Monodrama…

Again, a quick wrap about this week. I've been busy this week (and up till Friday 17^th) as I've been working with the group on documenting the Monodrama festival here in Kuwait starting from last Saturday. Many celebrities, local and Arabian in general are attending this festival. It is a good practice and better than being idle with my camera specially with the arrival of Summer (remember, Kuwait has no Spring season!).

The official poster of the event

Personally, I didn't imagine that I would love the shows performed on that stage. They do indeed have a philosophical questioning and impact, and sometimes I do feel like putting the camera on the side and enjoying the show myself. All shows were good (to my taste), though I did skip one show because of the severe headache (which later turned into a migraine as usual); but I do feel somewhat touched deeply by 2 shows mainly: The Story of Yesterday [قصة الأمس], by the renowned Kuwaiti actor Abdul-Aziz Al-Haddad [عبدالعزيز الحداد], which gives a glimpse into the life of the late Egyptian poet, Ahmad Fat'hy [أحمد فتحي]; and the other show was Foreignness [غربة], by the Iraqi dramatist Sami Abdul-Hameed, PhD. [د. سامي عبدالحميد], which speaks about the experience of a man estranged away from his homeland (and I do firmly believe that it does have a glimpse about his own personal life as well).

Abdul-Aziz Al-Haddad
الفنان الكويتي القدير عبدالعزيز الحداد

Sami Abdul-Hameed
الفنان العراقي القدير د. سامي عبدالحميد

Probably these two specific shows do relate to something about my personal life. Who knows. After finishing those sessions I need to sit down and filter out the images, and after filtration I need to pick out those that are supposed to be good shots, for the contest which is related to this event. Frankly, up till this moment, the contest's rules and conditions are still fuzzy and I'm not sure what are the requirements. Generally speaking, I'm having it as a practice and not as a big deal and I'm enjoying my time there regardless of the tiresome and exhaustive posture (standing all the time). The images are mostly taken in an ISO no less than 2000. Hence, I'm not so optimistic about having a good series here. I've been trying out my barrel or mirror lens as well (Rokinon 800mm) but I didn't take it seriously. The extreme zoom and the manual focus (beside the large diameter) makes it hard to follow an actor on the stage with it and re-focus. Hence, most of the shots were taken with Sigma 70-300mm, and sometimes with Bower 2x teleconverter.
Till next week, let's hope I get at least ONE good image of all this mess. There will be some big deal sitting in front of this monitor to delete and filter more than two thousand shots (if not 3K).