美国国家公共电台 NPR A Syrian Playwright's Struggle To Tell A Love Story In Arkansas

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

A playwright¹ set out to tell a love story that challenges American perceptions of her hometown, Damascus, Syria. But she got a tough lesson on what can happen when art and politics collide and how the heartache of the U.S. government's travel ban stretches all the way to a stage in northwest Arkansas.

Here's NPR's Hannah Allam on the bittersweet journey to this weekend's debut² performance.

KHOLOUD SAWAF: (Foreign language spoken). Welcome to the set of "10,000 Balconies."

HANNAH ALLAM, BYLINE³: That's Syrian director Kholoud Sawaf at TheatreSquared, a playhouse in a gleaming new building in Fayetteville, Ark. She's in final rehearsals⁴ for a workshop production of her play "10,000 Balconies." It's crunch⁵ time, and Sawaf's darting⁶ around the set, figuring out last minute details, like where to put trays of Syrian pastries⁷ and tamarind juice for the audience.

SAWAF: It's just immediately welcoming them with food and positive smell, you know, flowers and a drink and music. That's - you're immediately suggesting a world that's different than the expectations.

ALLAM: Sawaf says her play is inspired by "Romeo And Juliet," only her star-crossed lovers are named Ramon (ph) and Jasmine (ph). And instead of Verona, this romance unfolds on the balconies in modern day Damascus.

(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "10,000 BALCONIES")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters) (Foreign language spoken).

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) In Damascus, the doves fly behind the silk (ph) fence two by two.

ALLAM: Just a few months ago, Sawaf wasn't sure she'd ever hear these scenes on stage. The idea had seemed simple enough back in 2016 - put on a play, a love letter to Syria. Then that quest turned into a three-year ordeal⁸ that sounds like its own Shakespearean drama - heroes, villains⁹, war and sorrow.

SAWAF: There was definitely moments of collapse¹⁰, just complete suspicion, complete questioning, complete - can I do this?

ALLAM: Sawaf left Syria in 2012 and came to Arkansas for grad school. She felt conspicuous¹¹ as a headscarf-wearing Muslim woman in the Bible Belt. There were stares, offensive comments. She started writing a play, a way to share the parts of Syria and the Middle East that Americans rarely see. With the 2016 presidential election, her mission took on urgency. Campaign speech vilified¹² immigrants and Muslims. The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation awarded Sawaf's project a $250,000 grant through TheatreSquared. Just a side note - the foundation is also a financial supporter of NPR. The funding allowed Sawaf's vision to take shape.

SAWAF: All the possibilities that you start imagining - it's like, OK, run with the dream. Here is an open door.

ALLAM: Sawaf got busy writing and then refining her script. But when she asked for feedback, she was stunned¹³ to hear fellow artists repeating stereotypical¹⁴ views of Muslim and Arab culture. One asked Sawaf why her story didn't include an honor killing¹⁵.

SAWAF: That has shaken me for three years. And I was like, OK, I have to take it into closed doors and work hard before I could expose it again

ALLAM: She was still plugging away on the project when it suffered another blow in early 2017. President Trump¹⁶ took office and within days announced a travel ban on several majority Muslim countries, including Syria. That killed any chance of bringing in Syrian artists and musicians. Worse - Sawaf's parents had just resettled in Canada, but it felt like they were as far away as ever.

SAWAF: We were very hopeful that would allow us to see each other, and it only feels more painful to be just across the border and not being able to do it.

ALLAM: They were stuck on opposite sides - Sawaf's parents in Canada where her mom was receiving treatment for breast cancer and Sawaf in Arkansas, feeling the love drained from the love story she was trying to write. Under the travel ban, if she left the U.S., she wouldn't be allowed to return.

SAWAF: You can't help but feel that you are in prison, even if the prison is big and gold.

ALLAM: She fell into extended periods of despair and grief over the war back home, the travel ban, her mother's illness, the isolation¹⁷ in Arkansas. She couldn't write, couldn't think. For months, Sawaf says, she could barely get out of bed.

SAWAF: It took a lot of processing, getting over loss. It took a lot of support from great friends and collaborators.

ALLAM: One of them is an old friend from grad school, Laura Shatkus. She's co-creator of "10,000 Balconies." Laura's eyes fill with tears when she describes watching her friend work through the trauma¹⁸.

LAURA SHATKUS: It's been a rich, extremely rich, artistic¹⁹ experience to watch the thing go from something that scared her and made her upset to something that she approaches with total joy.

ALLAM: Sawaf credits Shatkus for helping²⁰ to revive the play. Ultimately, though, Sawaf knew she had to find it in herself to save the project, so she let go of some of the Shakespearean influence, and she allowed in the themes she once fought to keep out - war and displacement²¹. She knew she'd be all right when her dark sense of humor resurfaced. For example, she wrote a line about striking a yoga pose to avoid sniper fire.

SAWAF: OK. That can be in the play. Now I'm back (laughter).

ALLAM: But the clock was ticking. Her artist visa was running out, and she'd lost months on the project, so she had to scramble²² to come up with a cast and crew. A renowned²³ Lebanese musician in New York wrote original music. And she says she lucked out with the actors, finding Arab and Arab American artists in other cities.

MUHAMMAD ALI RIFAI: My name is Muhammad Ali Rifai (ph). I am a Syrian actor.

ALLAM: Muhammad has only been in the U.S. for a couple of years, and he's become a sounding board for Sawaf. She relies on his help bringing to stage the Damascus they know.

RIFAI: I knew that she is really going to fight for it because she believes in it. And as a Syrian, I saw in her eyes for that feeling that, yes, we are keep going. We are not giving up.

SAWAF: I thought we would all benefit from seeing it all together again, yes?

UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: Yes.

SAWAF: Excellent. Have fun.

ALLAM: Sawaf was directing one of the last rehearsals before opening night. It was a culmination²⁴ of her long struggle to bring this play to life.

SAWAF: It's definitely a combination of love and loss. And it feels unfinished, and I think I'm OK with that.

(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "10,000 BALCONIES")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (Singing in foreign language).

ALLAM: It's a first run and not exactly the love story she dreamed of, but there it was on stage - a patch of Damascus in Arkansas.

Hannah Allam, NPR News, Fayetteville.

(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "10,000 BALCONIES")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (Singing in foreign language).

SIMON: And that story was produced by Marisa Penaloza.

(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "10,000 BALCONIES")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (Singing in foreign language).

1 playwright   

n.剧作家，编写剧本的人

参考例句：

• Gwyn Thomas was a famous playwright.格温·托马斯是著名的剧作家。
• The playwright was slaughtered by the press.这位剧作家受到新闻界的无情批判。

2 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 rehearsals   

n.练习( rehearsal的名词复数 )；排练；复述；重复

参考例句：

• The earlier protests had just been dress rehearsals for full-scale revolution. 早期的抗议仅仅是大革命开始前的预演。
• She worked like a demon all through rehearsals. 她每次排演时始终精力过人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 crunch   

n.关键时刻；艰难局面；v.发出碎裂声

参考例句：

• If it comes to the crunch they'll support us.关键时刻他们是会支持我们的。
• People who crunch nuts at the movies can be very annoying.看电影时嘎吱作声地嚼干果的人会使人十分讨厌。

6 darting   

v.投掷，投射( dart的现在分词 )；向前冲，飞奔

参考例句：

• Swallows were darting through the clouds. 燕子穿云急飞。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Swallows were darting through the air. 燕子在空中掠过。 来自辞典例句

7 pastries   

n.面粉制的糕点

参考例句：

• He gave a dry laugh, then sat down and started on the pastries. 杜新箨说着干笑一声，坐下去就吃点心。 来自子夜部分
• Mike: So many! I like Xijiang raisins, beef jerky, and local pastries. 麦克：太多了。我最喜欢吃新疆葡萄干、牛肉干和风味点心。

8 ordeal   

n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验

参考例句：

• She managed to keep her sanity throughout the ordeal.在那场磨难中她始终保持神志正常。
• Being lost in the wilderness for a week was an ordeal for me.在荒野里迷路一星期对我来说真是一场磨难。

9 villains   

n.恶棍( villain的名词复数 )；罪犯；（小说、戏剧等中的）反面人物；淘气鬼

参考例句：

• The impression of villains was inescapable. 留下恶棍的印象是不可避免的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Some villains robbed the widow of the savings. 有几个歹徒将寡妇的积蓄劫走了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

10 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

11 conspicuous   

adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的

参考例句：

• It is conspicuous that smoking is harmful to health.很明显，抽烟对健康有害。
• Its colouring makes it highly conspicuous.它的色彩使它非常惹人注目。

12 vilified   

v.中伤，诽谤( vilify的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was vilified in newspapers. 他在报纸上受到了诽谤。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She was vilified by the press for her controversial views. 因她持有异议，新闻界对她横加挞伐。 来自互联网

13 stunned   

adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The fall stunned me for a moment. 那一下摔得我昏迷了片刻。
• The leaders of the Kopper Company were then stunned speechless. 科伯公司的领导们当时被惊得目瞪口呆。

14 stereotypical   

n.常规

参考例句：

• Personas should be typical and believable, but not stereotypical. 人物角色应该是典型和可信赖的，但不是一成不变的。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Anything could be stereotypical, so I guess it could be criticism. 任何东西都可以变的老套，所以我猜那就是一种批评。 来自互联网

15 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

16 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

17 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。

18 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

19 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

20 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

21 displacement   

n.移置，取代，位移，排水量

参考例句：

• They said that time is the feeling of spatial displacement.他们说时间是空间位移的感觉。
• The displacement of all my energy into caring for the baby.我所有精力都放在了照顾宝宝上。

22 scramble   

v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料

参考例句：

• He broke his leg in his scramble down the wall.他爬墙摔断了腿。
• It was a long scramble to the top of the hill.到山顶须要爬登一段长路。

23 renowned   

adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的

参考例句：

• He is one of the world's renowned writers.他是世界上知名的作家之一。
• She is renowned for her advocacy of human rights.她以提倡人权而闻名。

24 culmination   

n.顶点；最高潮

参考例句：

• The space race reached its culmination in the first moon walk.太空竞争以第一次在月球行走而达到顶峰。
• It may truly be regarded as the culmination of classical Greek geometry.这确实可以看成是古典希腊几何的登峰造级之作。