Leading the third and final week of the News of the Strange Lab is TMT’s very own Associate Artistic Director Moe Yousuf with NEWS OF THE STRANGE, Runs June 6 – June 23. Moe Yousuf’s lab runs from June 20 – 23.
There are a lot of different, disparate elements coming together in “News of the Strange”. Where do they all come from? How do they relate to the original source text?
I don’t think any of the elements in the piece are disparate. Medieval Arabian fantasies, the bagpipes, country music, a raag, contra dancing, ASMR poetry—it all exists on a continuum making its own logic. Horses and Orientalist art were big inspirations. We would warm-up to songs about horses. But underneath it all are questions about how we reconcile these stories, the body of work that is 1001 Nights, right now? How do we—the cast of majority silk road artists—embody these themes in our lives and project them? The piece has always been conceived as a suite of music with dances, so how do the first original Baroque era suites flow into Contra dancing? How is the dabke transmitted to America in the form of country line dancing? How do we reclaim and redefine history and Orientalist art right now for ourselves? NEWS OF THE STRANGE asks those questions of the performers and the audience has to do the rest of the work.
How has the creative and collaborative process been for the team thus far? What compelling things have you discovered?
I think very hard won. Everyone in the room has been a part of the making of this work and contributing from day one to what the total event will be. It’s not easy work to walk into a space and not know what you’re doing. And my role is to try to sustain the “not knowing” for as long as we can. We wrote country music, we learned line dances from Youtube, we created an original raag, we created our own contra dance moves, and we keep pushing the possibilities of what this event could be each time we met. But I must give it up to the whole team of artists working on this show who have put in so much time and love and been so so so damn thoughtful and brilliant in the room. What did we discover? I still don’t think we know. Something magical, something spiritual, something dark, something deep, something loud, something…
You touched upon different themes and emotions, and mentioned that they follow “one after the other”, what metaphorical rollercoaster ride do you have prepared for audiences?
I think of all the things we were doing in rehearsal as “little doors.” You have a sudden impulse or inspiration or response but that is not the thing. That feeling is just a door. That you open and walk through. Like “hey, what’s in here…” and usually what you find is… another door. And you walk through that and you leave that other thing behind. And so this process has been about being brave enough to leave the known thing behind for what we don’t know we will find. And hmmmm, I don’t know if this is a metaphorical anything. We are literally working to create a truly visceral, emotional, and transcendental experience. We want people to take pleasure in it and learn from it.
You already have tents, drones, and a vaping… Carnatic jinn. What is the craziest, biggest thing that you would do in your fantasy production if the budget was no limitation?
This is my fantasy production. The Labs are the real thing. This isn’t any sort of audition or trying to be anything it’s not. It was made for this space, with these people, intentionally. I don’t think I’ve ever had any limitations in terms of creative choices. Choices ultimately reflect your values, what you think they are and what they actually sometimes, most times are two different things. But I think this work does reflect a value system that is at the heart of what TMT is, which is all about people, and not things.
What are you most excited to share with audiences?
The whole thing. In terms of what people will actually see I am thrilled to have an insanely diverse group of majority MENA / Silk Road artists working on this show. JUST SEEING THAT ALONE is worthwhile. Let’s make space and take space. In terms of “the show” I hope people come and see something they’ve never seen… that they experience some kind of feeling, that confuses them, or makes them laugh, or is unsettling, and they keep that feeling with them for some time, and that it becomes a ghost of what actually happened… and they cherish it’ broad undefined shape on occasion, until they die. I think that’s what we aspire to.
What’s next for you? What’s your news to the strange?
I’m going on vacation. I got a new Speedo I can’t wait to break in!
News of the Strange created by Moe Yousuf
June 20 – 23 @ 8:00pm, June 22 @ 4pm, June 23 @ 2pm & 5pm
NEWS OF THE STRANGE is a Medieval Arab fantasy suite in the western disco era cookout tradition. It contains sorrows, difficulties, and dangers, grave matters, the revelation of hidden secrets, heavy cares and troubles following one after the other, including drones, dancing, glamping, cloud-chasing vaping carnatic jinn, Western Oriental reverberations, poetry and reports. We shall perform it for you so that you may learn from it and take pleasure in it.
Moe Yousuf is a Pakistani-American theater maker and Arts Manager. He is the Associate Artistic Director of Target Margin Theater and previously worked for Abrons Arts Center and The Foundry Theatre. He’s presented work at the Prelude Festival (2014 & 2018), Abrons Arts Center, The Bushwick Starr, Dixon Place, Co-Prosperity Sphere (in Chicago, IL), and Rubber Rep Pilto Ballon (in Lawrence, KS). He has sat on panels / advisory groups for the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts, WP Theater, and HERE Arts Center. He is a Board Member of the Alliance of Resident Theatres / New York (ART/NY) and holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU. He plays the bagpipes and is available for weddings.
Photo credit: Leigh Honigman