Arabian Nights

AUS recently put on Mary Zimmerman's production of Arabian Nights, based on the Thousand Nights and One Night stories. It was dramatic and musical and funny and so well done. I went to (almost) all the performances because I was the pianist, but I was sitting in the balcony area so my view wasn't the best. The night Miriam and Magdalena attended, I had already "seen" the play five or six times. So from my perch, I watched them watching the play. I loved seeing them giggle at the silly parts and be entranced by the dramatic parts.

It was also a lovely cultural experience. I continue to be amazed at the students here. Can you imagine the difficulties of pulling together a cast of a few dozen people from so many different countries, backgrounds, religions, and native languages? It ended up being beautiful - each person brought a particular flavor to their role.

For example, have you ever wanted to see a veiled woman playing an American cowboy spurned lover, complete with accent, hat, and rubber chicken?

Other highlights:

 Scheherazade and the Sultan.

 These two were the best, even if I can't remember their character names.

 The set. It was even more stunning in real life and I wish they could have left it like that - it's actually just the rotunda central area in a regular old building (the arts building - or "old business building" as it's sometimes STILL called). The audience was practically on stage with the actors, which made it even more fun for the girls when they attended.

It didn't involve these particular characters, but there was one story - it might actually have been a story within a story within a story, there were a few of those - that centered on a fart. You'd better believe the girls enjoyed that.

I'm so glad for awesome cultural events like this! And it was fun to be a part of it each night.