Anon(ymous), Week 2

Hello again! I meant to make an Anon(ymous) Week 1 Part 2 post, but rehearsal got a little more busy and a lot more abstract so it was hard to find something to write about actually.

In any case, I thought I would just go over some of the notes I've been taking in rehearsal concerning what's been going on, what we've been exploring, and so on so forth. For the purposes of convenience, I will be bullet pointing this section.

- Every person has a 100% original story.
      - Now what that really boils down to is that no matter how many similarities you may find between you and someone else, your life and everything you've experienced truly is unique. There's certainly something to proud of in acknowledging that, but I also don't mean to diminish the power of human connection. Not only is there nothing wrong with having a lot in common with someone else, but that's what we work towards!

- Things change, and you need to adapt.
      - I think is pretty self-explanatory, but the world of Anon(ymous) is one that's constantly changing, and the only way he comes out alive at the end is by adapting. Things change all the time, which means we constantly have to be making slight or huge adjustments to the way we live our lives so that we can continue enjoying them.

- When we're vulnerable, we are given the opportunity to show the truth.
      - When we show the truth, we put our hearts in the hands of others and trust them. This is how we forge those deep bonds. That time when you decide to tell your friend who the girl or guy you like is, or what's been going on with your family, or how you haven't been feeling too well recently: those are all moments that we use to test each other and find out who really cares enough to stick it out with you.

- The beginning and the end is important, but never so much as the journey in between.
      - The journey is everything. It's what people write books about. Nobody's ever gonna say (SPOILER ALERT!) "Oh Harry Potter was a wizard that got this scar as a baby, and then eventually he beats the guy that gave it to him." That would be boring! We want the lettuce, the tomatoes, the meat, the cheese; everything that defines the sandwich ( or.. story. You know what I mean. )

Okay! This was really long but I hope it's kind of made up for my slightly infrequent posting. I promise I'll do a better job of keeping up on this in the upcoming weeks!

Anon(ymous), Week One

Hello! My name is Omar Shammaa, and I am Pascal in Illinois State University's production of Anon(ymous). Over the next month or so, I will be giving you some insight on our production and rehearsal process.

The past few days we've begun the rehearsal process with a real emphasis on the themes and culture in the script. For example, one of Anon(ymous)'s biggest questions is "Where is home?" The cast has had that word redefined for them recently, with each of us interviewing each other about what we think is home and where we come from. The refugees in the play come from vastly different places and situations, and exploring these new definitions of "home" has been a challenge that the cast has excitedly embraced. In addition, we've begun exploring randai, which as Wikipedia so eloquently states is "a folk theater tradition of the Minangkabau ethnic group which incorporates music, singing, dance, drama and the silat martial art."Although we're still very early in the process, we're eager to begin looking into how our production may benefit from this art form we're being newly exposed to.

As we dig into the culture and world unknown to many of us, we embrace the thrill with our whole selves in our collective effort to do justice to this story.