Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/640308
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 14 FEBRUARY 2016 30 This Week What were your initial im- pressions for this project when you first joined it, and how did it evolve over time? I received a phone call from someone I knew who at the time was part of the team that came up with this project. She told me that they were in the process of creat- ing a project and their idea was to narrate stories of migrant women living in Malta. She contacted me to see whether I would be inter- ested in helping them to get these stories narrated through some form of a theatrical event. Of course I was immediately drawn in because as a theatre director I am very interested in making female voices heard. Eventu- ally this person dropped out and the project took another route that led us towards the narra- tion of migrant stories of women and men originating from vari- ous countries around the world. However due to unforeseen cir- cumstances which were totally out of my control the evolution of this "performance" drew us towards an unexpected turn of events whereby four out of the five narratives I have adapted be- long to female migrants. Did you have any ideas about how you wanted to explore the topic of migrant narratives in Malta ahead of the project and if so, how did they develop once you started meeting with the performers? No, I did not have any ideas how to explore such a topic, at least not until I began to receive the narratives. The creators of this project did not want to hold this event in a theatre building. They wanted an informal setting, so I came up with the idea of creating an itinerant "performance" with- in a house, essentially because, to my mind, this is why a migrant is a migrant – because she would have had to leave her birth coun- try, her home, and look for it else- where. It was not an easy task to find a house that could host this event and due to logistical prob- lems the project "migrated" to Sala Nobile in Palazzo Pereira, Republic Street, Valletta. The space is always a determin- ing factor for me in order to be- gin to explore a theatre project, especially when there is no writ- ten text and no theatre building to host it in. This time around, aside from having two established perform- ers, I also wished to have migrants who were willing to collaborate and narrate their own real-life stories. Marta Lombardi and Ali Konate, together with two estab- lished performers Sharon Bezzina and Magda Van Kuilenburg, will be giving life to five migrant nar- ratives. In the case of Marta and Ali, they will be narrating their own. Given that the performance will be devised from 'real life' narratives, what is the journey from script to stage like? How do you go about taking real-life stories – subjective, personal narratives – to transpose them onto the stage? It is extremely difficult to de- scribe such a complex process within the framework of a news- paper interview, and be under- stood by the reader. They are in- teresting questions without any doubt but they merit a lengthy explanation. The main ingredi- ents would be: a physical struc- ture, props, tangible metaphors and a pinch of serendipity. Did you use all of the stories presented to you? If not, by which criteria were they chosen? Rima: Encounter with migrant narratives, will be the theatrical iteration of the Rima Project – an artistic and anthropological exploration of the experience of migrants from all around the world, in Malta. TEODOR RELJIC speaks to director Marcelle Teuma about how she went about transforming the real-life stories of migrants gathered by the project coordinator into a theatrical performance Tangible metaphors and a pinch of serendipity "I believe we have something extremely unique to share with our audiences" Marcelle Teuma (far right) directs Sharon Bezzina (left) and Marta Lombardi at the rehearsals for Rima: Encountering migrant narratives Sharon Bezzina and Marta Lombardi during rehearsals for the performance