Who is Shoma?

The Jawaahir Dance Company of Minneapolis is staging a dance and theater and music show entitled SHOMA, from September 28 - October 2, 2016. The performances will take place at the Lab Theater, and you can purchase tickets here.

A combination of storytelling, theater, dance and music, SHOMA is about love, weddings, marriage, blackmail, and social media, set at a henna party in an un-named modern Saudi Arabian city.

Here is the official blurb about the show...

Cassandra and Jawaahir Dance Company are proud to present Shoma, a dance theater extravaganza set during a bridal henna party in Saudi Arabia. A storyteller named Shoma entertains the bride’s guests with a Bedouin folktale. She tells the story of an independent shepherdess who gets lost in a sandstorm, only to find herself in a magic garden. Like all good storytellers, Shoma tailors her tale to fit the occasion. In this case, the bride’s reputation is threatened with public scrutiny. Will the Bedouin shepherdess find her way home? Will the modern day wedding go off as planned? Join Jawaahir to see it all play out!

So who is Shoma?

Sarah Jones-Larson plays the Arabian storyteller, Shoma.

Shoma is the name of the lead character in the show, and it's also the name of a real Saudi storyteller. She was born among the Huwaitat bedouin tribe of northern Arabia sometime in the early 20th Century. She was the niece of the famous bedouin chiefton Auda Abu Tayy (the character played by Anthony Quinn in the film Lawrence of Arabia). I learned about her when I was living in Saudi Arabia in the late 1970's. She had just passed away, so I never got to meet her. However, here's what I learned from a Saudi friend, and later from some members of her family. She ran away from home 'for reasons of love'. She took refuge in an oasis city and gradually made her way to the big city of Jeddah, and lived out her life telling stories about the desert. And one more thing, she was under the personal protection of modern Saudi Arabia's first ruler, Ibn Saud. 

We called the show "Shoma" strictly based on that character. The show does not deal with her own story, but rather conjures up a story she might have told if she were alive today. 

The word "shoma" means "club" or "thick stick". I'm told that the Bedouin often named their children after harsh things to protect them from evil. Interestingly, "shoma" also means "you" in a formal or plural sense in Farsi, the language of Iran.

The real-life Shoma provided inspiration for a character in my novel, A CARAVAN OF BRIDES, set in Saudi Arabia. In fact the show script flowed from a very early version of the novel, which I hope to publish in its final form in 2017.

Minneapolis actress and voice-over expert Sarah Jones-Larson (owner of School of Acting and Voice Over) plays the role of Shoma. A member of Jawaahir Dance Company since 1994, Sarah acted the part in the 1998 production, and now brings her added experience to bring Shoma to life on stage again. Sarah is a fantastic Shoma. 

"I adored playing Shoma in 1998,"  Sarah says, "and it's a lot of fun to revisit her now. Over the years, my approach has changed, and I keep finding new worlds in the text. I love the script updates from Kay and the new dances from Cassandra. It's going to be a wonderful show!" 

Sarah Jones-Larson will portray Shoma

 You can read more about Sarah and other key players such as our director Hilary Stellner Smith in an article by Patricia Cumbie in the Summer 2016 Jawaahir newsletter, Beledi Beat here.

With a twinkle in her eye, and a lilting voice, Sarah captivates her audiences and sweeps them off with her to the desert. There is no more perfect leading lady for SHOMA!