TACISER.S ART AND DESIGN

A JOURNEY
Nina to Rosa to Home

Scenography for Istanbul City Theatres – The Youth Days

A JOURNEY

Playwright & Director: Cem Baza

One day I saw a movie
And fell in love with a woman,
She became my lover, my teacher, my family
She became home away from home

One day I saw a movie
And fell in love with a woman
A woman I never knew existed
A woman so far away from me
So far away from who I am
But regardless I fell in love
I let her voice guided me
I didn’t understand what she was saying
It wasn’t the words, it was the voice that I loved
And like every devoted lover
I followed her voice

In time while I was trying to learn her culture
I started to learn the language she spoke
So I listened more carefully
And I started to understand what she was saying

I understood her pain and her struggle
But, her anger?
I started questing,
Why she was so angry?
What makes her to say those things?

So I questioned more, I read more
And I asked more.
She sparked a little light in the darkness
All I had to do was to follow
So I did

I was scared a little from what I might see
But I wasn’t alone
Her voice was guiding me, holding my hand
And filling my heart
So I listened once more
Giving myself to her

I was hoping for more light
But darkness grew deeper
I was hoping for salvation
Hopelessness grew more
Darkness surrounding me
Creep in to my soul

The things that she was talking about
Was so powerful and so intense
I couldn’t take it anymore
I was scared
Scared like a little boy
In the middle of the night

I thought I was ready for all this
But I wasn’t
There was too much to learn, too much to ask
The more I got close to the truth
The more it got scarier and scarier
I started to realize how big the problem was
how unsolvable
And how monstrous the enemy was

Also these were the things of the past
It was history,
We live in better times now
Even if it wasn’t
even if we have this problems today
Who would’ve listened me?
Who do you think I am?
I am just a middle-eastern immigrant
It is above me, I can’t do anything about it

So I found my way in running away
And naturally I did
I’ve turn my back to the fact
And I ran away

So I found my way in to running away
And naturally I did
I ran away
I’ve turn my back to the fact
and I ran…

… I am from Turkey
And I am a minority in Turkey
First thing I’ve learned about myself
was that I am an ALEVI
where 80% of the population of the country is Sunni Muslims
and majority of these Sunni Muslims
see Alevi as blasphemous
and even incest,
cause we pray, dance and sing together with our women…

… I ran until October 25th 2005
If you wonder how I can be so specific
That is the day Rosa Parks past away

I became mesmerized with this woman
this simple, ordinary seamstress
No extraordinary leader
Not a hero, took a stand and said NO
to the darkness
She knew she might get beaten,
put in jail or worse, get lynched!
But regardless, she stood up against oppression
She stood up by sitting down

I am taking the light she sparked
I will light the darkness
And not just my own darkness
but anyone’s darkness…