by David Bernabo and Katherine Barbera
The Why We Collect podcast explores what it means to build meaningful archives. We want to listen deeply to the world around us to investigate the value preservation has for all of us. To do this, we developed two series: Collectors Edition, where we talk with collectors to learn what motivates all of us to bring objects into our lives, and how possessions shape our lived experiences, and Vernacular Archives, where we meet people who think about preservation differently and create collections rooted in people and place. This podcast is a project by Bright Archives, an independent archival production house, and it is being cross-posted with Petrichor.
For this episode of Why We Collect, we talk with theatre director Adil Mansoor about Amm(i)gone, a new theater piece that goes on tour this month!
The play’s tagline is “Amm(i)gone, an adaptation of Sophocles’ Antigone, is an apology to and from a mother,” and the work incorporates recorded interviews with Mansoor’s mother along with selected family photographs and ephemera. We talk about these conversations and these objects—how the interviews were conducted, why certain objects were chosen. But we talk about so much more. The deepness of the work allows us to dig into a lot of juicy topics: making theater about the joyful feeling of making theater, power dynamics between interviewee and interviewer, editing (or not editing) oral history, talking about art with people you love, and the difficulties of making theater about one’s family. “We’re literally talking about the things we don’t talk about. That’s what the show is about,” says Mansoor. “The show is about how difficult it is to talk.”
Since many listeners might be listening to this episode before they catch a performance, here’s more info about the play.
“Creator and performer Adil Mansoor explores queerness, the afterlife, and obligation using canonical texts, teachings from the Quran, and audio conversations between him and his mother. Since discovering his queerness, Mansoor’s mother has turned towards her faith in an attempt to save her son in the afterlife. In an effort towards healing, Mansoor has invited his mother to join him as dramaturg and co-conspirator. In reading, discussing, and translating various adaptations of the source play, together they mine Greek tragedy, Islamic traditions, and their own memories to create an original performance locating love across faith.”
Bonus: We’ve introduced a lightning round of questions at the end of the episode. Favorite sandwich? Toilet paper up or down?
David Bernabo is an oral historian, musician, artist, and independent filmmaker. His film work has documented western Pennsylvania food systems, climate change, the studio practices of composers and artists, and the histories of iconic arts institutions like the Mattress Factory. He is most noted for Moundsville, a documentary co-directed with former Wall Street Journal writer John W. Miller, which screened on PBS for three years.
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