Spotlight on migration background

Without somebody on stage, limelight is just cruel. The same goes for the almost pitch black “studio” in the Westfälischen Landestheater (WLT) which has the appeal of an interrogation room without actors and audience. And this analogy is not even too far fetched: in a few minutes, half a dozen people is subject to an intense interview. The reason: they or their parents are not born in Germany, so they are foreigners, immigrants, Germans with a migration background. But nobody accuses them of their origin  – on the contrary. Exactly because of their background, they are asked to make theatre – and use their history while they are at it. 

The WLT in Castrop-Rauxel has titled this workshop "In Zukunft" (In The Future) because in the future, more plays are to be shown (in Castrop and elsewhere) which describe life from the migrants’ perspective. This shouldn’t be a problem due to the fact that almost a quarter of Germany’s population has a migration background. Nevertheless, it is a problem: Christian Scholze, the directing dramatic advisor of the WLT, has already staged Feridun Zaimoglu’s "Schwarze Jungfrauen" (Black Virgins) and the film adaption by Fatih Akin "Auf der anderen Seite" (On The Other Side).

drama professor Obexer, directing dramatic advisor Scholze (c) Grabowski

"After some time, I couldn’t find any more interesting authors", Schulze says, almost apologetically. But he made the best of it and initiated the workshop “In The Future” in March: writers with a migration family history were to apply for a kind of attended writing: they were offered eight week-end meetings for intense work on their own play in the WLT, under the helping tutelage of the drama professor Maxi Obexer and Scholze. Finally, nine participants were chosen among the 25 applicants.

Talents with a past

...who have been sitting in the theatre mekka Castrop one week-end a month now for months and recite what they’ve been writing or re-writing within the last month now. Akin, Tanya, Jubril, Oleg, Samia, Michael, Nesrin, Sinan, and Fahimeh deal with the respective texts for about half an hour each. Somehow, the are all professionals, and have been working as actors, journalists, curators, or producers for years. Akin Sipal, the youngest, is born in Essen and grew up in Gelsenkirchen, now, he studies film in Hamburg – and he is the grand-son of the current Tarabya awardee Kamuran Sipal who has translated (among others) Franz Kafka works into Turkish.

Also among the nine: Fahime Farsaie, a well-known Iranian exile writer, and Sinan Akkus who is not only a member of the "Stromberg" (a popular German TV series) cast, but already had some success as a director with his film "Evet, ich will" (“Evet, I do”) which he now wants to adapt for stage.

group picture with drama professor (c) Grabowski

Stage drama - a demanding field

As a Berlin-based, born South Tyrolean, teacher Maxi Obexer is a migrant herself. To transfer the specific perspective of people with such a life experience to stage interested her right from the start, the strawberry blonde, short-haired, feisty woman says. "You cannot teach writing per se in such a workshop", Obexer adds – so, of course the participants are no laypersons. What she wants to teach all of them is the specific requirements for writing a theatre play, show them dramaturgical characteristics, and guide the group during the creative process.

But once again, the group is not completely present on this November Saturday – at least one of them has to be on a film set, at a reading, or perform somewhere because they need the money – today, three members are missing. The six who have made it sing songs of praise regarding the working atmosphere, the constructive criticism by teacher and dramatic advisor, the huge respect they have for the person and for the work of the respective other, even when talking one-on-one. The sentence: “This is incredibly informative!” is used very often.

"Call Shop" writer Jubril Sulaimon (c) Grabowski

Today, the first text to be discussed is Jubril Sulaimon’s play "Call Shop" which is set in one of the phone shops of the same name with low prices for long distance calls. The actor who lives in Dortmund reads from the opening scene in which the East Asian call shop clerk and her customer from Mali muse about origin-induced phoning habits (West Africans are notorious for their loud voices while telephoning, that is why they have to use the soundproof cabin) and the excessive expectations of their friends or relatives who have stayed at home. After Jubril’s reading, there is a long debate on the plausibility of his protagonists’ motives, on sense and nonsense of essay-like, political monologues on stage and translated foreign answering machine messages. Jubril listens, explains, makes notes for the next writing session – and then, it is the next one’s turn.

All plays should be performed

At the end of the workshop in May 2012, a scenic reading of all plays is planned. After that reading, an independent jury will choose a winner – the award: her or his play will be performed at the WLT. "But we’re trying to get all nine plays ready for staging – if not for our house, then for other theatres", says dramatic advisor Christian Scholze, "and I am very optimistic as far as that goal is concerned." In case his project is successful, nine more writers with very special life experiences are won for the stage. By the way – the limelight was a lot less cruel when they all sat in the centre of it...