Syrian-American writer-actor Sarah Badiyah Sakaan offers a theatrical response to the ongoing crisis in Syria. Polybe + Seats artistic director Jessica Silsby Brater stages it site-specifically at a Bay Ridge hookah joint.
In August, Polybe + Seats will produce a new play conceived by company member Sarah Badiyah Sakaan with artistic director Jessica Silsby Brater at Beit Jeddo Hookah Lounge in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. This is going to be an immersive night of theater, blending real-life moments with fantastical and folktale elements. Beit Jeddo (which means “Grandfather’s House”) will be transformed into a Syrian banquet hall, with the action moving from Aleppo to a refugee camp on the Turkish border to the U.S. and back. Our multi-national, multi-lingual cast presents a show that highlights the difficult choices Syrian and Syrian-American people must make as they grapple with the current crisis, and celebrates the drive to stay connected over great distances and barriers.
“The inspiration for creating this piece,” says Sarah, “is the fact that I’m in this conversation about what’s going on in Syria with my family, and I can’t escape it when I’m with them – but I am usually by myself in Brooklyn, and I’m able to give myself a little bit of space. With my family, we’ll be having coffee and just casually talking and then something drops in that is really devastating and really current, and everything changes. I realized that as a theater artist I have an opportunity to tell a story that’s not being told, of people who are actually experiencing this thing from the inside out.
[August 2014]
Beit Jeddo, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
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Conceived by Sarah Badiyah Sakaan with Jessica Silsby Brater
Written by Sarah Badiyah Sakaan with the company
Directed by Jessica Silsby Brater
Produced by Katie Naka and Polybe + Seats
Featuring Ayse Eldek, Tom Giordano, Nuah Oryzel, Sarah Badiyah Sakaan & Pascale Seigneurie
Set and Object Designer: Daniel C. Soule
Lighting Designer: Natalie Robin
Costume Designers: Karen Boyer and Bevan Dunbar
Sound Design and Musical Composition: Soraya Odishoo
Choreographic Consultant and Movement Coach: Lindsay Torrey
Stage Manager and Assistant Director: Naomi Boyce
Assistant Stage Manager: Emily Schwerdtfeger
Associate Lighting Designer: Colin Chauche
Assistant Set and Object Designer: You-Shin Chen
Wardrobe and Costume Assistant: Cody Donaldson
Producing Director: Catherine Wallach
Production Photography: Stephen Yang
“Inshallah, badain, in a little while, it will be over, yianni, in a couple of months. You will see.”
The Brooklyn Rail on Anna Asli Suriyah (I Come from Syria): “At the start of the conflict, many of the people Sarah talked to had been in favor of the rebellion to overthrow the Assad regime. But as the bloodshed continued, the disruption to Syrian lives and culture reached tragic proportions, and hope of a US intervention dwindled. For the most part, Syrians want hope that their country and their daily lives can be returned to normal. That longing for a way of life lost, for a sense of daily security destroyed, is deeply felt in Anna Asli Suriyah.”
The Brooklyn Paper/Bay Ridge Courier reviews Anna Asli Suriyah (I Come from Syria): “Hookah lounge hosts powerful play about Syrian conflict … Much of “I Come From Syria” revolves around a Syrian wedding, where party-goers take sides in the conflict and debate fleeing their home country … The show goes far beyond the headlines to show the myriad responses battle-torn families are having to the three-years-on crisis.”