Grassroots Revue Dubai

Dubai community theater The Courtyard Playhouse held another Grassroots Revue event this season to showcase local talent -- a mixed-form potpourri of performances, introducing audiences to arts and artists to which they might not otherwise have been exposed.

A double feature of poetry was on the bill, with Zeina Hashem Beck (left) reading from her new book, To Live in Autumn, and Frank Dullaghan reading his series of poignant poems about a missing child incident.

Comedy also took center-stage, with well-received performances from the likes of Luke Haecker (top left) and Sameer Abdul Rehman (top right), and local improv troupe Improv Anonymous (bottom) playing short-form scenes and games (including attempts at musical improv) across two slots.

Musicians galore too, as the programme was peppered with four acoustic guitar instrumental or singing performances -- including classical guitarist Valentin Spasov and David Beats Goliath frontman George Driscoll -- and closed on a violin note.

The Yum Yum Room

Filip Ranebo; Laura Quirke; Bryan Mackenie

Despite my weekend schedule being filled with science, I managed to make it to the last show of The Yum Yum Room, staged at the Courtyard Playhouse. The coming-of-age play, written by Stephen House and directed by Sarah Dufayard, is set in a town in the playwright's home country of Australia, and touches upon subjects such as bullying, teen rebellion, growing up, and social stigma.

Filip Ranebo; Sol Abiad

The story is kind of open-ended; I'm guessing the titular room itself is a metaphor for escaping within when faced with the real world. Filip Ranebo plays the angst-ridden main character, Tom, who is portrayed as retaining a childish demeanor into adolescence. Major plot elements are his tempestuous relationship with his father, played by Bryan Mackenzie, ridicule from his peer group, and a naive fling with a schoolmate, played by Laura Quirke. Tom deals with these issues with the help of an elderly confidante, Mrs Mac, who is played extremely well by Sol Abiad with an age makeover. 

A Valentine special Maestro improv

An ominous-looking Highlander-styled poster announced the first Maestro improv games in the Middle East and Africa this weekend at Courtyard Playhouse. Competing with Valentine's Day, two music festivals, and a short play festival, and with an entry charge for the first time, our improv group still managed to pack the venue to capacity on both nights.

Despite the risk of being booted out early, playing Maestro brought with it the opportunity to perform in more diverse combinations than in Theatresports. It was our first time performing in public with this format, so it was not quite technically perfected yet --- we literally had hearts dropping at one point.

The Valentine's Day timing also made it into many scene themes, including one in which improvisers acted out an audience couple's account of their relationship history. Congratulations to Salman and Eric for winning the Maestro title (and the grand prize of AED 5) on the 13th and 14th, respectively.

Courtyard Playhouse inaugurated with first ever MENA Theatresports

The Courtyard Playhouse, Dubai's landmark community theater and studio space, has been a venue for rehearsals and workshops for months. Those of us who took part in these activities saw floors, ceilings, walls, partitions, seats, fittings, lights and flats appear, one by one, week on week, as artists and donors* contributed their time and money* towards putting the place together.

Don't it look swankayyy?

This weekend, the Playhouse finally opened its doors to the public with a double act, double show, double night theater event. Most aptly, this event happened to be the first ever Theatresports event in the MENA region, put on by the first ever recognized Theatresports member organization in the MENA region - Drama Dubai.

Why, yes, that is me on the left

I and six other live improv neophytes, followed by six of the more experienced troupe members, competed with each other in teams of three to four, hoping to win the audience's favor and the coveted shrub of glory (no, really, it was a shrub) with our improvised games and scene work. I was fortunate to be part of a great team, which, win or lose, made the experience as fun for me as I hope it was for the audience.

(photo credit: Tiffany Schultz Art and Photography)

With our grand entrances and costumes, good-natured rivalry, and outrageous scenarios in mundane settings, we had ourselves a whale of a time.

(photo credit: Tiffany Schultz Art and Photography)

So did the successive full or near-full houses of cheering, yelling, laughing and otherwise involved audience members, it would seem. Technically, almost everything went much smoother than I would have expected for a first-time run of back-to-back unscripted shows.

The rest of the cast during the techs

I'm so proud to have been a part of this; it was history in the making that we witnessed over the last couple of nights, and it's only the beginning.

* The Drama Dubai team has thrown herculean effort behind getting the space working well enough and looking good enough, starting from practically scratch, so patrons could enjoy the experience of a real theater in the heart of Al Quoz. Because of all the resources that went into making it look and feel good at the audience-facing end, there are still a few things to finish backstage, which is where we still need a little more financial assistance. Click here to see how you can help, and to see the neat rewards donors can receive.

Courtyard Playhouse and First Long Form Night

The combined improv acting batches of Drama Dubai gathered this day for our first long form evening. We all had a blast, especially with one of my favorites: towns and chairs. It was great to have a casual long form session in the almost 100% finished Courtyard Playhouse, Dubai's newest community arts space. The carpets are lain, and the paint smell is gone, so we were kind of inaugurating it as a usable space.

Apart from drama, there are going to be a lot of other interesting activities going on there, from stand-up to photography. The bleacher seating arrangements, which can be extended in the floor space as necessary, and the substantial stage space will together also make it an attractive venue for performances. Yes, I think we in the arts community here can look forward to seeing a lot of it henceforth.