RIPARIAN STATE OF MIND
Faith: How has it been going with Riparian States?
Kareem: How has it been going? You know, I’m very excited. I am very… daunted.
I’m taking on the story, [and] we’re not only talking about two countries… We’re talking about essentially a whole continent, but it’s being carried through three countries that have deep rich histories going back thousands and thousands of years. We’re talking about climate catastrophe and the sort of chaos that that brings and the uncertainty that that brings. We’re talking about politics; we’re talking about water. We’re talking about faith. We’re talking about all of these things. So, way back when I [first thought] this was really exciting crux of a story to explore, I said, “I think it’s big, right?”
It’s like, “Do I look at this and create like a three character play all set in one room?” I suppose it’s possible… But I feel like that’s not what I want to do. So there’s something about the scale of the project, the way it has existed in my head since its inception which has been really exciting. It makes me so curious and my curiosity is leading me down rabbit hole after rabbit hole of research and talking to people…. I’ve already conducted over 20 interviews.
Faith: 20 people!?!?!
Kareem: And many more to come! I have plowed through so many articles and spent so much time researching online and have read books… I could probably just keep reading and researching this project for five more years, you know? The daunting part is to finally say, “This is what I’m doing!” To actually make a firm connect to be like, “Okay, these are the characters. This is how I’m going to sort of bring the audience into the story of what this conflict is.” It’s the most tender part of a project for me. It’s actually right where I am right now; I’m probably just a couple of weeks away from beginning to really go, okay, I’m going to start outlining and writing the project. But, it’s because–for me–once you start that, it’s like you’re on a train and it just kind of keeps going, right? Like, I don’t want to start to write something until I have a pretty clear path forward, because I don’t like to be in a situation where I have to abandon a thing midstream, you know? So I have to really stress test my idea, as it were, to go like, “Is this right? Like, is this what I’m doing?” Because once—
Faith: Once the train starts, once it leaves the station, that’s it.
Kareem: That’s it. So, you know, that’s where I’m at with it. I’ve been very mindful of the fact that, like, part of what this project wants to do is accurately and, with a lot of nuance and specificity, include these perspectives of people from all over the world. It is a project that is about the lives of Ethiopian people, the lives of Egyptian people, the lives of Sudanese people, and the lives of all people. In the sense that all of us are dependent on the natural resources of the world for our survival, and we’re all grappling with what that means when those resources that we thought were essentially infinite… We realize, oh, they’re not, and that, all of us are responsible towards how we use those resources and more importantly, how we share those resources. Across political divides, geographic divides, religious, historical divides, etc., etc., etc. So, it’s a big story to wrap one’s head around. I want to make sure the perspectives that I’m representing are deep, right? And not surface level. That’s why I’ve been meeting [with] a lot of people. I really want to understand.
To me, any good play has to be rooted in really strong characterization. Like, you want to believe that those characters are real living people with a past, present and future. I’m using both the interviews and the research I’m doing to contextualize that. But it’s a lot to hold in my head.
Check in with me in a couple of months, and hopefully, I’ll be much further down the road. And [the] `characters will have names, like, right now, they’re just like, “Ethiopian Woman.”
Faith: “Egyptian Man.”
Kareem: Like that. They don’t even have names.
Faith: No, I get it. They’re in the process of becoming, and it is kind of scary because you’re like, okay, well, I’ve named them and then it’s… I don’t know…. When you first put the chisel in the marble. A bunch of other things are going to fall away once you start making decisions.
Kareem: That’s exactly right. Funny when you mention naming them because naming them is such an intimate step. They’re not these placeholders that they were you know, and it’s, it’s, it’s thrilling but also like really terrifying because then you’re like okay I have to create these humans, you know, and, and and to me that’s actually a really big responsibility. You know, I’m like, I’m creating a template for, you know, actors to, like, live in these in these characters in the future and, you know, for directors to interpret them. And I take that really seriously, you know, and so it’s, yeah, it’s going to be a really fun, interesting journey. And, and but I am not as far along as I would have hoped to be at this point, but I I’m learning that I think that this process, I’m just like sitting with this research and sitting with all of the stuff I’ve been sort of absorbing over the last, you know, because I started this project even before I got to commission. Right? So it’s like I’ve been sitting with these ideas and these thoughts for, you know, close to two years, which is not atypical for me. Like, I can often ruminate on a project for a couple of years before I start to write it, because that’s part of the stress testing of it. Right? That’s part of the like, am I still thinking about this idea for two years? Okay. If I am, then like, I better damn right at because like, then there’s something in it that I know I need to get out, right? And I got something I need to unpack. And I think I’m there with this project now.
To read about Kareem’s dramaturgical process (called “Source Work”), go to page 2.
To read about how Kareem structures his plays, go to page 3.
To skip to the end, go to page 5.
