Interview: Leila Buck, Shana Gold Talk HKEELEE at Mosaic Theater

One of the greatest things about the theatre scene here in Washington, DC - itself a very multicultural city - is that audiences have a variety of opportunities to learn about the world around them in a way that is particularly unique. With that comes a chance to take a look at our own selves, and examine highly personal questions of "who am I?" within the context of today's world. Whether it's the Kennedy Center's yearly international theatre festivals, or other productions that take us beyond our own borders/communities and explore issues of identity, ample opportunities abound each season. With the establishment of Mosaic Theater in 2015, such opportunities increased even more, much to my delight (although a theatre geek, my educational background is in sociology and international affairs, and my chosen career is squarely in the international realm). The Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival, which Mosaic's Founding Artistic Director Ari Roth started during his longtime run as artistic director at Theater J, is but one example of Mosaic's efforts and commitment to regularly engage the community, and promote dialogue about issues of national and international importance.

This year's festival comes to a close with a three-performance run of Leila Buck's highly personal show Hkeelee (Talk to Me), at Arena Stage's intimate Kogod Cradle from April 30 to May 1. Mosaic bills the show as "a probing portrait of a cosmopolitan Lebanese matriarch as remembered by her Lebanese-American granddaughter who attempts to piece together her beloved Teta's story." Ms. Buck and her director Shana Gold were gracious enough to answer a few of my questions over email about the impetus for the show, the development process, and expectations for this highly anticipated production. Here's the exchange:

On Becoming Involved and the Development Process...

Leila, how did you become involved with Mosaic Theater Company of DC, and the Voices from a Changing Middle East Festival in particular?

Leila Buck: Ari Roth first saw me perform an early solo version of my play In The Crossing at the Public Theater in New York, and became invested in the development of that piece for many years. He invited me to present a reading of it and a performance of my first play ISite (sight unseen!) in the Voices from a Changing Middle East Festival in 2007. He supported Motti Lerner [playwright] and Sinai Peter [director] in casting me as Samya in The Admission for their production at Theater J in 2014, and has been an enthusiastic supporter of my work as both actor and writer for many years. I am so thrilled to see his vision and the intersection of art and civic engagement we both believe in realized in Mosaic's work, and am proud and honored to be part of this inaugural season.

Shana, how did you become involved with Hkeelee and what attracted you to it? Tell us about the collaborative process in bringing Hkeelee to life with Ms. Buck.

Shana Gold: Leila Buck and I have been working together for 10 years on a variety of projects (we met when I directed her as part of the Arab-American Comedy Festival) including Leila's play, In The Crossing, which was developed and performed at the Public Theater, Theater J, Silk Road Theatre in Chicago, and the Culture Project, among others. It has been a rich collaboration using a storytelling approach. I've been developing Hkeelee with her for a few months now.

Hkeelee is very much a personal story. What prompted you to develop this piece for the stage?

Leila Buck: Hkeelee grew out of my struggle to hold on to my Lebanese grandmother as she began to lose her memory, and with it, pieces of our family's history. On a personal level, I developed this piece as a way of channeling that slow, painful experience into something creative that would keep her and her stories alive. In the process of recording her for nearly seven years, and learning about her life from my mother and others, I realized what an inspiring and engaging woman she was to many beyond our family. And as the debate around the role of immigrants - particularly Arab and Muslim ones - in this country, grew, I felt that my grandparents' stories had something to add to that dialogue.

Hkeelee is billed as "an interactive exploration of what it means to be(come) American." Can you please expound on the interactive element and why you decided to present the story in that way?

Leila Buck: Teta was a people person who thrived on interaction. I have used interactive elements in my work for many years, and often drawn on my Teta's vibrant, welcoming personality in doing so, inviting audiences to engage the way she would, through conversation, music, humor and food. Along the way I have embraced the fact that no matter how much I prepare, what I do will inevitably change, sometimes dramatically, when I get to the place and feel the energy of the people where and with whom I will be sharing it.

A key theme in the piece is the need to pass on: Teta to me, and me to others to keep her spirit alive. Interaction, whether physical, verbal, or energetic, is a key part of that process. And when someone has dementia, one of the things those who love them are told to do in support is to "enter their world". So both Noelle Ghoussaini who directed our reading in the fall, and my long-time collaborator Shana Gold who is developing and directing it with me since, felt as I did that it was important to invite the audience into her world and her journey as much as possible.

One of the things we are doing with this version is to explore how much we can show not tell, through Teta's eyes. In the process, we are experimenting with inviting the audience to be in role as guests, family, friends and others who can learn as I did from her - snippets of songs, words in Arabic, and ways of facing challenges and loss. Eventually, our hope is that those in the audience who wish to can become keepers of her journey - helping her, and me, to remember, and in doing so, keeping her spirit alive.

On Hopes for the Production...

Whether familiar with the Lebanese experience or not, what do you hope that Mosaic audiences take away from Hkeelee?

Leila Buck: I hope that Mosaic audiences take away a sense of the resilience, strength, courage, joy and love that my grandparents embodied, and how unique and also universal their stories are.

I hope they come away with a sense of the complexity and beauty of Lebanon and its people.

I hope they recognize the connections between the stories of immigrants from Arab countries and their own journeys - connecting not only to Teta and all she represents, but everyone and everything we love enough to let go, to re-invent, or to carry with us no matter where we go.

Or, as Teta would say: "What you want, you keep. What you don't want, forget it! That's all."

Shana Gold: In all her work, Leila has so much compassion for the people she is writing about and portraying. She has the ability to explore controversial topics where there are a lot of messy and passionate feelings, while seeing the humanity on all sides. There's a deep humor and liveliness in how Leila tells her stories about some heavy subjects. Audiences are often moved to tears by her work, but they have a feeling of being uplifted, as well. She has a way of entrancing and transporting an audience while being very present and interacting in the moment. It's always thrilling to be part of the interactive experience Leila creates with the audience; you can feel the deep affection the audience feels for her and she for them. She creates a space for the hard, but necessary conversations to take place.

Hkeelee explores loss and memory, the refugee experience, and embracing the new while keeping the old alive in our hearts. It's exciting for it to be seen in Leila's grandmother's adopted home of Washington, DC and to bring the DC audience into the experience of being from one world and joining another. We hope they will walk away with a sense of both the ache and joy of Teta's resilience in this very personal yet universal story.

On the Importance of Cross-Cultural Engagement...

Leila, in addition to the traditional writing and acting roles, you've been involved in many an effort to use drama to promote cross-cultural engagement. What attracted you to this kind of work, why do you feel it's important, and how might it play (or not play) into what you are doing at Mosaic Theater with Hkeelee?

Leila Buck: As the child of an American diplomat father and Lebanese mother from both Christian and Muslim families, who grew up in Kuwait, Oman, Iraq, Canada and the United States, cross-cultural engagement is in my blood! Growing up moving between the United States and the Arab world, I experienced how multiple cultures, lives and daily realities exist simultaneously - equally real, sometimes in conflict, often intersecting. As a writer, performer and teaching artist, I see my role as a bridge: a facilitator of connections. I write with a lot of hyphens - an instinct to juxtapose and connect things that might otherwise seem distant and explore the relationship between them. I strive in my work to place stories from people who may appear separate in dialogue with each other, to reflect both the uniqueness of our experiences and the links between them.

In performing my solo show ISite about my childhood between the United States and the Arab world, I discovered the power of the personal to make us connect to people and places we might not otherwise, and became aware of how the stories we live, are told, and choose to pass on can shape and shift our perceptions of ourselves and each other, and how we engage with the world. I'm particularly aware of how as Americans, the stories we believe and pass on can affect our actions and with them, lives around us and thousands of miles away.

My early training and work with Theatre of the Oppressed through Creative Arts Team in New York public schools taught me to see the personal as political, theater as a space for empowering action, and the audience as spectators in that process. So in an increasingly digitized world of virtual communication, I find myself drawn to create spaces where artists and audiences can engage directly and deeply with each other around questions, experiences, and struggles that concern us all.

I began to create work in the United States at a time of intense misrepresentation and fear of Arabs and Muslims, and perceived, contrived, and sometimes violent conflicts between the cultures that shaped me. Particularly in these charged and divided times, I believe that a key part of be(com)ing American is the need to engage with each other whether we like it or not, to negotiate our space and the story we are creating about and in it.

Revolutions across the world and here in the United States are raising the question of what it means to redefine ourselves as individuals, communities, and nations, and in the spaces in between. My grandparents' stories reflect that re-negotiation in many ways.

Then over the past few years, dementia actually "shrank the land" as my Teta would say. One moment her mind was in Washington, the next convinced we were with her family in Lebanon. Something about the conflation and connection of time and space became for me in witnessing her journey, a way of connecting people and places that would otherwise be disconnected. Hkeelee is an intimate, interactive exploration of the challenges and possibilities in that process.

Mosaic Theater's production of Hkeelee (Talk to Me) plays at Arena Stage's Kogod Cradle at the Mead Center for American Theater - 1101 6th Street, SW in Washington, DC on Sat, April 30 (8 PM) and Sun, May 1 (2 PM and 8 PM). Tickets are $60, with discounts available to students, seniors, and military/first responders. Only limited quantities remain. Consult the Mosaic Theater website for tickets and further information: http://www.mosaictheater.org/hkeelee/.

Photo: Courtesy of Mosaic Theater. Leila Buck pictured.

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