Khalifa Al Hajeri enters world of drama
‘Eye opening and mind expanding experience’
This is the second in a series of articles on Dr Khalifa Rashed Al Hajeri a born artist.
— Editor
Scenography made him keenly aware of space and how to use it in setting the stage in perspective, with furniture and accessories correctly displayed according to the play.
In Scenography nothing is left to chance, there is nothing haphazard in designing a stage setting; everything is perfectly drawn to a scale measured to precision.
As a stage designer he had to plan each scene according to scale, color-scheme and direction of light throughout the play, together with accurate details for the backing with doors, windows, or staircase and proportional plans for any exteriors.
Reading, studying, and analyzing the play, Khalifa Al Hajeri became acquainted with what was needed for each set and visualize all the movements of the play, before producing scale models not only for the scenes and the furnishing , but also design the costumes for different characters.
(The correct costumes are of primary importance in a play).
Incidentally this technique was first adopted by W.S. Gilbert, the creator of the staging for the comic operas he himself wrote with Sullivan. Before the first rehearsal he worked out on his model stage taking in consideration every movement that was due to take place during the performance.
So successful was this arrangement that today many scenographers still use his method.
Lidia Qattan
One of the paintings by Khalifa Al Hajeri
Being an artist was an advantage for Khalifa when creating the scenic designs of a play, especially in matching the color scheme of the costumes with the scenic background and furnishing, the whole affected by the lighting.
For him entering the world of drama was an eye opening and mind expanding experience, as he delved through the various epoch and era in human history, encompassing twenty-five centuries of development in Europe.
Drama emerged into an art with the Greek period, followed by the Roman period, the Middle Ages, The Renaissance and Modern times.
Each epoch requires a searching analysis of the habits, tastes and desires of people to explain certain trend affecting social behavior ,architecture, costumes and furnishing, which most be implement in the stage-scene of a play of a given period.
The more Khalifa delved into the subject, the more he realized its portent as a team work, shared by the dramatist, the director, the actors, mechanical experts, costume designers and so forth.
Drama is an art with its own laws, its own conventions and methods of presenting the material.
Artists in all its branches need a sense of its form and proportion, besides good knowledge of the laws of its nature to find means of clear expression; they also need discipline because, as mentioned it is a team work.
The dramatist must understand not only the play, but also how to secure the cooperation of any expert in various technical skills: lighting, costumes, scenery and engineering. Actors are also expected to know their business in regard to movement, make-up and voice production. There is also need of a general cultural outlook in view of the international reciprocity in dramatic art, in which different nationalities mingle, hence some knowledge of the language, of history and art of other countries is desirable.
Khalifa Al Hajeri discovered Scenography as an affair of the mind, a constructive problem to be solved by knowledge and imagination. This incidentally, brought him to a new understanding of painting through the mastery of colors, light, shadow and movement, in order to produce a work in perspective.
Incidentally while he was at the Higher Institute of Dramatic Art, he was also contributing with caricatures in local daily newspapers, Al Ray Al Am and Al Nahda as well as in the University’s magazine “Afak Al Jamaia” (University Horizons).
For his Bachelor degree from the Higher Institute of Drama in 1995, Khalifa Al Hajeri chose the play “The Robot”, by an American playwright; for it spurred him to create a scenography based on fantasy and probabilities without antecedents, he also created a two meters high sculpture for it and scored top marks.
That same year he became an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Dramatic Arts.
In the following year (in 1996) while teaching at the Institute he was appointed Editor of the “Amuag” (Waves) magazine, dealing with yachts and boats, a field quite new to him that brought him into a new field of inquiry that fascinated him.
However, eager to expand his knowledge in scenography, in 1997 he enrolled at the Long Beach University in California, reputed to be one of the best in technical Scenography centers; there he met his old friend, Waleed Sherab who first introduced him to the group of artists frequenting the Art Center at the Kuwait University in 1988.
After a crash course in English, the lectures Khalifa attended on Scenography opened new vistas on how to use symbolism, how to interpret the play and make use of his artistic talent.
At his return to Kuwait eager to know more of the theoretical side and get his Master in Scenography, he enrolled at the University of Leeds, England, considered to be the best in theoretical knowledge of drama.
By then he was married and the father of twins, Isa and Yousef, hence going to England he was closer to home.
To be continued