Illinois Wesleyan University DDiiggiittaall CCoommmmoonnss @@ IIWWUU Honors Projects Theatre Arts, School of 2005 AArraabbiiaann NNiigghhttss ((TThhee FFrraammiinngg ooff SShheerraazzaaddee)) Alison Daigle '05 Illinois Wesleyan University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/theatre_honproj Part of the Theatre and Performance Studies Commons Recommended Citation Daigle '05, Alison, "Arabian Nights (The Framing of Sherazade)" (2005). Honors Projects. 5. https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/theatre_honproj/5 This Article is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Commons @ IWU with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this material in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This material has been accepted for inclusion by faculty at Illinois Wesleyan University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ©Copyright is owned by the author of this document. ARSAB ANNI6 ( Written and Directed by Alison Daigle In Collaboration With: Sally Bell Annie DiMaria Katie Genualdi Li a Karlin Elizabeth Olson Rachel Sinead Price Elizabeth Hope Williams and Jen Houghton (Production Designer) Script, Rehearsal Journals, Still Photographs, Final Response Paper, Annotated Bibliography And Video Recording (Separate) April 2005 ---. Arabian Nights (The Framing of Sherazade) Written by Alison Daigle In Collaboration with: Sally Bell Annie DiMaria Katie Genualdi Lisa Karlin Elizabeth Olson Rachel Sinead Price Elizabeth Hope Williams and Jen Houghton (Production Designer) This script is the result of a three-month devising process that took place between January and March of 2005, directed by Alison Daigle and advised by Sara Freeman. The original performances (with the actresses listed above) took place on April 2 and 3, 2005, at the Phoenix Theatre on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois. For further information, please contact: Alison Daigle 959 Jameson Way Westmont,IL 60559 [email protected] --. 2 1 - Exterior Frame (Music. Women with fabric pieces. Fabric is unfurled, laid carefully on the floor. This is a ritual. The fabric is affixed to a center ring and raised to the ceiling. All move to center; Annie is lifted to affix the ring to the ceiling, then to attach the center lamp. The jinallight is lit. All relax into their positions; music fades and lights grow brighter. Stillness.) (The following begins from rest.) Katie: I am Sherazade. (All women snap into motion.) Annie: How can I finish the tale? Lisa: I am Sherazade. Liz: If you believe me, then I'm successful. Rachel: I am Sherazade. Elizabeth: You think you can be called Sherazade, just like that? Liz: Did she call the system into question or merely propagate it? (Elizabeth and Liz: SLIDE game number one) Elizabeth: Don't ever call me a bird again or I'll do you in. Sally: I'm not trying to escape responsibility. If you believe me, then I'm successful. Lisa: I tell the tales I need to tell, I want to tell. Annie: I am Sherazade. Lisa: I choose the things I tell. Rachel: I am Sherazade. Sally: Lives are summarized and episodes left out to make it all go my way. Katie: Did this woman's downfall lie in her inability to separate the body from the soul? The physical act of sex from love and affection? - or did she separate it too well, saying, (women move at increased tempo) "fine, I will show you what happens with only a body ..." Arabian Nights (The Framing ofSherazade) - Alison Daigle, 2005 • 3 Sally: Sherazade always disconcerted them. (motion stops; SLIDE stops) Annie: The indicator on the radio dial normally moved ceaselessly from one station to another, as she always thought the next would be better. Rachel: I find that people tend to pay more attention to the content - perhaps out of a long­ standing misguided notion that women, unlike men, are more concerned with form. (All begin to move to standing outward-facing circle) All: I am Sherazade. (All: Snap to tightrope) Liz: I am not words, compiled and confined. Lisa: (circling) I am breathing, bleeding, eating, sweating, thinking, deciding, changing. Liz: I hate that you cannot match me. (Annie and Sally begin SLIDE game number two.) Katie: My words ensnare you - my will and my sounds are stronger, yet you think I am needy. Liz, Rachel, Elizabeth: I am. Elizabeth: I am all of your female role models - rolled up in your sheets wearing a mask of Marilyn Monroe. Rachel: I am my enemy. I befriend these women because they are strong, intelligent, creative, and mysterious, but also because it is important to keep those you fear by your side Katie and Lisa: I am the mother, the lover, the virgin. Liz: The power to love men and understand them even when they don't understand themselves. Elizabeth: Does the strong, ideal woman strengthen women or weaken women? Is she one or all? Rachel: "Feminine" can be read as the living, as ,something that continues to escape all boundaries, that cannot be pinned down, controlled, or even conceptualized. Elizabeth: Cannot be arrested and which remains ­ Arabian Nights (The Framing ofSherazade) - Alison Daigle, 2005 4 (All move into seated center circle. SLIDE stops.) All: Elusive (All: Face Wash) Liz: What women want is sovereignty over their husbands. Lisa: That is love. (Liz and Lisa begin SLIDE) Elizabeth: Where can I buy a burqua like the ones the women wear in Afghanistan - the blue one? I want one that goes from head to toe. Rachel: I instinctively search for an exit for my head and hands and, finding none, thrash like a child. (Elizabeth and Rachel begin SLIDE) Sally: Almost everything is yet to be written by women about their infinite and complex sexuality, their eroticism. Annie: Stupidity in a woman is unfeminine. (Sally and Annie begin SLIDE) Elizabeth: I shared with you my wisdom, and you gave me snakes for hair. One always wonders ifthe story of a life is "it must be so" or "it could just as well be otherwise." But is not an event in fact more significant and noteworthy the greater the number of fortuities necessary to bring it about? Where can I buy a burqua like the ones the women wear in Afghanistan? What women want is sovereignty. You think you can be called Sherazade, just like that? All: I am Sherazade. (SLIDE stops; all turn to look at Elizabeth) Arabian Nights (The Framing ofSherazade) - Alison Daigle, 2005 - 5 Lisa: I hate that you cannot match me. Liz: It must be so. Annie: It could just as well be otherwise. Katie: You came here so I could tell you a story. Elizabeth: Don't ever call me a bird again or I'll do you in. Sally: I came here to tell you a story. Annie, Katie, Elizabeth: A story. Sally: A story. Rachel: A give-and-take relationship. Lisa: I give you my story. Lisa, Liz, Sally: Your story. All: The story. Rachel: You give me something back. Sally: It could just as well be otherwise. (End in standing circle, facing outward.) All clap. All turn and swiftly walk around outside circle. Music.. Women peel offone-by-one to take their places as others continue to circle: Elizabeth Sally Annie Lisa Rachel Katie Liz One at a time, as each is freed, she takes her place for the next scene. Arabian Nights (The Framing ofSherazade) - Alison Daigle, 2005 6 When all are in place, all clap together. Elizabeth stomps; the rhythm ofthe stomps snaps women into setpositionsfor start ofnextscene. Music snaps out. 2 - Sherazade Frame Tale (Tableau: A/Elizabeth/Shahryar on block; B, C, D [Sally, Annie, Lisa] stand in horizontal line infrontofblock. Narrators [Liz, Katie, Rachel] sitin outward-Jacingcircle.) Liz: There once was a king named Shahryar who was regarded as great and wise. One day, however, his brother, Shahzaman, informed him that each time he left the palace on a hunting expedition, his wife was unfaithful to him. (Shahryar ties on sash/scabbard belt) (BCD hand slap) A: When he saw this, the world turned dark before his eyes. BCD: Betrayal (hand slap; Afoot stomp x2; BCD circle counter-clockwise) Rachel: When Shahryar saw with his own eyes that what he had been told was true, he had his wife executed. (hand slap) A: How could she have done this to me? How could she have brought about her own death? BCD: Wrath (hand slap; foot stomp; circle) Katie: Searching for solace, he and his brother, Shahzaman, journeyed to Shahzaman's kingdom, where they were surprised to discover that the situation was the same: this queen too was unfaithful to her husband. (hand slap) A: This only proves that all women will make cuckolds oftheir husbands when given a chance. BCD: Self-victimization Arabian Nights (The Framing ofSherazade) - Alison Daigle, 2005 • 7 (hand slap; foot stomp; circle) Liz: King Shahryar and his brother were driven mad with grief. Searching for solace in their misery, they vowed to travel the land until they discovered someone whose woe was greater than theirs. (hand slap) A: No man in this world is safe from the malice ofwomen. BCD: The malice ofwomen (hand slap; stomp; circle) Rachel: They soon carne upon a terrifyingjinnee sleeping beneath a tree. As they tried to sneak away unnoticed, however, they were hailed by the jinnee's wife, who commanded that they each lie with her. (hand slap) A: By Allah, life is nothing but one great wrong. BCD: Justification (hand slap, stomp, circle) Katie: "In order to keep me for himself alone," the woman explained, "my husband keeps me locked in a glass box at the bottom ofthe sea. But when he sleeps, I free myself and lie with whomever I desire." (hand slap) A: Indeed, the malice ofwomen is mighty. BCD: The malice ofwomen is mighty (hand slap; stomp; circle) Liz: After each brother had slept with the jinnee's wife, they decided to return horne, as it seemed that in the jinee they had discovered a man whose lot in life was worse than their own. (hand slap) A: May Allah help us and save us from women's malice and cunning. It seems nothing can surpass their power. Arabian Nights (The Framing ofSherazade) - Alison Daigle, 2005 8 BCD: Avoidance (hand slap, stomp, circle) (Shahryar begins binding breasts) Rachel: When the king returned to his palace, he said to himself that all women must be malicious and conniving. And so he vowed from thereon to take a virgin bride each night and have her executed promptly the next morning. (hand slap) A: Rage and grief are quite understandable and excusable. BCD: Rationalization (hand slap; stomp; circle) Elizabeth: Rage and grief and quite understandable and excusable. (scenario breaks down) Rage and grief are quite understandable and excusable. Rage and grief are quite understandable and excusable. Rage and grief are quite understandable and excusable. All women climb monkey bars - a row ofhanging women. Elizabeth slaps. And so the king vowed to take a bride each night and have her executed promptly the next morning. All women drop to dead hang. Hold as long as possible, dropping when necessary to quick exit or remaining neutral on the floor. When allare offthe monkey bars, Sally andAnnie begin offstagegame ofSLIDE. Liz, Lisa, Elizabeth, and Rachel set up box. (Katie enters and turns on light. She is in shadow.) Woman in Box (Katie): I am the women you remember. You wanted to categorize me so you could keep me. I introduced myself as a bastion of sovereign female wisdom, a demonstration of wholeness and balance, and you gave me snakes for hair. I always disconcerted you. I am not Arabian Nights (The Framing ofSherazade) - Alison Daigle, 2005