Mt Rushmore + Workshop Tour:
Sri Lanka
Colombo: a week long international theater festival in the beautiful, sweaty capital of Sri Lanka, in the wake of a major political upheaval and uprisings. Joined by my colleague Ujwala Rao, we brought my show Mt Rushmore for the culminating night. I also taught a street theater workshop intensive for a group of local Sri Lankan artists who flung themselves out into the street with abandon. Fascinating to watch South East Asian theater and other shows from across Europe and observe the cultural differences, the centuries of tradition and mythology to draw from unlike our still fledgling country. Very grateful to be welcomed into this festival and to meet all the wonderful people, volunteers, organizers and artists who made it happen.
Ella, Sri Lanka
After the festival I had a couple sweet days to explore Ella, a tropical mountain paradise with lush hillsides of tea farmland in the center of Sri Lanka. I rented a motor scooter and zipped around the switch back roads dodging families of monkeys who leap from tree branches and look like 80s pop princesses with their rosy cheeks and dark purple lipstick and discovering waterfall hikes hidden deep in the jungle. Went to lunch at an old cliffside hotel where a woman was singing American country and disco songs. Made it to one of the tallest peaks where a pristine Buddhist monastery was perched with devotees in all white circling and kneeling in prayer. On the way down my engine stalled so I coasted all the way down through the sharp curvy road. It was magnificent.
India
Guwahati, Assam India.
I was welcomed into the Bhullung-Bhuthur International Theater Festival in north eastern India wedged between Bhutan and Bangladesh. A small but ambitious festival taking place at a lovely cultural complex with a museum, gardens, auditoriums, artists residencies. I taught a physical storytelling workshop with a delightful group of Sri Lankan artists and I performed Mt Rushmore. Unfortunately I only got to see one other show before leaving to return back to Bangalore for my run here, it was a dark, compelling show based on Catch 22 by a Polish theater maker with powerful video elements. But we did get to have a good after-show party back at the hotel sharing songs and dances and local sweets and liquors and I feel like I have another community here, my South East Asian siblings.
Bangalore.
I returned after the Assam festival for a couple shows at the Ranga Shankara theater in Jayanagar. Thanks to the excellent producing work by Ujwala Rao, I had packed houses with hundreds of audience members. Even in the massive space, the theater allows a deeper intimacy and I felt a new closeness with the audience. The cultural references and political context landed with an English proficient audience. I was grateful to speak with many people afterwards who shared similar stories and struggles. Fascism may wear a different mask but its impact is the same around the world and the complex relationships we have with our families echo one another.
Written and performed by Monica Hunken
Previous iterations directed by Nehemiah Luckett and Theresa Buchheister
Dramaturgy by Josh Bisker
Music Direction by Phil Andrews
India tour is produced, stage managed and sound executed by Ujwala Rao
Lights executed by Arun
Play consultation by Melissa Chambers
Ranga Shankara poster designed by Sushma
Special Thanks to @livesinthoughtbubbles @shredasaur and @iareism
The last day I taught a workshop in physical storytelling with a lovely group of artists, teachers and activists at Bangalore Creative Circus and we shared a meal after discussing censorship and the life of an artist. All of this was set against the lively backdrop of the Ganesh festival, celebrating the abundant gifts of the elephant faced god with clay statues decked in yellow marigolds and roses being carried through the streets, bells rung and drummers on motorcycles stopping traffic for a song, fireworks and twinkle lights strung everywhere. The remover of obstacles, and I felt a little of that magic rubbed off on me, as I was my biggest obstacle, coming into this tour full of self doubt. Having devoted all my energy to activism and letting my solo theater practice sit on the shelf for awhile. It’s been a welcome adventure to dive back in. Thanks to everyone who supported and helped me tell a story I needed to tell.
Greece
Athens. Reveled in my ongoing love affair with this city. As sensual as it is biting, direct and clear. Like oil sizzling in a frying pan. I climbed the hills of Gyzi each day with stray cats as my skittish goddesses cheering me on, putting posters around the streets, visiting old friends, drinking Freddo Cappuccino and made it to the sea on my last day in the crystal blue Saronic Gulf and Tasos brought me to a concert in Pireaus port commemorating the death of Greek rapper Pavlos Fyssas, who was killed by neo fascist group Golden Dawn in 2013. Punk bands and hip hop artists with a crowd chanting for justice lit by red flares under the full moon. And I performed at the beautiful experimental space Ov Off space curated and run by the great artist Nefeli Stam.
Thanks to the audience who joined, @panoskeys for accompanying me and for photos, Angelene Mavroulides for bravely doing sound, @becka_musica for the support, @sildasi for helping produce the show, @nefeli_stam._ for making it all happen, @theklaga for the future!, @georggeorgakopoulos for culturing me, @evdokimos_tsolakidis_official for everything and dearest Tasos and @sissy_doutsiou for housing me
Egypt
I was invited to return to the Alexandria International Theater Festival, where I taught a master class in Street Performance. In a country that instills fear in its citizens, feels threatened by the power of unified people gathering in public to express themselves, it was thrilling to trespass outside the bounds of the workshop walls and into the streets with the courageous workshop participants. After three days of learning techniques, building vocabulary and trust, improvising outdoors, the participants created unique performances about isolation, power, capitalism and life in the city, interacting with the architecture and passers by. I am inspired by the bravery and willingness of the group to try something new and maybe a little scary. As I’ve learned from my visit to Palestine and solidarity organizing with the Freedom Theatre in Jenin, those who want to maintain authority understand the power and magnetism of cultural and creative activation. We must keep creating together across borders, keep sharing, learning, telling stories and expressing our truth, even if we shake with fear. So grateful for the community in Alexandria who has been so generous and thoughtful. Photos by Asmaa Khali
After two months of feverish touring, it’s a welcome return to autumn in New York. The last part of my tour was spent in Egypt at the Alexandria International Theater Festival. This is my second year attending and I hope to return again. Especially as an American, I feel deeply privileged to witness the art and culture of and be in community with performers and artists from Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Sudan, Egypt and many other countries across the SWANA region, that I would otherwise rarely have the opportunity to see. In the first 5 minutes of the Vice Presidential debate we see the assumed disposability of people from these lands. There is constant systematic dehumanization of SWANA people. In US portrayals, they can either be terrorists or victims, defined by suffering. What a gift to be immersed in a festival watching several plays night after night where there is no intermediary, no newscaster or sleazy politician spinning the truth, where these artists have direct agency to tell their own stories and be celebrated. You will never convince me that the life of a Palestinian or Lebanese or Syrian does not have as much value as any American. The art and culture has as much value and deserves to be seen, to be held and preserved.
How humbling it is to be welcomed into a festival like this, as an American, and feel absolutely no judgement from anyone, no assumptions about me because of my government, to instead be so generously embraced and befriended.
How can we live in a world where I get to return so easily to my country which supplies bombs to Israel while an all women theater company from Lebanon is not sure if their homes will even be standing or if they can return at all?
It is upside down and heartbreaking.
I am beyond grateful to the festival leadership, to Gamal Yakout, Ibrahim, Ahmed Samir, to the kind volunteers, to the brilliant jury team held together by the strength and dexterity of Nadet Adel, to performances that will stay emblazoned in my mind, especially the winning production, Casper, which reflected the Palestinian struggle for liberation with as much beauty, urgency and fortitude as it deserves. Gratitude for my students in the workshop who showed courage and imagination. And immense gratitude to my dear friends the eloquent Aya Mohsen for translating, the genuine Mahmoud Latif for logistics and negotiating, and of course the effervescently talented Ahmed Raheem. All my love and solidarity forever.
Upcoming:
A tour with Al Límite Collective in Pakistan, Austria and Greece
Update 2023
It has been awhile since I have posted here. Much has occurred! Here’s whats coming up
My theater company, Al Límite Collective, has been awarded the Brooklyn Arts Council Creative Equations Fund: Cultural Heritage and Diversity for our next iteration of Brooklyn is Not a Sacrifice Zone. We will continue to collaborate with grassroots organizers mobilizing against the North Brooklyn Pipeline.
Summer Tour Dates Announced:
This summer a contingent of Al Límite Collective will set out across Europe to facilitate workshops, devise new work with local communities and perform in theater festivals across five countries. We are excited to reconnect with migrant and refugee centers and autonomous arts spaces that we have built relationships with over years and to share our performances for the first time at eclectic festivals reopening after pandemic shut downs.
June 7th-11th
Crato, Portugal
Waking Life Festival
June 12th-16th
Paris, France
In the streets
June 18th-21st
Vienna, Austria
Brunnenpassage Workshops and Performance
June 29th-July 2nd
Athens, Greece
Embros
Performance of Electric Awakening
July 6th
Athens, Greece
International Festival of Making Theater
Performance of Electric Awakening
July 10th-15th
Lanzarote, Spain
Lacuna Festival
Performance of Electric Awakening and Workshop
Donate to support our work and help get us there: Venmo @LiminalArchive
Follow @allimitecollective to see updates and stay in touch