Firing Orange Fudges.

Last Tuesday, May 15th 2008, I got on stage for the very first time. The BuSSy Performance has been my first acting experience, and hopefully not the last. I may not have directed before and not acted before, but trust me you can refer to me as a “theatre-goer”. I’ve been to enough plays for me to claim that I’ve seen popular opening and closing nights at theatres, roaring sweaty music concerts and stuffy premiere film nights with camera flashes and all. Sometimes I didn’t get a proper spongy seat, sometimes I sat on the floor and others I was told by guards that I am too late and doors are closed, but never ever did I blame it on directors, actors, ushers or the associated marketing department.

Apparently, I live in a world of my own. Nowadays, individuals should feel free to blame actors, directors, workers and the Israeli army too if they please, if a show has a big enough crowd. Miss Singer got me to notice this fact with her latest article “Bussy’s back with more grease and less meat”. The food metaphors she uses don’t stop at the title only as will be later clarified, I guess we should have served some snacks before the show started, but that’s another story. Miss Singer and her “fellow friend theatre-goers” suggest that the BuSSy cast should have prepared a special show for family and friends, and I vote for that as the lamest suggestion I’ve heard since 2008 started. The BuSSy cast includes around 20 actors, 3 directors, 2 stage helpers and a lot of volunteers so do your own maths. Should we have tested kin relationships at the Howard door in case of that private premiere?

The writer claims that it doesn’t really matter which language a show is performed in, but this shouldn’t be the case with BuSSy because it’s not just a “performance” in the first place. Finally, a bullet from her gun is hit for a target, not just to create sound. I totally agree with her, however, it must be admitted that 2008’s BuSSy has a new flavor of pieces like “Two Faints”, “Hafla Maganeya” and “Samira” just to name a few. The commonality between those pieces lies in the fact that they are not inspired by the “the liberal and educated” and they aren’t “patently aimed at the AUC crowd”. On the contrary, they are inspired by poorer classes and scripts coming from a circle outside of the “AUC crowd” overall. Perhaps a gradual change for the voice of BuSSy to be heard outside the AUC circle?

Furthermore, BuSSy has exerted great efforts this year to take its performance outside of the “intimate” walls of Howard to the Downtown garage-theatre Rawabet. This attempt, in my opinion, should be met with great applause and encouragement – rather than being described as “unlikely to change things” because Rawabet is still a “cultural hub”. It was this sentence that really got goose bumps on my skin! I am not sure where to start, really. What is a “cultural hub”? Are people differentiated as cultural or not? If yes, how can you force a “non-cultural person” to come to a theatre? Should BuSSy take another “non-cultural” form, other than a performance on a stage, to fit for the needs of the “non-cultural”? Are we really that naïve to believe the “AUC crowd” is the same audience as that of “Rawabet”? Why are we bothered with translating the scripts if they are the same audience then? Should we ignore pieces coming in from authors who express themselves in English, Arabic, or a code-switching medium because they are either too “cultural” or too “non-cultural”? Aren’t those authors – “cultural” AND “non-cultural” - living among us as well? All those questions seem to be ignored by her before she embarked upon such an educated guess of hers – Rawabet isn’t likely to change things.

Apart from technicalities now… I believe that art is divided into two abstract parts; content and form. And in all cases, it has to be judged without the interference of a “sore-bottom’s” effect. That’s where she got all confused; the difference between sore bottoms and orange fudges among chocolate boxes. Miss Singer can have as criticizing opinions about actors positively or negatively as she pleases, however I tend to believe her criticisms would have been a lot more positive if she was seated on a chaise longue and perhaps only then all BuSSies would have been her favorite buffoons. Miss Singer can have personal opinions about movies and scripts and plot lines, but I tend to believe she can’t be coarse towards real life experiences, for example she describes “Elusive” as a piece for a girl who “needs to eat less”. Imagine the author reading that?! Under the umbrella of strict censorship, hesitant support from responsible entities, intimacy of the only allowed theatre and the great devotion of youthful yet an amateur student cast, I think the writer should broaden her expectations of “women issues”. Thus, I am glad to declare that BuSSy isn’t at all evaluated by the nine months efforts that were put into it, but by comfortable vs. sore bottoms. It is the same as claiming that it is not evaluated by Bailey’s filled Swiss chocolate versus orange fudges but rather by the color of the covering of the box of chocolates.

Without me getting too Forrest-Gumpish about things, BuSSy is a box of chocolates with 29 chocolates, that are of 29 different flavors and not one orange fudge – and no sore bottoms.

Read Singer's Article here.