{"id":375222,"date":"2024-10-01T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-01T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=375222"},"modified":"2024-10-02T10:49:18","modified_gmt":"2024-10-02T13:49:18","slug":"eduardo-mossri-revisits-his-roots-via-theater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/eduardo-mossri-revisits-his-roots-via-theater\/","title":{"rendered":"Eduardo Mossri revisits his roots via theater"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 Nearly ten years after Cartas Libanesas<\/em> premiered, creator and actor Eduardo Mossri reflects on the project as a search for his family history and a journey of self-discovery. \u201cI was under 30 when I had the idea for the play, and I didn\u2019t really know how or why I was doing it. But learning about my grandparents\u2019 story, along with so many others, helped me understand why I became an actor,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born in Dar Baachtar, Emilia Elias came from Lebanon to fulfill a tradition among families: arranged marriages. She arrived at the age of 16 to marry Jo\u00e3o Ant\u00f4nio Mossri, an unknown older Lebanese man who had landed in Brazil years earlier and lived in Mogi das Cruzes, a city in S\u00e3o Paulo state, where a large number of immigrants and their descendants still reside to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI never knew my father\u2019s father, but I always felt a very strong connection with my Lebanese grandmother. And [my grandmother\u2019s] was also the side of the family whose history I knew the least,\u201d she reveals. \u201cI think about my father\u2019s story, who grew up without uncles, aunts, cousins, or grandparents. He only had a father, a mother, and siblings. Being the child of immigrants is very hard, as references get lost.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"In
In \u201cLebanese Letters,\u201d Mossri is an immigrant who works as a peddler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

After Dona Emilia died, at the age of 98 according to official documents, her grandson found among her belongings a set of letters written in Arabic, carefully tied with a ribbon. \u201cIt was through this correspondence from relatives who stayed in Lebanon and whom she never saw again that I was able to understand just a little of how they were, their writing, the way they spoke. Among the letters I translated, for example, that to express longing, the writer used an entire page filled with dramatic metaphors: \u2018my heart is in flames, burning with the absence of those I have not seen in so long…\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The script for the play was finished in 2009, but before its debut in 2015, Mossri<\/a> wanted the experience of living outside Brazil. \u201cI chose to live in another country\u2014I knew what I was going to do, and I had support. I went under the best possible conditions and spoke with my parents by phone and video, and even so, it wasn\u2019t easy. So, that made me think about my grandparents, whose news came through letters, with months of delay in information, intensifying pain and longing, affection and difficulties.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCartas Libanesas\u201d is marked by a rich emotional depth, shifting between the hope for a better future and the pain of loss and uprooting. Playing the role of a peddler who leaves his pregnant wife in Lebanon to seek fortune in Brazil, Mossri received \u201cunexpected and incredible\u201d offers. One of them was the invitation to play Dr. Faruq, a Syrian doctor who immigrates to Brazil after losing his wife and son in the war, in \u201c\u00d3rf\u00e3os da Terra\u201d (Orphans of a Nation), written by Thelma Guedes and Duca Rachid (TV Globo, 2019), which centered on the refugee crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The telenovela aired in the early evening slot, where stories are usually lighter. \u201cThis work received several international awards, including an Emmy, which I find symbolic. I believe the show\u2019s great achievement was its ability to bring such a significant, delicate, and universally important topic to television drama.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another surprise brought by the play was an invitation from the Brazilian Embassy in Lebanon to perform in Beirut. \u201cI had always wanted to visit my grandparents\u2019 country, and this opportunity allowed me to go to the village where my grandmother was born. I never imagined theater would take me there.\u201d He believes many people have a mistaken view of what it means to be an actor. \u201cThey think that because we travel with a play, for instance, life is easy. But I know the backstage of this highly artisanal profession, the challenges of securing sponsorship, and submitting projects to funding calls to make an idea possible\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graduated from the School of Communications and Arts of the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (USP), Mossri holds a bachelor\u2019s degree in Acting, though he doesn\u2019t believe that a degree is necessary to become an actor. \u201cHowever, the wealth of knowledge, the exposure to various repertoires, the professionals I\u2019ve met, and those exchanges\u2014I believe these made a difference in my career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He recalls that during the first script readings for the role of the refugee doctor, his fellow cast members asked how he had come so prepared, even with a distinct accent. \u201cI\u2019m a theater actor and had to adjust for this style of TV acting, but we had excellent preparation. Plus, the story connected with my ancestry. It was a rewarding experience, consistent with my professional journey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mossri’s new play<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\u201cCartas
\u201cCartas da Mulher Libanesa\u201d is set to premiere in 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

For Mossri, during this decade of performances, the show has matured, and in this process, the idea for a new play emerged. \u201cI realized that the other side of the story was missing. Where is this woman\u2019s voice? What does she feel, pregnant and far from her husband?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To address these questions and build a dramaturgy, he invited Duca Rachid, who also has Lebanese heritage. In \u201cCartas da Mulher Libanesa\u201d [Letters from the Lebanese Woman], husband and wife are on stage\u2014they listen to each other but do not see one another. The work, which is set to premiere in 2025, is being created by a predominantly female team, \u201cto ensure that female narratives are not erased, as has historically happened,\u201d Mossri explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more:<\/em>
Lebanese travelling salesman on stage in S\u00e3o Paulo<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Guilherme Miranda<\/strong><\/p>\n

Helton N\u00f3brega<\/div>
Leekyung Kim<\/div>
Supplied<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By bringing to life the theatrical project Cartas Libanesas, in which a peddler leaves his pregnant wife in Lebanon to try his luck in Brazil, Lebanese descendant Eduardo Mossri connected deeply with his family history. With highlights of his artistic career tied to his roots, he is now preparing a play that gives voice to the female figure who remained in Lebanon in an original production.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2343,"featured_media":374741,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[51129,9534,15660,51128,15657,48585,42193],"class_list":{"0":"post-375222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture","8":"tag-actors","9":"tag-brazil-en","10":"tag-cartas-libanesas-en","11":"tag-dr-faruq-2","12":"tag-eduardo-mossri","13":"tag-lebanon-2","14":"tag-teatro-en"},"wps_subtitle":"By bringing to life the theatrical project Cartas Libanesas, in which a peddler leaves his pregnant wife in Lebanon to try his luck in Brazil, Lebanese descendant Eduardo Mossri connected deeply with his family history. With highlights of his artistic career tied to his roots, he is now preparing a play that gives voice to the female figure who remained in Lebanon in an original production.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2343"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}