Recurring Themes

Since returning to the land of my imagination to teach theater to young women and boys I've noticed that no matter the improv, exercize or game, the little and larger heads turn up turbaned. These four very little girls live at a girl's orphanage in Herat on the Iranian border of Afghanistan. We were playing a game where you create a scene using a scarf; it can be a magic carpet or superwoman's cape or dog leash. It became all those and about 15 four year olds in the audience began wrapping their heads with their head scarves turban style. One of their 14 year old sister orphans: "All women in Afghanistan want to be men." So much for International Women's Day. I'm teaching a professional theater group in the morning and at the orphanage in the afternoon and many many of the scenes and skits they've created since I've been here have included at least one turbaned character and often a whole cast to of them.

My first especially thrilling day here was with the morning theater group. I turned on some rock and roll and reggae, etc. I had to send the boys out (there are about ten boys and 25 girls) and then these young Afghan girls really got down and rocked out ((recalling one of my own greatest experiences as a teen - discovering R&B). Years ago I studied Hula and remembered we used bamboo sticks to provide rhythm so I went to the bazaar (market) to buy some. Turns out there is a traditional wedding dance by women using sticks and it was more than easy to find them. Days earlier I had bought a drum in the bazaar. Between the drum and the sticks both the girls in my morning theater group and the orphanage girls went wild and provided my second thrilling day. Only problem of course:. Herati Islamic tradition doesn't approve. The neighborhood, even the Government (it's a small town of a million or so ) came down hard on the Director of the orphanage and she was forced to disallow the drum and sticks. Says she: "Afghanistan, it's like a prison sentence for life."