:: Tuesday 29 April – Workshop 3 ::
:: Saturday 3 May – Workshop 4 ::

Monday 20th May

Hi gang…. Sorry you haven’t heard from me for a few weeks. I was busy writing up scenes and story ideas from the workshops. I’m back again to give you a bit more of a big picture insight into the development of our project.

Firstly, I have to say….phew (again)….. What an amazing few weeks we’ve had. After our first two sessions, we all got to know one another super fast and the level of trust and respect within the group was solid by week three…. So let’s start there...

TJ sets the group a really difficult task. It’s a little complicated and a bit more of a challenge than we’ve been used to over the first two weeks. The participants have to take two of the individual stories they’ve created thus far and link them with only one common point of connection. After a bit of a shy start Julie, Izra and Ahmad perform their scene and the connection between the two stories isn’t immediately obvious but definitely well articulated……. Julie receives news from Lebanon that her grandfather died and she calls up a friend to tell them that she can’t go to a peace rally because of the news. Her friend (Ahmad) is totally non-chalant. He laughs it off saying, "Oh man couldn’t he pick another day to die".

"FREEZE", says TJ. He steps in and questions the ‘realness’ of the participant’s actions. Then we all question, how ‘real’ that response was and the scene was re-enacted….

O.K. now we are seeing some serious ACTING in action. I was thrown back in my seat when Julie slipped into the role of an intense, powerful and highly emotive character. And, then Ahmad, out of nowhere, shows us a side of him we hadn’t seen yet, because we’re so used to him making us laugh all the time. He took on the role of a sensitive and deeply compassionate friend who came to the rescue without hesitation. Julie and Ahmad performed beautifully together…a seamless synergy of depth, raw emotion and ‘drama’. I was completely ‘taken’, and I think I saw Hashen shed a slight tear.

So we leave the workshop on that Tuesday, wooed with such a strong show of talent and energy. After only four sleeps to absorb and recover from the Tuesday workshop, along comes Saturday…

It’s so nice to see the interaction between the group now. There are strong friendships forming and maybe even relationships??? Hashen and Izra….what’s going on ha? And now we’re getting an insight into the life and times of the crew outside the workshops…

Mahroof is a fishing freak and he’s really upset today because his whole family took a big boat out to go ‘deep sea’, and he got left behind. Doha – "Today I went to Lakemba to buy Lahem (meat) with my Mum, and then I came home and cooked it". Aladdin is a little hung over and tired, because he hit the clubs the night before for his mates eighteenth birthday. Youseef releases his grief because of his parents stopping his DVD half way through the film he’s watching, so they can watch ‘moosalsal’ on LBC (Arabic soap opera’s). The frustration is shared by the rest of the group because they’ve had the same experience. And, Izra and Amanda spent their Friday night making a photo collage for a friend of theirs that is leaving school.

After the chit-chat, we get into business and it’s a special day because we master the art of playing 21 (no not poker), and the communal focus of the crew as a whole is tightening. We are really ‘tight’ now! 21 is a focus game where we stand in a circle and have to reach the number 21 as a group. We can only say one number at a time and each person speaks at random. If two people say the same number at the same time, we have to start again…… After only two games, we master it and it’s a great feeling – the sense of accomplishment travels through the room, sweeps us into the air for a split second and then we clap ourselves back into focus mode, revving up for more stories, more performances, more emotion, more excitement – pure drama fueled by our everyday lives!

TJ asks us the crew to come up with a story about the last or best SMS they’ve received…. you can check those stories out in the scene and story list on the website. One that really stood out and uncovered a destined ‘performer’ amongst us, was Nomis’ scene in jail. I got to tell you about that…..

Nomis is locked up in a prison cell. He’s tense, he’s angry, he’s rancid. There’s a look of desperation in his eyes. We can feel that he’s about to ‘click’…. boom – he clicks and yells at the prison guard that he demands his one phone call. The prison guard refuses and Nomis paces anxiously. He demands a mobile phone from his mate in the cell next door, and sends an SMS instead… "It’s been three years since I been here and I love you". And so….the scene continues (check out the details in the scene list).

Nomis performance here was remarkable. If only I had a reel of 35ml and a couple of lights set up to get it on film. Nomis – you rock! He let us in to a world that people might think isn’t ‘real’. He took us into a prison cell and made it as real as real can be – I was certainly convinced – were you?

Until the next installment…… Salam - Remember you guys are amazing and work we’ve done thus far is an amazing achievement for all of us…. and hey the world is going to see that on the big screen real soon!

:: Patrick 11.46 AM [+] :: ...