'Conference of the Birds' brings international cultural experience to Lakes Region

MEREDITH — Actors from around the world and around the country have been rehearsing for the past two weeks to bring an ancient Persian poem-turned-play to life in the Lakes Region.

The Winnipesaukee Playhouse production of "The Conference of the Birds" was in final dress rehearsal Wednesday, as the cast spent the day at the venue's amphitheater, depicting a spiritual journey of life, death, rebirth and acceptance against a backdrop of live music featuring 35 instruments.

“This was actually written in the 12th century,” explained Director Tiesha Duncan. “Then Peter Brook rewrote and reimagined it as a theater piece. It's really a storytelling of our journey as humans within our own spiritual struggle to find enlightenment or the purpose of what life is.”

The play focuses on a group of various birds as they cross a vast spiritual and literal desert to seek their king, encountering different threats, characters and teachers along the way. Due to the large number of characters, each actor has multiple roles, dropping in and out of the story as different birds and those they encounter along the journey.

Neil Pankhurst, producing artistic director of the Winnipesaukee Playhouse, chose this specific play as a way to broaden the horizons of Lakes Region audience.

“The very first line is, 'One day the birds of the world got together for a conference,'” Pankhurst said. “This notion of the birds of the world was what inspired the notion of trying to bring in multiple people from different ethnic backgrounds. [For] three of our performers, English is a second language. I wanted to try and bring sort of a different world culture to this piece, so there's all sorts of different styles going on here.”

Multicultural styles appear in the costumes, cast and even the acting techniques, which all integrate into the play's signature “movement-based” acting style. Duncan was brought on as a director for her expertise in this particular art form.

“The idea of movement-based is how can an actor access the full ways of moving within their body?” Duncan explained. “How they can use that gestural language, the dynamics of flexibility and balance, all these different things within our physical frame to enact different characters, to embody roles and experience emotions and express them in different ways.”

By using large and exaggerated motions, actors can convey drama, character and other storytelling aspects to audience members who are seated farther away. This is not, as Duncan stressed, the same as dance.

In "The Conference of the Birds," the movements of the actors are accentuated by flowing and elaborate costumes, the details of which speak to the culture of the wearer.

“The sleeves are kimono-inspired for me,” explained actor Alyssa Naka Silver, who utilized Japanese acting techniques in her performance. “So it's Japanese traditional dress.”

“My costume reminds me of the costumes' traditional flora dances, so that's the skirt and the little top,” said Viviana Renteria, before pointing to her ornate gold necklace. “The jewelry is a representation of the different cultures in Colombia, the Chibchas, the Muiscas, all those cultures are represented through gold and jewelry.”

Actor Sarvin Alidaee hails from Iran, the same place the story was originally written 900 years ago by poet Attar of Nishapur.

“I had never read it before this play,” Alidaee said. “But I know the story. It's a very famous story in my country, so I knew the story, but I didn't know anything about the details.”

As part of her preparation for the play, Alidaee read the original poem to learn the specifics of the narrative. Despite the popularity of both the original poem and the modern play adaption in Iran, Alidaee was never able to witness it herself until performing it in the Lakes Region.

“They're doing it in my country right now,” Alidaee said. “They combined with 'Julius Caesar.' My sister saw it last night and she liked it.”

Behind the cast, costumes and makeup is the play's score, performed by a one-man-band featuring xylophones, bells, bows, cymbals, drums, flutes and more instruments all played and mixed live by Klimchak, of Atlanta.

“This is the kind of thing I specialize in,” Klimchak said. “I come into a play at the first rehearsal with 100 to 150 instruments, and sit in the corner and work through as the rehearsal progresses, trying different things and writing an underscore and working with the actors, so by the end of the process, I'm down to a different number of instruments, and I've got a basic underscore that goes throughout the play.”

The mix of live unconventional instruments, vivid costumes and mix of languages and cultures in outdoor setting made for an interesting and unique performance. However, a downside of the outdoor venue according to organizers and actors has been the past few days of rain, but the worst of the weather appears to be over.

“When you have outdoor theater, you're subject to the elements. The elements take control,” Duncan smiled. “We've passed the buggy season, so now we're just being attacked by blossoms and rain.”

"The Conference of the Birds" is on stage at the Winnipesaukee Playhouse through Saturday, Sept. 17.