Five Questions for Mary Zimmerman - Berkeley Repertory Theatre

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Five Questions for Mary Zimmerman………………………………………………………………………………………..…4
A Thousand and One Nights: The endless unfolding of a living document
By Alex Rosenthal……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….6
Geography of The Arabian Nights………………………………………………………………………………………………..8
Adaptations of The Arabian Nights……………………………………………………………………………….…………..10
Glossary of Terms used in The Arabian Nights…………………………………………………………………………….12
Discussion Questions……………………………………………………………………..……………………………….………..14
Covering the above material in class fulfills the following Language Arts Standards.
Reading
Grade 6: 1.3, 1.4, 2.2, 3.2, 3.4, 4.6
Grade 7: 1.1, 2.3, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4
Grade 8: 2.3, 3.2, 3.5, 3.7
Grades 9 & 10: 3.9
Grades 11& 12: 3.9
Covering the above material fulfill the following standards for History and Social Science
Framework for California Public Schools
Seventh Grade World History and Geography: Medieval and Early Modern Times
Standard 7.2- Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and
social structures of the civilizations of Islam in the Middle Ages.
Tenth Grade World History, Culture, and Geography: The Modern World
Standard 10.10- Students analyze instances of nation-building in the contemporary
world in at least two of the following regions or countries: the Middle East, Africa,
Mexico and other parts of Latin America, and China
Activities…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..15
Covering the above material in class fulfills the following Language Arts Standards.
Writing
Grades 6-12 : 2.1
Listening and Speaking
Grades 6-12: 2.1
Covering the above activities in class fulfills the following (Visual and Performing Arts)
Standards.
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Grade 6
1.1(Artistic Perception)
2.2 (Creative Expression)
2.3 (Creative Expression)
3.2 (Historical and Cultural Context)
Grade 7
1.1(Artistic Perception)
4.2 (Aesthetic Valuing)
Grade 8
1.1(Artistic Perception)
2.1 (Creative Expression)
Grades 9-12
1.1, 1.2 (Artistic Perception)
2.1 (Creative Expression)
3.2 (Historical and Cultural Context)
4.2 (Aesthetic Valuing)
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Five Questions for Mary Zimmerman on The Arabian Nights
What first drew you to this particular collection of stories?
The first production of The Arabian Nights was made by myself
and the Lookingglass Theatre Company of Chicago in 1992 in the
shadow of the first Gulf War. The project was inspired in particular
by two things I saw on television: one was a military official
boasting that we would bomb Iraq "back to the stone age;" the
other was a report on the nightly news concerning infant mortality
in the Middle East. The gist of this report was that women over
there had a whole lot of children and expected to lose a few along
the way -- the implication being that an Iraqi mother would
somehow experience the death of her child less acutely than, say,
oneself.
Are you saying that you believe certain feelings are universal, or
perhaps that we share an essential common humanity?
It is a precondition of war that we view other people as fundamentally different from ourselves; it is a
precondition of literature that we view other people as fundamentally the same. All my life I've found
myself in the ancient stories of faraway places and I've always drawn comfort from the feeling "it was
ever thus" with all of us: that we will experience violent change and loss; that we will look for love and
betray it; that we will make errors, both serious and trivial that make us feel embarrassed or ashamed
all our lives; that certain things will always be funny and others always sad. Although this seems utterly
self-evident, wartime works towards the erosion of empathy, explicitly delimiting the idea that all men
are brothers.
How, specifically, did politics and current events enter your thinking when you actually sat down to
envision what this play would look like?
Before beginning rehearsals for the first Arabian Nights (which, because of the way I work also means
before beginning to write it) I was full of a great many theoretical and overtly political ideas for its
staging that would call attention to is contemporary relevance. Yet the moment we began actually to
embody these stories virtually all of these preconceived ideas went right out the window. The stories
spoke more than loudly enough for themselves: their humanity, wisdom, humor, vulgarity, and poetry
were manifest, and with their tremendous will towards life they took over the rehearsal room as easily
as they take over King Shahryar. Almost none of that original impulse towards overt commentary
remains.
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Five Questions (cont.)
What can you share with us about your view of Scheherezade’s situation and her relationship with
Shahryar?
Scheherezade knows the power of these stories. By populating the darkened, isolated chamber of
Shahryar with imaginary characters she coaxes the murderous king back into the real world. Narrative
alters the course of reality and "the daughters of the Musselmen" are saved.
What do these stories tell us about ourselves and our world today?
Although even the happy stories in The Arabian Nights often end with an evocation of the finality of
death, the overall impression is the enduring, transformative power of narrative. In the tale of "The
Mock Kalifah," the great ruler Harun al-Rashid, disguised as a simple merchant, hides under a bridge
and watches a simple merchant disguised as Harun al-Rashid drift down the Tigris on an illuminated
boat. Each man aches to be the other. Since 2003 the ancient bridge whose shadows once hid Harun no
longer exists, but the story, part of the eternal bridge to Baghdad, does.
To save her life, Scherezade (Sofia Jean Gomez) must tell tales to the king (Ryan Artzberger).
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A Thousand and One Nights:
The endless unfolding of a living document
By Alex Rosenthal
Dawn is deadly for Scheherezade. The sun’s rising each day marks the scheduled hour of her execution,
which she can only defer with one tool: the cliffhanger. This device saves Scheherezade repeatedly, and
in the process buys her the time she needs to spin together the story she will tell the following night. In
this way she creates the series of stories collectively known as The Arabian Nights. These stories have
been translated and adapted scores of times over the last millennium. In fact, the history of The
Arabian Nights is as full of twists as the narratives within its pages. But the original collection and its
subsequent retellings would have never held together without a binding frame story, which
Scheherezade’s predicament has provided for the entertainment of countless cultures and generations.
The basic frame story is as follows: King Shahryar, having walked in on his wife in the throes of passion
with another man, has begun marrying a virgin every night and killing her the next morning to ensure
he’ll never be betrayed again. When it is Scheherezade’s turn, she devises a plan to save herself and the
country’s dwindling population of virgins. She will tell the king a series of sexy, magical, action-packed
stories and be sure to leave off at crucial moments, thereby forcing Shahryar to keep her alive for one
more day so that he can satiate his burning need for resolution. Scheherazade has everything riding on
the success her stories; if she loses Shahryar’s interest or finishes a story too soon, her life is forfeit.
Scheherezade’s conundrum dates back over a thousand years, and, much like Homer’s Odyssey and
other classical works, finds its origins in an oral storytelling tradition. This makes it essentially
impossible to trace a particular story within the collection of The Arabian Nights to its inception.
However, one of the first recorded references to Scheherezade’s story was found in the writings of
tenth century Arab historians. They described collections of stories, framed by Scheherezade and
broken into divisions of nights, much like The Arabian Nights which we are familiar with. These early
collections, which have since been lost, provided the foundation for a 13th century document from the
vicinity of Syria and Egypt, which is the definitive ancestor of what we have today. In the centuries
since the publication of this document, the collection that is The Arabian Nights has accrued stories
from a variety of cultures in a sort of literary snowball effect.
This accumulation of stories began when the meaning of the title was lost in translation. Originally, “a
thousand and one” translated to an uncountable number, such as we might say “infinity plus one”
today. In actuality, the 13th century document had far fewer than a thousand and one night’s worth of
stories. When the text was copied and translated into later editions, popular outcry rang out for a full
body of text with the promised quantity of tales. This demand compelled the authors to add tales from
Indian, Persian, Turkish, and other oral and literary traditions. The frequently adapted tale of Sinbad
the Sailor is one of these late additions. Of perhaps even more dubious origin is the story of Aladdin,
which purportedly was one of the original Arabian Nights stories. However, Aladdin did not appear in
print until the first European translation of The Arabian Nights was written by Antoine Galland in early
18th century France. Galland claims to have heard the story from a Syrian storyteller, but some critics
contend that he may have fabricated the tale himself, making Aladdin French in origin. Translators in
various western cultures continued the tradition of cutting and adding stories to fit their needs and
audiences, thus contributing to the colorful pastiche of anecdotes, moral tales, and lascivious
encounters that comprise most modern editions of The Arabian Nights.
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The historical continuum of fascination with these stories begs the question: why do people keep
returning to them across generational and cultural lines? Husain Haddawy, translator of a recent
edition of The Arabian Nights, suggests that their original purpose was as “a collection of tales told to
produce aesthetic pleasure in the Arabic reader.” This notion of the tales as providing pleasurable
entertainment is a primary attraction of the text shared by readers across history. The stories are
delightfully fun; each provides a rollercoaster ride of descriptive passages that build tension and
heighten anticipation interspersed with thrilling freefalls of heroic exploits and adventures. Action
unfolds with magical twists and emotional reveals on top of humorous and often sexual situations. And
there is a pervading feeling of constant unfolding: everything and everyone has a story to tell, each
more wondrous than the last, until we find ourselves in a frame within a frame within a frame within a
frame, every level commenting and interacting with the others. Scheherezade is, after all, quite good at
her job, and manages to ensnare her king and reader in the same tantalizing web of stories.
People keep coming back to these tales for more than just the thrill of the ride, however. For 18 th and
19 th century European readers, much of the appeal came from a fascination with the Eastern “other.”
One of the primary Victorian translators of the text, Edward Lane, proffered the work as a travel guide
to Cairo, Damascus, and Baghdad, supposedly providing an accurate account of both the contemporary
Middle East and the original period of the tales. In this way the Nights was used to exotify the social
values and customs of Eastern culture. In contrast, other works inspired by The Arabian Nights such as
Edgar Allan Poe’s The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade and Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and
the Sea of Stories employ the stories as a lens through which cultures may examine themselves. Poe’s
story comments on the technological boons of the industrial revolution, and Rushdie’s is an analogy for
present-day India. There are also instances of the tales being used as a vehicle with which to stereotype
another culture; look no further than Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves for an example.
The richness of the stories and the compelling nature of their structure have inspired many
adaptations, and the versatility of the text has given artists a great deal to explore and expand upon.
Into this mix of narrative and historical frames comes Mary Zimmerman’s The Arabian Nights, a
dramatization of a select few of the hundreds of stories which have come to be associated with the
complete canon in its variety of manifestations. In a way, the history of The Arabian Nights has turned
it into a living document, one that encourages artists to engage with it as participants and become
folded up in its pages. The adaptor takes on qualities of both Shahryar, the listener, and Scherezade,
the storyteller. As Shahryar, the adaptor must first soak in the existing stories as told by prior
generations of authors and translators, all the while demanding reasons to continue the collection’s
life. Then, as Scheherezade, the adaptor seeks to entertain and enlighten her audience with something
new and pertinent to them. Zimmerman fills the role of adaptor by bringing a new dimension of life to
the text. Present here are the narrative frames, the love-addled characters, the wind-swept deserts, and
the flowing verses that make the original document instantly recognizable. Layered on top of this are
sensory experiences which provoke the imagination in ways that only live theatre can achieve. For
instance, in the original document, the text reminds us that every morning Shahryar intends to kill
Scheherezade but holds off in order to hear the end of her story. Zimmerman, however, actually shows
Shahryar pressing a dagger to Scheherezade’s throat, adding a sense of immediacy and visceral danger.
Throughout the play, live music and physical movements supplement the textual rhythms and
repetitions already present. Flurries of activity and explosions of color assault the senses and remind us
that this is a present and animate storytelling event, not one securely bound in dusty tomes.
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As a living collection, storytellers have carried The Arabian Nights down the road from its oral origins
to this production today, half a world and many centuries away. When we see Mary Zimmerman and
her actors taking up the storytelling mantle, our lives briefly intersect this bustling, magical, timeless
thoroughfare. We encounter a world that is both foreign and recognizable at the same time—a product
of distant cultures from different ages, with emotions and themes that are so intrinsically human that
they speak immediately and directly to us. This unfamiliar familiarity gives us the gift of perspective
and reminds us that we are a part of something much larger than ourselves. We are citizens of the
world and participants in history, inhabitants of an interconnected global community.
The Geography of the Arabian Nights
Baghdad
Capital of Iraq where many of the stories in The Arabian Nights take place.
Basra
A city in the southeast of Iraq.
Cairo
The capital of Egypt, located on the Nile in the northeast corner of the country.
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Ganges
A major river that flows through the northeastern part of India.
al-Hijaz
A region in Saudi Arabia; its principal city is Mecca.
Malabar Coast
The southwestern shore of mainland India.
Mecca
The holiest city in Islam and Mohammed’s birthplace, Mecca is located in western Saudi Arabia. One of
the central practices of Islam is an annual pilgrimage, the Hajj, to Mecca.
Medina
The second holiest city in Islam, Medina is located in western Saudi Arabia. Mohammed lived, wrote
parts of the Koran, and was buried in this city.
Mosul
A city in northern Iraq.
Nile
The longest river in the world. Cairo, the capital of Egypt, is located on the Nile, which runs south to
north through Egypt.
Tigris
River that runs from southeast Turkey through Iraq. Baghdad is located on the Tigris.
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Adaptations of The Arabian Nights
The hundreds of stories contained within The Arabian Nights have inspired many artists to create
adaptations in a wide variety of media. A number of prominent poets, novelists, and playwrights have
put their own spin on the narratives, characters, and world of the Nights, while others have simply
taken inspiration from the collection.
Prominent Translations
1704 — Antoine Galland (French)
1814 — British East India Company (Arabic)
1835 — Bulaq version (Arabic)
1838 — Torrens (English)
1838-1840 — Edward William Lane (English)
1882-1884 — John Payne (English)
1885-1888 — Sir Richard Francis Burton (English)
1889-1904 — J. C. Mardrus (French)
1984 — Muhsin Mahdi (Arabic)
1990s — Husain Haddawy (English)
Selected Literature
John Barth, The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor and The Tidewater Tales
Jason Grote, 1001 (play)
O. Henry, A Bird of Bagdad and A Night in New Arabia
Robert Irwin, Night and Horses and the Desert: An Anthology of Classical Arabic Literature
Naguib Mahfouz, Arabian Nights and Days
Nathalie Mallet, The Princes Of The Golden Cage
Vera Nazarian, Dreams of the Compass Rose
Edgar Allan Poe, The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade
Jan Potocki, The Manuscript Found in Saragossa
Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories
Tahir Shah, In Arabian Nights
Robert Louis Stephenson, New Arabian Nights
Alfred Tennyson, Recollections of the Arabian Nights
William Wordsworth, The Prelude
Other authors who have cited “The Arabian Nights” as an influence include:
Jorge Luis Borges
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Charles Dickens
H. P. Lovecraft
Sir Walter Scott
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Selected Film and Television
The Thief of Bagdad (1924)
Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (1926)
The oldest surviving feature-length animated film.
Chu-Chin-Chow (1934)
Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (1936)
The Thief of Bagdad (1940) Remake of the 1924 The Thief of Bagdad.
Kismet (1944)
There have been numerous versions and remakes of this film.
Sinbad the Sailor (1947)
Thief of Damascus (1952)
Babes in Bagdad (1952)
Ali Baba et les Quarante Voleurs (1954)
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
1,001 Arabian Nights (1959)
Il Ladro di Bagdad (1961)
Remake of the 1940 The Thief of Bagdad.
Volshebnaya Lampa Aladdina (1966)
Le Amorose Notti di Ali Baba (1973)
Arabian Naitsu: Shinbaddo no Bôken (1975)
Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977)
Les 1,001 Nuits (1990)
Aladdin (1992)
The Return of Jafar (1994)
Scooby-Doo in Arabian Nights (1994) (TV)
Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1995)
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Allah
The Arabic word for God.
Benediction
A blessing or invocation for divine help.
Glossary of Terms used in the Arabian Nights
Dinar
Middle Eastern currency used in The Arabian Nights. A number of countries, including Iraq, Kuwait, and
Jordan use the dinar today.
Harem
The secluded dwelling in a Muslim household of one man’s wives, mistresses, young children, and
female relatives. In The Arabian Nights, the Khalifah Harun al-Rashid has a large harem.
Islam / The Faith
A monotheistic religion begun in the 7 th century by followers of the teachings of Mohammed.
Kadi
A judge who makes decisions according to Islamic laws, in both the religious and secular domains.
Khalifah / Caliph
Ruler of the Muslim people. The Caliph is also considered to be the spiritual successor to the prophet
Mohammed, so it is both a political and religious title.
Koran / Qur’an / The Book / The Sublime Book
The central religious book of Islam, believed to be revealed to the prophet Mohammed by an angel. The
name translates to “the recitation.”
Kurd
An inhabitant of a plateau and mountain region, sometimes referred to as Kurdistan, that includes
parts of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria.
Mosque
A building for Islamic public worship, playing a similar role to churches and synagogues.
Muslim / Mussulman / Believer
A follower of Islam. Muslim literally translates to “one who submits (to God).”
Persian
An inhabitant of what is present-day Iran. Iran was known as Persia up until 1935.
Privy
A bathroom.
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Glossary (cont.)
Prophet
In Islam, prophets are men who have been assigned tasks by God in order to help humanity. The Koran
refers to 25 prophets, many of whom are important religious figures in Christianity and Judaism as well,
including Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Mohammed is the last prophet in Islam.
Ramadan
The holy ninth month of the Islamic calendar. For the entire month Muslims fast from sunrise to
sundown.
Shaaban
The eighth month of the Islamic calendar; it precedes Ramadan.
Sheikh
A leader in the Muslim culture, whether an elder in a tribe, a wise man, a lord, or a scholar. Translates to
“elder.”
Wazir / Vizier
Chief advisor or minister to a ruler. The word literally means “burden-bearer” or “helper.”
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Pre show:
Discussion Questions
Mary Zimmerman fell in love with 1001 Nights as a child. What story do you remember most from your
childhood? What about it captured your imagination?
Why do you think we are still telling these same stories that were created such a long time ago? What
are some elements of a good story?
1001 Nights uses the story of Scheherezade’s and Shahryar as a “frame story”—a foundation that sets
up the structure of stories within stories within stories. What are some examples of other structures
that writers sometimes use?
Post show:
King Shahryar begins the play by murdering a woman each night, and ends it with a loving relationship
and a family. What made him change?
The play ends saying that the “nights over Baghdad were whiter than the days.” What do you think this
means? What is Mary Zimmerman trying to communicate with this idea?
Mary Zimmerman is known for creating productions that are rich in imagery but also very simple. What
were some of your favorite visual moments from the play?
The stories sometimes leave the realm of naturalism and live in a heightened, more poetic or
metaphorical world. What are some examples of this? Are there places where the play relies on
dramatic license?
What are some of the prominent themes running through the production? What do many of the stories
have in common?
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The Arabian Nights Study Guide Activities
Exercise 1: Shape and Space
The actors in The Arabian Nights use their bodies to portray various animals and objects throughout
the course of the play (e.g., a horse, a camel, a mountain range, a flying carpet)
Step 1: Give each student three index cards or pieces of paper.
On the first card, write down a type of object (e.g., a lamp, chair, book).
On the second card, write down an animal (e.g., a camel, horse, elephant).
On the third card, write down a location (e.g., forest, ocean, mountain range).
Step 2: Collect the papers and keep them separated in groups by object, animal, and location.
Step 3: Divide the class into groups of three or four and ask each group to choose one card or
piece of paper from one of the categories.
Step 4: Give the groups 30 seconds to create whatever is written on the card using their bodies
– i.e., a “human sculpture”. Each person in the group should participate in each sculpture. They
can either create one large sculpture as a group (i.e., they create one large camel) or they can
create many sculptures (i.e., a herd of camels). Encourage the students to use different levels
and to commit fully with their bodies and faces.
Step 5: Choose one group to present their human sculpture to the class and have the other
groups guess what they think the sculpture is.
Note: Ask the performers not to reveal the word on the card until the observers have had a
chance to guess.
There may be several different answers from the observers. Remind the students that what the
actors intend and what the audience perceives may be different but both are correct.
Step 6: Ask the performers to reveal what it is that they have created
Step 7: Repeat steps 5 and 6 with the other groups.
Step 8: Repeat the entire exercise with the other cards.
Step 9 (Reflection): Ask the observers to respond to the exercise.
What were the moments that stood out to them?
Where did the performers use shape and space in an interesting way?
Ask the performers to describe the process of creating and sharing their sculptures.
What were the greatest challenges?
Were there any surprises along the way?
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The Arabian Nights Study Guide Activities (cont.)
Exercise 2: Creating “Framed-Emboxed” Stories
Arabian Nights is a “framed-emboxed” work. A framing story is a type of tale that encompasses
another tale by way of narration, like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Thorton Wilder’s Our Town, and
Disney’s Aladin. An emboxed story has within it a collection of stories, one coming out of another. A
“frame-emboxed” work is a framing story within which are a set of stories within stories.
Step 1: Ask students to choose from one of the following topics (or you may choose for them):
Prompt: Write about a time in your life when…
1) You did something that was very embarrassing.
2) You lost something and you didn’t realize how much you missed it until it
was gone.
3) You engaged in an act of pure generosity.
Note: Each of these story themes is drawn from a story in The Arabian Nights.
Step 2: Have students write a story in at least three paragraphs (beginning, middle, end) using
as much detail as possible. They should be careful not to choose a story that is too personal as it
will be shared with the class. If the details of the story are difficult to remember or if they are
too personal, encourage them to fictionalize; change names or “make up” missing details.
Step 3: Divide the class into groups or four or five and ask them to read these stories to each
other. Instruct them to discuss similarities and differences in their stories.
Some helpful prompts are:
What was one thing that you like about each story?
What is a question you have about each story?
How does the story you just heard relate to the story you wrote?
Step 4: Challenge the groups to find or create a transition point in their stories that will link all
the stories together. It may be a similar character, an environment, an idea; it can be anything
that allows the stories to move from one to the next.
Step 5: Each group should then choose a “primary story” that will be the frame. The “primary
story” will ideally be at the beginning and the end with the other related stories linked in the
middle.
Step 6: Have each group read their “framed-emboxed” story to the other groups.
Step 7 (Reflection): Discuss the following with students.
What do you notice about this process?
What aspects of “emboxing” these stories did you think were successful?
What were the challenges of “emboxing” these stories?
How would these stories change if they were acted out?
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The Arabian Nights Study Guide Activities (cont.)
Exercise 3: Staging “Framed-Emboxed” Stories
After completing exercise 2, you may choose to stage these stories.
Step 1: Ask each group to identify the characters, environments and objects from their
“framed-emboxed” stories.
Step 2: The writer of each story should serve as its narrator. The other students in the group can
play the other roles, as well as create the environment for each scene.
Step 3: Have your student adapt their stories into a play by identifying which part is stated by
the narrator and which part is dialogue performed by the other actors.
Step 4: Encourage them to add music, movement and/or rhythm if it will help serve their
stories.
Step 5: Rehearse.
Step 6: Perform these plays for the other groups
Note: These performances can be simple staged readings of the adapted story or they can be
more elaborate with costumes and props according to the needs and resources of the class.
Step 7(Reflection): Ask the observers what they noticed.
What were the moments that stood out to them?
How did the performers use space and shape?
How did the use of music or rhythm influence the piece?
Ask the performers to describe their experience of creating and performing the piece.
What were their greatest challenges in creating the piece?
Were there any surprises along the way?
Now that you have performed your piece, would you change anything?
If your students have already seen The Arabian Nights, ask them:
How are these plays like/unlike the Berkeley Rep production?
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