Curriculum Vitae of Ola Mafaalani

Ola Mafaalani is a theatre director.  She was born in Syria in 1968, and raised in Germany.  From 1990 to 1992 she studied at the University of Bochum, Germany, specializing in Theatre, Film, Television, English, German, and Political Science.  From 1992 to 1994 she studied at the University of Amsterdam, where she obtained a Master’s Degree in Theatre Science.  She also joined post-graduate study at DasArts.  Since 2002 she has been a resident director at Toneelgroep Amsterdam. She staged productions in Europe and the United States. She currently lives in Amsterdam.

PRODUCTIONS
2006
Hemel Boven Berlijn\Wings of Desire.  Adaptaion of Wim Wenders’ film from Wim Wenders.  Co-production of Toneelgroep Amsterdam and the American Repertory Theatre, Cambridge, MA, featuring a half-American, half, Dutch cast.  The New York Times wrote: “In translating to three dimensions Mr. Wenders’s much-admired meditation on the transient but treasured wonders of life, the director, Ola Mafaalani, conjures a few stark, evocative images. Columns of slowly falling sand, illuminated by golden spotlights, symbolize the steady drift of time through the lives of all the human characters. The angel Damiel (Bernard White) aches to join the flow of life, to know the taste of an apple and the touch of a woman’s skin, but these streams of flowing sand, which collect in pitiful-looking, uneven piles on the stage, wordlessly and movingly express the heavy weight of time’s inexorable passing.” cast | reviews | photos

2005
A Clockwork Orange at the “Over t’IJ Festival” with the rock band The Ex. cast | reviews | photo's
VPRO television work. A tv short story around civilisation. Based on the idea of Norbert Elias. Title: the day of civilisation. Materials

Extase from Suver Nuver based on improvisations by the cast on the theme of the Middle East.

2004
Romeo and Juliet at Toneelgroep Amsterdam.  The Capulets were performed by Argentinian tango dancers. cast | photos and video | reviews

Othello is invited to Winterthur (Switzerland)
Directs the graduation production at the theatre school of Arnhem.
People in Shit Hotels (Renée Polesch) on location in the Hotel American in Amsterdam’s Leidseplein, as part of the Transition Festival.

2003
Le Bal at the Kölner Schauspielhaus (Germany) The production included a salsa dancer that Mafaalani met in Havana, and who left Cuba for the first time to participate in the show. Materials
Mafaalani gives a workshop on Shakespeare for writers and directors at the Gasthuis Theatre, Amsterdam.

2002
The Merchant of Venice at Toneelgroep Amsterdam.  The production is invited to the Cairo Festival in Egypt. cast | photos and video | reviews

Mafaalani gives a workshop at the International Symposium For Directors at LaMaMa Umbria.
A well fucked up play. A performance for the festival De Parade in the summer. Materials
Othello at the Kölner Schauspielhaus (Germany).  The production subsequently ran for three years.  The premiere created an uproar in the public:  Mafaalani had staged a scene in which Othello drowned his wife, and the performance was so real that the audience tried to intervene to save Desdemona.  The final forty minutes of the production were staged in heavy rain, which stopped only when Othello murdered his wife and discovered her innocence. cast | photo's | reviews

 

2001
Macbeth at the Koninklijke Vlaamse Schouwburg (Royal Flemish Theatre) in Brussels.  The production was selected for ‘Het Theaterfestival 2001’ in the Netherlands.  The audience played an important role in the show; they were Macbeth’s advisors and witness, and at the end of the performance Macduff asked them to hurl tomatoes at the dictator to assist in his revenge. Materials
Ten Liefde (At Love) plays in the theatre festival at Maubeuge, France.  Materials
Why do babies cry when they are born (Waarom huilen baby’s als ze geboren worden) by Ko van den Bosch. This production was produced in collaboration with Theater aan het Spui in The Hague.  A performance about the logic of capitalism, in which any respect for people and things takes second place.  Mickey Mouse had a leading role. Materials

2000
Ajax by Sophocles was her first big stage production. Ajax was coproducted by the Theater aan het Spui and the production company Fact.  Some of the audience sat on the stage in so-called “adventure seats”; in the second part of the play they became a jury.  The rest of the audience had to wait, together with the actors, until the jury came to a verdict – up to an hour and a half in some performances, during which no-one left the theatre.  Ajax was nominated for Het Theaterfestival; the selection went to Mafaalani’s other production, Macbeth.. Ajax, Materials
Ola Mafaalani won the Erik Vos Prize for young directing talent.

1999
Chat at De Balie in Amsterdam, a play for eleven twelve-year old actors
The Sorry Saint, about the life and work of the outsider artist Henry Darger, played by Mil Seghers.  Over his lifetime Darger wrote a novel about the world at war against children.  Mafaalani read his oeuvre and adapted it for the stage.  During rehearsals the war in former Jugoslawia broke out, and the production was viewed as non-fictional – an absurdity in itself.

Directs productions for theatre schools in Eindhoven and Maastricht. In Eindhoven she made a piece about the effects of the bombing of Belgrade, based on daily e-mail contact with an eighteen year-old Serbian girl called Vesna who was sharing her dayly life when she had elektricity during the heavy bombardements on her city. .

At the theatre academy in Maastricht she directed Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, played mainly by women.

Coach for DasArts student Mirjana Ilic and her project Family Puzzle.

Ten Liefde, a modern version of Romeo and Juliet, played as a lunchtime performance at the Theater Bellevue, Amsterdam.  The show was a hit and toured throughout the Netherlands.  It was written by Ko van den Bosch and performed by Malou Gorter and Bart Klever. Materials

Mafaalani co-founded the theatre group “United Ropes”.

1998
Schwittersmaterial, produced by Nes-Theaters. The production combined the poem “De Ui” (“The Onion”) with “Ursonate” by Kurt Schwitters.

Directed and wrote Mama Courage (inspired by Brecht’s Mother Courage.)  The text is based on documents from the Dutch Ministry of Defense and the UN manifesto. The performance played during the Brecht-week in Theater Kikker, Utrecht, and subsequently on tour.

Remount of Hairy Machines (Harige Machines) in German with a tour in Germany and Poland (produced by the Grand Theatre, Groningen, Netherlands).

Key West  (Westkaai) by B.M. Koltes at Fact, Rotterdam. A site-specific project at the Mueller Pier. Materials

1997
A Battleoper, site-specific project the Grand Theatre in Groningen.  This was Mafaalani’s third Grand Theatre production.  The cast included the opera singer Daniela Bernouli, dancer Corinne Barbara,  actor Ko van den Bosch, and saxophonist Jan Kooper.  The location was rebuilt by two architects. This performance was selected for the ‘Noorderzonfestival’ in Groningen.

1996
Helmut Krausser's Leartherface (Leersmoel) at the Grand Theatre in Groningen. Tom Kleijn translated the German play Lederfresse.
The Comanche (De Comanche)  with theatre group Alex d'Electrique. Play about a woman that saves the last Comanche (an indian tribe) by kidnapping him from a hospice and hiding him in the cellar.
Co-author (with Ko van den Bosch) of A Battleoper, inspired by the lyrics and music of Tom Waits.

1995
Co-author (with Ko van den Bosch) of Hairy Machines, comissioned by the Fonds voor de podiumkunsten (Fund for the Arts.)

Directs Hairy Machines about the life of S.I. Witkiewicz.  A Grand Theatre  production.
Zekavan for the festival Noorderzon in Groningen.  Zekavan is performed in a specially  prepared caravan in which the audience, actors and director sit.
Garbage, performed on a garbage boat. With Timur Mehmedbasic, a 16 year-old actor/saxophonist from Bosnia, and two real garbagemen.  This performance was made in the post-graduate program of DasArts, founded by Ritsaert ten Cate.