‘Keffiyeh/Made in China’
Mosaic Theater Company
Mosaictheater.org
For Adam M. Kassim, directing Mosaic Theater Company’s virtual production of West Bank-based playwright Dalia Taha’s “Keffiyeh/Made in China,” a collection of slice-of-life stories from the occupation, has been a gift.
It’s offered the Palestinian American director a way to reconnect with his “Palestinian side,” and has helped to ease a strained relationship with his father.
“But it’s a gift that comes with responsibilities,” explains Kassim who lives in Boston with his husband he met on Facebook 15 years ago. “One of the great things about the play is the way it investigates how the occupation effects the daily lives of people and their most intimate relationships which is so different from what the media portrays them. It’s important that audiences see this.”
Though “Keffiyeh” debuted in 2012 and was subsequently published as part of the anthology “Inside/Outside: Six Plays from Palestine and the Diaspora,” Kassim, 38, didn’t get around to reading the play until after being tapped by Mosaic to direct.
“It’s unlike anything I’d read before,” he says. “First thing, structurally and aesthetically it’s unique. Neither entirely realistic nor linear, the scenes are connected thematically. In American theater plays trend toward naturalism, things that are cinematic and filmic and this was the opposite. It’s the Ramallah-based playwright’s undeniable celebration of theatricality that drew me to the work.
However, because it isn’t cinematic, the filming experience can be extremely challenging, he says. “But lucky for me, I’m working with a wonderful production designer, Mona Kasra. She figuratively holds my hand as we talk about scenes and do story boarding for hours. She’s been my work wife.”
“Keffiyeh” is being streamed in seven short (ten to fifteen-long) episodes to be released incrementally every two weeks through July. A mix of humor, drama and sadness, the episodes vary in style and content, and the actors are drawn from a cast of five.
The play’s first (currently-released) episode, “60 Second,” features Dina Soltan and queer Palestinian American performance artist Fargo Tbakhi as a man and woman who following tragedy attempt to connect inside “the finite time of a viral video, a digital resurrection, and a playwright’s mind.”
Upcoming episodes include titles like “Craving Mangoes,” “Crowdedness,” and “The Unhappy Writer.”
Mosaic’s decision to film Keffiyeh was the confluence of various factors, explains Serge Seiden, Mosaic’s managing director and producer.
Besides fulfilling Mosaic’s mission to present independent, intercultural, entertaining, and uncensored programming, they needed a work that would serve as a Voices from a Changing Middle East Festival offering; respond to We See You, White American Theater letter, an accountability report has been published, acknowledging over 100 theater organizations across America that have responded to the BIPOC demands of the community; and satisfy a more collaborative decision making process in the absence of an artistic director.
“And, of course, COVID-19 played into our decision,” he adds. “The scale of the project — filming scenes in a black box space at Atlas Performing Arts Center – worked for us.”
Additionally, Mosaic was pleased to present an authentic voice with a play written by a Palestinian. “We also like that it’s not didactic,” Seiden adds. “It’s not a play about politics per se. It’s a play about ordinary people’s lives under occupation.”
“Mosaic is responding to the ongoing challenge of the occupation through art. It just happens that our latest offering is being released at the time of a terrible upwelling of violence. If anything, it’s more important for people to know these are human beings suffering. They are more than victims or numbers.”
“Keffiyeh” is presented in seven episodes now through July and is included with the purchase of a 21/22 Membership. A stand-alone “Keffiyeh” subscription is also available for purchase.
