight aberrant; and black leather (ok - the budget only runs to PVC.) for the girl who's more dangerous than the guys.

I only wish I'd photographed the green and yellow plaid furnishing fabric for the Welsh parson, and the banana yellow blazer fabric for the hopelessly over-eager gentleman-suitor. Damn!

For garrulous Mistress Quickly, excitable meddler and malapropeller par excelsis, we have this tasteful combination - and a fab outfit for Act 5, when she dresses up as Queen of the Fairies!





Argh! I just lost one of the Merry Wives! Mistress Ford, plagued with a jealous husband (in grey), wears a trim style in modest navy blue crepe and sky blue cotton.
Mistress Page, whose husband (in warm brown) knows her qualities and her merit, is peachy and glowing in warm orange cotton and satin, with ample sleeves in translucent cream. (The colours are not quite true here, photographed under fluorescent lights).

Mine Hostess of the Garter Tavern (a role originally written for a man - er - in a male role, unlike the actual female roles, which were also played by men!) will be splendid in satins of vivid cherry, rich lavender and caramel. Perhaps we could name a dessert after her?


Which leaves sweet Anne Page, a breath away from her seventeeth birthday, and her inheritance from Grandfather. Pretty in pink and white, and bridal in lilac. No wonder three men are competing to steal her away to the chapel.

The costume sources here are from Unicorn hire and the http://www.fiftiesweb.com/ .

The costumes are being made by the meticulous and extraordinarily talented Alevtina Mylnikova at Unicorn Events Management (unicorne@eim.ae)

Paper Dresses

Yes really.

I'm researching costume for The Merry Wives of Windsor, which I want dressed in a cross-over between English fashions of the late 1600s and the 1950s (1590s meets 1950s). This is not as nuts as it sounds.

No really!

And surely not as nuts as paper dresses? It seems that Scott Paper (now Kimberly Clark) came up with the idea as a sales giggle gimmick in 1966, and the crowd went wild!


Here we have their charming little Op Art number, 'The Paper Caper'. "created to make you the conversation piece at parties. Smashingly different at dances or perfectly packaged at picnics. Wear it anytime...anywhere. Won't last forever...who cares? Wear it for kicks -- then give it the air."




Interested? Get a pattern here.


And how about a matching mother and daughter set? Ladies, you'll look gorgeous!








And Gentlemen, with a little ingenuity you too could have that perfect garment for Bolognese Night, practising your chopstick technique, or the Satwa Sommeliers' initiation soirée.

So, hardly crazy at all really. Not really.

Shibaraku! (Just a Minute!)

We've had a busy week rehearsing and touring three performances of Shibaraku to the Japanese School and Emirates International School on Monday, and Zayed University on Tuesday.

Here's the plot (and flavour) of Shibaraku!, courtesy of a Zayed University lecturer who really knows how to write a synopsis - may be I should hire her for some of my posts. =)

Evil Lord Takehira is trying to get power in the province, and has stolen a book and a famous sword to 'prove' his claims. The owner of the stolen goods, Lord Yoshitsuna, catches up with Takehira at a shrine and demands his stuff back.








Unfortunately, Yoshitsuna has brought his beautiful fiancée Katsura Mae with him, and Takehira, not happy with just the sword and book, also wants the girl. So he summons his bodyguard Narita Gorō to capture and execute Yoshitsuna, intending to kidnap Katsura Mae for his own.





However, just in time, in comes the young hero Kagemasa, yelling "Just a minute!"... Will the hero save the day?













And what is the role of Shinsai, the 'catfish' Kashima priest?






The Characters and the Cast

Kabuki to go

We're a week from performance and our students, who have worked tremendously hard as production team on two school plays, are really looking forward to performing.

Shibaraku (which translates as Just a Minute!) has an unstoppable teenage hero giving an ambitious and unscrupulous lord his come-uppance, and restoring honour to a noble house. Written as a crowd-pleaser to open a new season, it's lively, funny, full of swaggering and posturing, and beautifully set and costumed.

Of course, ours is a touring production aimed primarily at introducing our students to the acting tradition, so our set is minimal, nor do we have the budget for layered kimonos of hand-embroidered silk - honestly, what can you do?

Still, they're having great fun working on the stylised movement and vocal delivery, they're excited about richly coloured kimonos as a change from school uniform and their usual daywear - and an early exploratory session on wigs was a hoot.

Finding dead white foundation has been a challenge: the authentic white paint for the face, neck, shoulders, hands and wrists of aristocratic characters is called oshiroi, and may be plentiful in Tokyo, but in Dubai..... hmmmm... I've been testing facepaints with very unsatisfactory results - unless,when you think 'geisha' you think blotches and smears? BUT a very helpful woman from an international cosmetic house thinks they may have exactly what we need in their warehouse. Fingers crossed! **Update: She has indeed got exactly what we need, and is sending it to us without charge as encouragement to our students. Isn’t that great? I’m sure the results will be imMACulate.

I got black polyester swimming caps as wigbases from Géant in Ibn Battuta, wigs and hairpieces at Fida's in Satwa, and bamboo poles from the plant souk round the corner - since seven-foot tempered steel samurai swords aren't in our budget either!

There's still plenty to be done, but it's all coming together.So here are some pics of work in progress, and where we're heading with this!


Working on the walk.


And the wigs!


One kimono and several graduation gowns.





Yoshitsuna - noble, wronged hero




Katsura Mae - his fiancée





Takehira - evil lord who wants Yoshitsune dead and Katsura Mae as his 'attendant'. This is actually a detail from Kanjincho, showing Benkei, but we're taking it as a base for Takehira as it's about halfway between the delicate makeup for Yoshitsuna, and what they call the aragoto (roughly, bravura) make-up, required for the larger-than-life Kagemasa.



And here is Kagemasa - teenage hero (on a Brazilian magazine cover) The actor, Ichikawa Ebizo XI is going to be performing in London this June. You're looking at three layers of kimono over the heraldic undergarment, and you wouldn't believe the shoes and trousers, so I'll leave them out!





Finally, just in case you thought Kabuki was alien, elitist or whatever, here, from the Kabuki-Za in Tokyo, is indisputable evidence of its broader appeal:

This is a scene from Kanjincho. Yup! Snoopy is Yoshitsuna, with his little bodyguard of Woodstock and his buddies. The blonde guy - piano player - I forget - is Benkei, the warrior priest. Linus is Togashi, the sergeant of Yoshitsuna's elder half-brother, and torn between duty to his lord, and admiration for Benkei's loyalty to his. And Sally (? yes ? - How can I have forgotten?!) is - well - she must the obligatory decorative chick, because she certainly doesn't figure in the story! Are Hollywood values creeping into Japanese culture?

I have to say that you cannot appreciate Kabuki from reading about it and looking at pictures, though they certainly help. There are several excellent sites online, and if you just want to look at the gorgeous costumes and spectacular makeup, you could spend an hour or so in Google Image Search!

I ordered some DVDs for school from Farside Music, a UK company run by Paul Fisher who lived in Japan for some years. If you've not seen Kabuki before, the comparatively slow pace (compared with virtually any western theatre you've ever seen) takes a little adjusting to, but it's so worth it.

The DVDs that Paul's imported from Japan are first rate, with excellent commentaries, and the customer service is also first rate. None of this automated reply business that massive companies have to invest in. Kanjincho is truly touching. Terakoya is heart-breaking. And the double bill of the woman looking for her lost son, and the temple dancer who becomes possessed by the lion spirit - well it works for me. They're expensive, but you get what you pay for, and when I leave here, I'm going to have to order my own copy of Kanjincho.

Farside also does Nō, but not yet with subtitles, and CDs of traditional Japanese music.

Thank you Mme Cyn for introducing me to Japanese culture and starting me down this delightful path: I don't think I ever expected to get this far!

Back to School

Whoosh! Is it the weekend yet? I gave a pretty good impression of the walking dead this morning. And there's a mirror in our lift - no fair!

How can this be? We only went back yesterday, and I'd been in three days through the break with kids rehearsing their assessed performances, so it's not as if I've been in Hawaii for three weeks and rolled in jetlagged. It must be this unnatural business of getting up at 6 in the a.m. Eurgh...

Howsoever, it's been a good couple of days: two new groups of younger students all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, Grade 11 GCSE drama students relaxed having finished all GCSE coursework - they're on revision leave for the rest of their subjects from the end of next week - IB Theatre Arts students' admin done and coursework despatched today - they've got an exam on Thursday and they start their study leave next week. Meanwhile the Grade 10 GCSE students are hyper because they're on stage with original devised work next week, and thinking about costumes, lighting, set - maybe a bit more rehearsal....?...

I let the Grade 11s chill last period yesterday - they worked so hard for their performance exams just before the break - Sophocles & Wilde! - and dragged them up to wardrobe for a major sort-out this morning. Major progress. Good.

Really interesting project with the IB1s (1st year of an A-Level equivalent course). We're doing Kabuki as a World Theatre tradition, and they're going to perform an abridged kabuki comedy, Shibaraku (English translation), late next month, so they've been researching their own costumes, getting fabric samples and talking to tailors. Today was about wigs: we don't have a budget for gorgeous black-haired wigs, but kabuki is highly stylised and you just can't do it without the wigs to balance the costumes - so they will be making their own. Miiiiss?! Uhuh.

Of course, this means I've got to make a couple too, as models for those who are not at all craft-minded and will therefore need back-up if they're struggling. Habibi will be thrilled - papier mâché and foam rubber all over the apartment again. Still, it won't be as bad as when we did Pinocchia (female lead), which required eight nightmarish donkey heads, or Arabian Nights (wallpaper paste dripping all over the balcony as the Roc head and various other things dried on their balloons - much more slowly than expected because of unseasonal humidity. At least it was Ramadan so Habibi couldn't smoke out there anyway?). Then there was whatever it was that required six badgers: I think I'm over the anthropomorphic phase now, but I do like these excuses for mucking about with glue, cardboard boxes and felt!

I enjoy teaching World Theatre, because I learn such a lot in preparation. I did kathakali with a couple of year groups (Keralite dance drama - if you're not from India, you've perhaps seen pics of figures with bright green faces and tall golden crowns). And commedia dell'arte, which is great fun - precursor of European circus clowns, Charlie Chaplin and Mr Bean! Kabuki is a new departure, and very beautiful - breathtaking use of colour in costume and set - but from an unfamiliar musical tradition, and with an acting-style that to western eyes is physically slow, and by turns very understated and almost melodramatic; and the samurai honour code is the basis for some very cruel stories. And yes, I'm hooked, by way of excellent books and DVDs (Habibi winces and wears headphones) and the students, bemused at first, appear to really enjoy working their way into the physical style and vocal techniques. You can only do so much, and then only approximately, but they're bright kids, and are generally intrigued by these excursions into other traditions, aesthetics and cultural perspectives - and practical work can be very entertaining! I'll post some pics (not of the kids) if I remember, but there are excellent sites with video and audioclips, and dipping into The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon is helping to set it in context. Spot the teacher. I only meant to do a round-up of my day - you know - blogging!

Anyway, briefing after school for a sort of academic bonding session with the IB1s on the East Coast this weekend. I'm just going for the Thursday session - extended essay workshop and a good lunch. The 10s want to rehearse this weekend (Nooooooooo!!!!!), and we don't like to discourage them, but I was really relieved that they didn't want to do Friday - I've got a mess to make on the balcony! (The UAE weekend is Thursday and Friday, by the way.)

We were supposed to go out tonight. Dubai has this wonderful Concert Committee which organises regular free concerts by classical musicians and singers down at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Tonight was to be bass-baritone Willard White with a wonderful programme that included Mozart, Verdi, Rodgers, Gershwin and Copland. I really really wanted to go (love M, G & C), but Habibi was too busy and tired, and I was just too tired. An 8 o'clock concert mid-week, with grim traffic both ways....... the flesh is weak.

So tonight, after crashing on the sofa for at least an hour (til Habibi woke me for sherry (fish!) fillets perfectly grilled with dill, with roast potato slices and delicate petits pois & green beans...... he's so good.....) I watched Hanabusa Shûjaku Jishi and Sumidagawa (well I did! It's term-time, right?!) followed by the Richard Gere/Stanley Tucci/Susan Sarandon/Jennifer Lopez/very-strong-ensemble-cast-but-I'm-running-out-of-space-here 'Shall We Dance?' because it was time to watch that film again. Really good. And now I'm off to bed. Except I'd better wash up first.

Goodnight all.