FROM PHILIP HIMBERG (Producing Artistic Director):
We awoke to Bernard’s wonderfully healthy breakfast and got down to work. We already had our first “crisis”. During the night, we had received an e-mail from Deborah in Nairobi who was preparing to greet all of our visitors and escort them to Lamu. One of our Lab Fellows, Odile Katese, from Rwanda had phoned her during the night to say she suddenly could not come. Pressures at work that put her job at risk had conspired to force her to change her plans. Most of remainder of her team was enroute – her choreographer and two musicians. It was a bit of a blow for us, but as we are trying hard to be as the Lamuans: “Inshallah”, as they say here – it translates from the Arabic to mean: “As It is Meant to Be or As It is Willed”, and so, we went forward. In our first meetings with each Lab project tomorrow, we will assess how the remainder of the Rwandan team can move ahead, and, if need be, we will have our extraordinary U.S. director/creative advisor, Liesl Tommy, to help guide that play. Our disappointment gave way to a slew of creative solutions to this and to knowing that many things will go “off point” in this remote corner of the world. We are ready!
We wrangled with some internet issues: connecting takes much patience, and much time (we may try to solve that in another way in the next couple of days), and we caught up on business. We visited all the houses we are using for our guests, and made sure that all was in order. We also visited Wayne MacGregor’s Dance Studio, which his being gifted to us for three weeks by this remarkable and visionary British choreographer. How do I describe this room and this compound? It is a 60 x 60 foot second story gorgeously simple but stunning Ballet and Dance Studio with a roof of thatch that must go up at least 60 or 70 feet at its height. From the rings of about 30 windows that grace all four sides, you can see the ocean at a dozen angles. What a treat, to have this space as our primary work and meeting place. We met Wayne’s parents who gave us a tour of the Studio and the House (the bathrooms were larger than most New York apartments). Feeling blessed, we came back home and after a light lunch, Roberta and I did a quick dip in the ocean to calm us before the real work begins. (Christopher being Iowan, preferred a glass of white wine to the salt water!)
Walking down the beach over the coral and the white sands, I think: “How did this Lab come to be?” The answer is simple – it began with an idea (“what if we created a Lab on African soil – just to see how that would go?”), and then a chance meeting in Nairobi, with literary artists who regularly visited a place called Lamu, followed by a huge amount of work – by Roberta, Deborah and Christopher to assure that the multitude of logistics were considered on all sides. It also came to be because our experience in East Africa over the last few years, during our visits here, taught us much about what artists said they needed – that rare space of time that all artists yearn for in which to dream and to work collaboratively. They wanted that space between writing a play and producing a play, where the work can go much deeper.
But still, it is a kind of miracle – to have dreamed this dream and now be actually poised to welcome and receive 17 East Africans from five countries.
At Diamond Beach, the entire staff was scurrying around to make sure every detail was in place. Drinks were lined up with delicate wedges of lime, ready to be poured. The blackboard over the bar said, “SUNDANCE KARIBU” (Welcome). It was our own Utah version of the “Owl Bar”. We meet Kombo who works at Diamond Beach who tells us his name has two meanings. One he is “okay” with; one he is not. The first meaning is “something curved” – like a river or a road. We tell him, “Life is like that, no? What a great image for a name!” He likes that we see it that way. The other definition is “Left Overs”. He can’t find anything good in that. Roberta tells him, “well, if you have left overs after a great meal, you have bounty, fullness, which is a good thing.” “You are only here five minutes and I am happy already,” Kombo says, “You have made me like my name.” (OH! And, one of the workers is wearing that odd t-shirt from Miranda July’s film that was at the Festival. That T-shirt that is made of symbols that means something like: “Pooping back and forth!” “Where did you get that shirt?” I ask the man. “In Lamu”, he says. So the Film Festival is well represented here on Manda. It is a small world!)
And, at last just before the sun went lower, came the BOATS! Two big Dhows loaded with our Sundance Lab folk! They tumbled out into the shallow salt water, aided by the Dhow drivers, some women carried over the waves, some jumping into the waves, and we hugged and hugged – those that we knew, those that we have yet to meet. “Karibu to Sundance!” we shouted. I was hugged so tightly by Mrisho Mpoto, our wonderful musician friend from Dar es Salaam. The two musicians from Rwanda who I had met in Butare at the University gave me big bear hugs too. “You are here?” they said, incredulously. “We did not know YOU would be here too! We are so happy!” THEY were happy? It was hard for me to contain my tears of joy. Out from the boat came our dear Liesl Tommy (who shepherded and directed THE GOOD NEGRO at Sundance and in New York, and Deborah’s reading at The Public Theater in NY). She was laughing. “Where have you brought me!? This is another world!” Yes, it is! “Sundance is everywhere!” I said.
I finally get to meet George Seremba, the celebrated Uganda author/playwright, now living in exile in Ireland. He is staying at our house so I walked him down the beach and we talked about Ugandan friends in common, especially Robert Seramaga, the great theatre creator and activist, who is dealing with great hardship in Kampala. What a kind warm and brilliant man George is. I cannot wait to get to know him better.
And now, I sit on my veranda, waiting for nightfall and to walk back to Diamond Beach for our first full dinner together under the stars. This is where we will all introduce ourselves – just as we do at Sundance in the Rehearsal Hall – and where official welcomes and blessings will be made. Everyone is exhausted from their day of travel – some woke at midnight last night to make early AM flights from home. Hopefully, when they all rest up they can even better appreciate this Island Paradise. Our orientation begins after breakfast tomorrow.
