Are you coming tonight?

[Sahand Sahebdivani]

Hi everyone!

The best book I read about learning a new art form started with two anecdotes: one is the story of a man who had a nanny as a kid who liked to explore the house and the garden with him. While they did so they made up funny words in their secret language, pointing at things and at some point even making sentences and having their own grammar. He loved to learn a secret language no one else spoke. Only years later when he went to high school he realized he had learned ancient Greek! The other anecdotes told of an art teacher who decided to grade half the class on the quality of the work they brought in, while the other half was graded only on quantity. The first half objected, how could the other half get away with just doing whatever, as long as it was a lot? The teacher was adamant and at the end of the semester they reviewed the work: the students who went for quality had done well, but the ones who had gone for quantity simply by repeating themselves somehow ended up with work that was even better quality wise compared to the work of the first group! The book taught me two important lessons: It's important to do, to do it often and to have fun while doing it, allowing you to channel that inner child that doesn't know the difference between play and learning!

Good thing we have so many events that answer to those criteria. Like the Comedy open mic tonight. It's free, and you might think since it's an open mic we only have first timers. You'd be surprised, there's a few known and experienced people on the list, but those who just like the first timers would like to play with new material and try out new scary material. So come! It's free (donations help). Doors open at 19.00, the funny starts at 20.00.

Then tomorrow (Tuesday) we continue in the spirit of exploration with the Tell, then Show! night. A storytelling night in which we look for the moving stories behind the songs, films and books that have become part of our lives and who we are. The night in which anyone finds their storytelling voice, by discovering what it is that they want to share! The night for which host Karl is flying back from Curacao for!

What else can we offer you? Well, so much, but here's a few things I'd like to highlight:

- This Saturday we have another Alt Comedy Night. A truly bizarre night that goes beyond the stand up comedy format. Think Clowns, physical comedy, sketches, absurdity. There's tickets!

- This Saturday we also have a few slots left for the improvised stories workshop Raffi Feghali is teaching. It's a fun 4 hour experience (11.00 to 16.00) which gives you inspiration and practical tools to make something from nothing! It's € 39,- for the day (tickets and more info on website).

- On Sunday our Argentinian teller of tall tales Fer Rodil plays his premiere solo (directed by Raphael Rodan!). The concept is as loopy as it is brilliant: he is there to pitch you the idea for a film that doesn't exist yet. The result is something that when I saw it premiere at the Amsterdam Storytelling Festival I had a pain in my stomach from laughter! (tickets on site)

For next week don't miss the very first time we offer a one day workshop (on March 23) by the amazing Aryeh Hasfari on how to use music with your stories! Aryeh is an internationally known theater maker and musician. We are very excited to pick his brain and learn from him! Here's the write up (and ticket link):

https://mezrab.nl/events/workshop-music-for-storytelling-with-aryeh-hasfari/

And finally, in honor of the arrival of spring and international storytelling day, we bring back our yearly tradition of doing a MARATHON of stories!! Come on Sunday March 24 from Noon till Midnight! It's free, and lots of fun!

That's it for now. Hope to see you at the events!

hugs,

Sahand & Team

www.mezrab.nl

PS. You probably read that the Bellevue theater has started booking storytelling shows! My solo the Distant Word is booked to play on March 21, after which you will have the joy of seeing Joe Kearny, Sinead O'brien, Nasim and Raphael Rodan play their shows as well! Grab your tickets now!

PPS,