FIELD REPORT: 03

Sculptural seeding in slow motion.

After a week of mostly digital silence, I failed at delivering a field report and restricted my social media, but I emerged with a new draft of an ever-evolving play I finally feel proud of. Taking this necessary breath before I dive back into a feature film screenplay has felt like a balm. I’ve been feeling nostalgic for the analog era, and considering the switch back to a flip phone. Dare to dream, pals.

1. DAWN PATROL

My morning sessions have grown quieter, grounded with a gentle and slower stillness, less movement, more thinking, reading, rooting, re-writing, repeat repeat. Limited brushstrokes encouraged more curiosity in the physical, and playing with the mediums and water-based inks led me to accidental visions and premonitions. That mediumship pops up again, daring to trust the process, the planning on the pages, the sense of chance that lands if you welcome the space for it.

2. SIGNAL DETECTED

Back to the playwriting process. Five years in the making. Am I the slowest playwright ever? Is that even a thing? Can the pace unravel in sync with the specific story and its needs? How will we ever know? This unknowingness is the job. The constant wrestle for the playwright. This family story began during a two-week wait for a frozen embryo transfer, just days before lockdown. What started as a response to Theatre 503's rapid write response evolved alongside a slower building of a family of my own. My son, now five years old, is the same age as the pile of drafts. A story of motherhood, becoming, breaking systems and mourning lost siblings in the truest sense. The synchronicity is palpable. Creative gestation alongside life itself, both transforming my understanding of protection and vulnerability. Reveal and conceal, hope and loss, a process beyond human control but authentic to the creative calling.

The craft of playwriting, particularly its structure, has always felt more challenging than character creation and dialogue. Theatrical conventions come easily, but the shape and form of plays can only be built over time. This story embodies the CANCEL methodology, deliberately mirroring the protective and revealing nature of the story itself. Bookended by present-day scenes in two symmetrical halves, with a middle section of rapid-fire flashbacks uncovering an architecture that both guards and reveals, much like the protagonist herself and her desperate quest for truth. There are so many ways to approach playwriting, but this is clarifying a fresh entry point for me. A trust in my process I have never had before. Something to follow, something to rail against in the future.

What systems in your writing have you recently discovered? What are you compelled to rail against?

By chance, several recent medical complications and discoveries have redirected my big structured travel plans, my anticipated London trip ‘schedule’ in May is now on pause, it’ll make sense out the other side. But I realise my work still travels even when my body is grounded. On the one hand, I dream about the analogue era, and on the other, I am blessed to be able to maintain creative dialogue and momentum across the miles. I think that flip phone idea is probably off the radar for the time being. Control what you can I guess. If you like, but even with the most precise intentions and schedule, it all unravels as it’s meant.

Cycles of Change

Simultaneously, CYCLES OF CHANGE transformed from a generous seedling offered by Dalia Yassine to a lived reality. After months of conversations, team building, and juggling our kids and bedtime rituals, this initiative activated the in-between spaces at Bayt AlMamzar, challenging conventional performance boundaries in the UAE and creating home for a grassroots collective. Look at my son just looking, such a beautiful sense of wonder to witness.

3. MAKING SENSE OF IT

This dance of completion between the delivery of the draft and the collaborative performance activation demonstrates aspects of the CANCEL methodology. The play transforms military systems into artistic structure; CYCLES OF CHANGE transforms conventional performance frameworks into an interdisciplinary collaborative way of making in new spaces, bringing possibilities of connection across new realms for so many artists and audiences on the move.

This deliberate disruption of form, ignited by a spatial practice, creates room for new audiences, invites immersive experiences, and collaborative crafting towards new works in the UK and UAE, and beyond. A constant dialogue for artists somewhere else, sparking belonging through multiple places, reimagined shared instincts, and glorious activations.

4. RECOVERED SIGNALS

Working alongside Dalia (an incredible lioness, visionary producer/curator/artist/ mothership extraordinaire) affirmed how collaborative creative identities can inform rather than compete. Our fascination with matriarchal ritual and community, the practicalities of creative careers and motherhood, juggling bedtimes while conjuring artistic visions, demonstrates how systems typically seen as constraints can generate an unexpected creative feast, if the support systems are in place, of course, you can follow the callings...

I am feeling an itch to return to my research from the UNESCO Mother Goddess Ritual I experienced in Vietnam on an artist residency with the British Council and AIDF. I understand why these drafts from another play I’ve been developing have not found a sense of place to evolve, yet. I needed to find the right spark and collaboration is the key…

Here’s a short extract from a ghost of a draft.

There are faceless mannequins, L kneels by candlelight with a silk cloth over her head. She is drawn to something, conjuring the last bit of energy she has.

Time passes as we watch them both and then...The MEDIUM peels the fabric away from L’s face. They sit. L holds her hands, massages them for a few minutes. It’s silent.

L Heaven
M. Earth
L. Water
Both. Mountains and forests.

L I will find my desires and happiness right here in my current life. By following the Mother Goddess my spiritual needs are satisfied.

MEDIUM smiles, reveals her teeth. For a moment L hallucinates and see’s her Grandmother, her lacquered teeth. Blood from her mouth drips. L catches it in a small bowl. The MEDIUM disappears.

5. CURRENTLY RESONATING

The Rest I Make Up, a beautiful documentary by Michelle Memran, follows the life of one of my favorite playwrights, the late and great Maria Irene Fornes who captures the spirit behind my playwriting process and CYCLES OF CHANGE. She wholly embraces imperfections through her dementia, disruption, and the joys of chance. Together, Michelle and Maria find beauty in the mess of everything, weaving worlds, authentic to our cultural context. I welcome artists to watch this with me Off the Grid Artists Salon watch party on May 9th @ 7.30pm

6. Looking Ahead

As both the play and CYCLES OF CHANGE begin their journeys beyond initial creation, what new signals might emerge from their interaction with wider audiences? How might these completed projects seed future collaborations and methodological discoveries?

With gratitude for you, our solitude and collective seedlings,

RC​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​