"On stage and off, Fadi creates community. This is integral to his life. He conducts Arabic Puppet Theater Workshops wherein he teaches the history of the art, facilitates story-playwriting, instructs the building of puppets, and directs public performances among students of all age and experience levels. I have attended and participated in several of these workshops, and in every case, communities arise who continue to work together and who, incidentally, become close friends. Fadi likewise builds community around his drumming, bringing diverse groups together over art.
During
my graduate work, I wrote a feminist adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, entitled Sycorax. Fadi was in one of my
playwriting classes and served as my dramaturg. I am so fortunate in this
connection because of his intense investment and belief in my work. He both
challenged and nurtured the play, and eventually became its director when it
was selected for the 2007 Cohen New Works Festival. Because of his gender, I questioned
at the time his request to direct my feminist play; I wondered about the ethics
of placing a male director in charge of such a project. As it turned out,
however, he was most sensitive to the actors, the text, and to the politics
involved. He, the cast, and I collaborated closely throughout the process, and
I was impressed with his ability to take a strong lead while encouraging
individual artistic choices among the actors, crew, and me, the playwright. He
proved himself to be open and flexible, and his skill and intuition as a
director were apparent all along. Fadi won the love and trust of everyone
involved.
I
was amazed at the final product—a beautiful piece that incorporated movement
and music that enhanced the original text and touched the audience in
multi-sensory ways. Fadi Skeiker is indeed a creative and gifted director whose
passion for community and art manifest themselves in fanciful images and
dynamics on the stage.
Since
that experience last spring, my experiences with Fadi Skeiker have reinforced
my awe of him as a theater artist and as a person. He is an individual of high
standards and great character. Last semester, I invited him to work with
students in a course I teach entitled Rhetoric of Performance. My students are
of various majors, none of which are theater, and in only seventy minutes, Fadi
had them performing in public and loving it. Please read this sampling of rave
reviews they wrote afterward. They bear witness to Fadi’s skill as a director
and teacher:
· "... he was not afraid to speak and be different … last
Thursday’s rhetoric class was something I will always remember after I leave
college."
· "Fadi required all of us to work together, and at the same
time do some things outside of our comfort zones."
· "Never in my lifetime would I have imagined myself partaking
in any sort of spontaneous act of public political protest."
· "We worked as a group and the activities were not so centered
on the individual, but rather, how the individuals could work together to get a
point across though our performances. Each exercise slowly pushed our limits a
little further … Fadi opened my eyes to how complex the art of performance is."
· "His teachings were very unorthodox (especially given my
natural science background), but effective in that [Fadi] ensured the topics
were pertinent to any type of rhetoric."
· "We put rhetoric in motion and made a performance of it."
· "He really knew how to get people to open themselves up
through performance, and the ways that he had us express ourselves were really
fun and eye-opening."
· "Working with Fadi, while not difficult, was hard in the
sense that you had to step out of your comfort zone."
- Susan Todd
"I first met Fadi after a friend
suggested that I speak with him about a play I'd been commissioned to write,
which was to expose an American audience to the doctrines and traditions of
Islam. With tireless help from Fadi, we put together "Kneeling Down at
Noon" which played to sold-out houses here in Austin and which met with
acclaim from Muslims and non-Muslims alike. It is no exaggeration to say that I
could not have done it without Fadi, who made it his personal obsession that I
understand and accurately represent the world of Damascus, where the play was
set -- the pace of life, the daily habits and gestures of its citizens, the
warmth of conversation, the taboos, and not least the Arabic language with its
great musicality and cadence. For the Arabic that we included in the play, Fadi
met with the actors in session after session, patiently and cheerfully teaching
them to discover and enjoy this beautiful language.
Fadi is like no one else I've
met. I wish that I could just send him to you in a box rather than writing a
letter. His enthusiasm, warmth, intelligence, curiosity, and great good humor
are evident from the first instant you meet him. If you've already met him, you
know what I mean. If you haven't, a quick look at his resume tells a compelling
tale: he is everywhere at once, working on diverse and challenging projects, as
happy to be the student as he is to be the teacher (and shouldn't that be true
of all teachers?). He's a person who loves to say yes to things and once he says
yes, he brings his passion to bear -- always collaborating, always making
discoveries and sharing those discoveries.
What's also clear from Fadi's
resume is his love of his language and his culture. He is a great ambassador
for Syria and for the culture of all Arabic-speaking countries. He wants people
to know what it's like to be who he is, to be where he's from. He wants them to
know the good and the bad, to demystify his culture for his American friends.
He wants them to understand the traditions, why those traditions matter, how
they're changing, why they're changing, and how art and theater are reflecting
and refracting those traditions back to the local populace -- and out to the
larger world. Not everything in Syria is admirable, as Fadi well knows, but all
of it is interesting -- and because it is interesting, Fadi wants to share it
with people however he can. I stopped counting the times I've heard Fadi tell
people who were practically strangers to him that they must come and visit him
and his family in Damascus. I often get the feeling that Fadi is homesick, but
sad as that may be for Fadi, it's good for the rest of us because I think that
homesickness fuels his gentle-hearted pedagogy."
-Steve Moore
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Fadi is highly regarded by many
students and faculty around the university. Many of my colleagues have
taken a class of his and often describe it to be one of the most rewarding
courses of their educational careers. From witnessing his teaching style,
I’ve noticed that Fadi has a natural ability to encourage his students step out
of their shoes and lose restrictive social inhibitions to create a setting most
conducive to learning. My own experiences with him as my instructor
reinforce this reputation. With Fadi’s assistance, I was competent in understanding
news articles in media Arabic, and likewise confident in speaking the Syrian
dialect overseas with a rich knowledge of cultural references difficult to
teach in a classroom.
I witnessed Fadi’s production of Kneeling Down at Noon, which was a
widely-received play in Austin. Its ultimate performance certainly had
Fadi’s stamp on it—one that brings different cultures and religions to a real
world identification in demonstrating how we are more alike than
different. This goal exemplifies Fadi’s work in music, theatre, art, and
instruction. He teaches to promote understanding and respect over
ignorance and animosity. He has opened the worlds of many in his pursuit
of such ideals.
My experiences with
Fadi—through his music, theatrical performances, directing, Arabic instruction,
and research skills—make him one of the most well-rounded people I know.
These diverse attributes, along with his exceptional skills in each field, make
him an ideal candidate and an institutional asset. Arabic is very much a
language of immense culture, history, and performance. Approaching the
language through use of these varied disciplines make Fadi’s instruction highly
interactive and engaging, as well as entertaining, educational, and inspiring."
- Stephen C. Hetzel
He
was a very patient teacher who enjoyed (and was very skilled in) not only the
process of language instruction, but also the opportunity to provide insights
into Middle Eastern culture and history. He was well informed, discussed
with these issues in a relaxed and objective manner, and was interested in
finding common ground between Western and Middle Eastern/Arabic culture.
His academic training and theater work in the almost four years since I was his
student have, I am sure, developed his abilities in these areas even further."
-David L. Gandle