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The Honolulu Academy of Arts presents
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An
Evening with Rumi
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A journey into sacred words, music and the ecstatic turning of the dervishes,
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and the heart and soul of the world's most God-intoxicated poet.
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With Dan Furst as the Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi
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Music by Steven Rosenthal and Reggae McGowen
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Dervish Turning by Valerie Noor Karima
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This December we will give in Honolulu, Hawaii a presentation of Sufi poetry and stories, music and dervish turning that is unlike anything ever done before.
In the 800th anniversary of the birth of Mevlana, "the Master" Jalaluddin Rumi, UNESCO has designated 2007 as the International Year of Mevlana.
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While Rumi is the most popular of all poets among American readers, and his words have been read from a million pages this year in Mevlana festivals everywhere, this evening will be only the second time that an actor has set out to play Rumi, delivering the words from memory and becoming the poet's body, voice and heart. Dan Furst first create the role of Rumi in Hawaii in 2003, using versions and translations by Coleman Barks, Kabir Helminski and Jonathan Star.
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Here are the particulars. Background on Rumi and the Dervishes follows.
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An
Evening with Rumi
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Produced
by:
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The Honolulu Academy of Arts
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Where:
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Doris Duke Theatre, 900 S. Beretania St., Honolulu HI 96817
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When:
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Dec. 1 (Saturday) at 7:30pm
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Running Time:
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One hour and 50 minutes
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Admission:
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General Admission $18.00
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Academy members $15.00
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Tickets and information:
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Honolulu Academy of Arts Box office (808) 532 - 8700, http://www.honoluluacademy.org
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About
Mevlana,
Jalaluddin
Rumi
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The parents of Jalaluddin Rumi knew
well the theme that appears so often
in his poetry: the pain of separation,
and the longing to return.
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The family lived in Kars, Afghanistan, until 1201, when they fled from the approach of Genghis Khan, and settled in Konya, in Turkey Turkey. Rumi was born in 1207, and lived as a respected scholar until he was 37, when he experienced the life-changing "glance": his first meeting with the itinerant Sufi teacher Shams, from Tabriz in Iran. The two men formed a profound spiritual friendship that changed Rumi from an intellectual who had never written much to an astoundingly prolific poet. His most admired work, The Mathnawi, is as long as the works of Shakespeare.
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| Rumi's way of writing was intuitive. He did not craft his poems, but poured them out as he walked through the town, usually flanked by scribes who wrote the words down as the poet turned and spoke, and the people gathered to listen. |
| Rumi's stories are deliciously dramatic, and not only because of their vivid characters, dreamlike changes of direction and gorgeous imagery. To actors, it makes sense that Rumi spoke his poetry in public as he walked to the school, the assembly hall, the town square, likely too "dissolved in love" to deliver "performances," much less "act" for effect on an audience. Yet his conversational style, and his images that flow like jazz rather than verse, seem to show that the poet knows others are present when he speaks, and they may even be having fun listening to him -- and he knows they are present. |
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Coleman Barks writes in Rumi Illuminated, "Rumi is the 13th-century sufi mystic, whose ability to open the heart so dissolved the boundaries of religion that he made human friendship and the longing to merge with the Source one thing. His spontaneously-spoken poetry celebrates the sacredness of everyday life and gives voice to the soul's deepest mysteries."
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Those
who have preserved Rumi's words and
seek to apply his teachings are called
the Mevlevi Order, and refer to the
poet as Mevlana, the Master. It is said that when Rumi passed away in 1274, people from every faith in Konya walked in his funeral procession: Muslims, Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Hindus, Buddhists and all came to honor the one who spoke for them all, and for the truth of every sacred tradition.
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About
the Artists
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Dan Furst has worked as an actor, announcer, stage fight director and producer in theatre, film and TV in his native New York, Europe, India, Japan, Hawaii and now in Egypt.
In Hawaii Dan appeared at Oahu’s community theatres, and was nominated for two Po’okela Awards. He was a narrator in Tom Coffman's documentary A Nation Within, and has appeared in such projects as The Great Dock Strike and The First Battle on Hawaii Public TV. Dan has played Rumi in the Honolulu Academy of Art's Islamic Festival, at UH, Punahou School and Ong King. He first performed An Evening with Rumi in September, 2003 at The Arts at Mark’s Garage in Honolulu. He now lives in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. |
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| Steven Rosenthal (left) is a hunter and gatherer of sounds. His musical universe encompasses world music sensibilities, building his own instruments, interactive sound installations, the avant-garde, and even sculptures that depict what sound looks like. |
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| He has performed and exhibited at museums and arts festivals including the Honolulu Academy of Arts, The Contemporary Museum, the Asia Society in New York, the Hong Kong Arts Festival, and the International Bamboo Congress in Bali. Steven received the 2002 American Composers Forum-McKnight Foundation Visiting Composers Fellowship. |
| Reggae McGowen (right above) is Honolulu’s first-call percussionist for West African, Afro-Caribbean, Latin, and Middle Eastern Music. Reggae also teaches percussion and accompanies and performs with visiting choreographers including Cleo Robinson, Halifu Osumare, Mabiba West, and Alessandra Belloni. |
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| Valerie Noor Karima (below) is Center leader of the Mevlevi Order of America on Oahu and has studied with Sufis from Konya, Istanbul, the US, South America and Sri Lanka, and with Postneshin Jelaluddin Loras of the Mevlevi School (the Whirling Dervishes). She leads the Dances of Universal Peace, and serves as vice president of the All Believers Network, an interfaith nonprofit organization. She studies psychology, spiritual philosophy, sacred dance, and mysticism in a variety of contexts. |
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| The
Turning of the Dervishes
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Everyone has heard of the "whirling dervishes," but few dervishes try -- or want to -- explain what they do. People committed to the dervish path become semazens, and spend years of practice in song, movement and meditation to refine their "turning," and prepare for ceremonies called sema in which nine or more semazens, each holding a place in a geometric design, all turn together in a communal ritual of music and turning. Semazens always turn to the left. Why? Because the heart is to the left of the center line of the body, so by turning to the left the dervish turns on the axis of the heart. Balance is easier to keep, and the dervish can enter deep meditation and bliss states. In the turning, the dervish seeks
the ecstasy of direct union with God, so that, in Rumi's words, "all qualities of doingness disappear."
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Come in! The Beloved is here. We are all drunk.
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No one notices who enters or leaves.
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Don't sit outside in the dark, alone, wondering.
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"The House of Love," translation
by Kabir Helminski
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| What I do is born out of love, |
| Not malice or spite. |
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I am here to make your heart
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a shrine of love,
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not a pen for holding sheep.
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I Cried Out at Midnight,
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version
by Jonathan Star
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I am a sky where spirits live.
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Stare into this deepening blue,
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while the breeze says a secret.
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Like
this.
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Like This,
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version by Coleman Barks
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Nightingales are kept in cages because their songs give pleasure.
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Who ever heard of keeping a crow?
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Passion can restore healing power, and prune the weary boughs
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back to new life. The energy of passion is everything! |
In Baghdad Dreaming of Cairo, version by Coleman Barks
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In the hand of love I'm like a cat in a bag,
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Lifted up and whirled around overhead.
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That's how much control I have over circumstances.
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"Full Moon, Bilal," version by Coleman Barks
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| We have fallen into the place where everything is music. |
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Where everything is Music, version by Coleman Barks
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Friend, I've shrunk to a hair
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trying to tell your story.
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Would you tell mine?
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I've made up so many love stories,
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Now I feel fictional.
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The Fragile Vial, version by Coleman Barks
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