“The Scene is a Machine” with Hassan al Rawas (21st Oct)

A text analysis workshop on David Ball’s Backwards and Forwards

You have been trained to read for feeling. This workshop teaches the other way in. A scene is not a string of lines, it is a machine of connected actions, each one setting off the next. Learn to see how it is built, then read it backwards from the final moment to find who your character had to be all along. You will walk out able to pick up a cold script and know exactly what is happening, and why, before you commit to a single choice. Solid ground under the work, in the rehearsal room, the audition, and the self-tape. Three hours, on your feet and on the page.

Hassan Al Rawas is a Lebanese theatre director and educator based in London.  He brings a perspective shaped by a life lived across continents — one that grounds his belief that theatre can hold what the world would rather look away from, and his deep curiosity about the complexity of human experience.

Hassan holds an MFA in Directing and an MA in Performance from Northwestern University, where he also earned a certificate in Middle East/North African Studies. His work spans bold reinterpretations of classics, musicals, and the development of urgent new plays.

In London, Hassan is currently directing for Land Writes at Theatre503, an Arts Council England-supported new writing initiative exploring themes of land and identity.

Directing credits include Little Women: The Broadway Musical(Quintessence Theatre, Philadelphia), Ibsen’s Rosmersholm (Quintessence), Stephen Karam’s adaptation of The Cherry Orchard, The Orange Gardenby Joanna Garner, Les Misérables, and Sylvia by A.R. Gurney.

As an associate and assistant director, Hassan has worked on the world premiere of Jen Silverman’s Witch at Writers Theatre Chicago, the world premiere of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein at Lookingglass Theatre, and served as Associate Director on The Devil Wears Prada during its pre-West End development with Tony Award-winning director Anna D. Shapiro. He was also assistant director and dramaturg on New Jibla, a new musical at the Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmad Cultural Center in Kuwait City.