So far, my time in Los Angeles has been as good as it always is! On Friday I went to see Debbie Allen’s ‘Oman… O Man’ as part of my Christmas present from the people I’m staying with (Heather & Parker – more about them in following posts!) I was excited because this would be the second Debbie Allen directed play I’ve seen within a month, one in London (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) and one in LA! She’s one busy woman!

The play is centred around the theme of two boys who have enrolled in military camp in the USA. One is Omani and one is African American. They start talking about the differences between their two cultures and what is means to be a Muslim and a Christian. The stories are told through a number of dance sequences that were just thrilling! The dancers were all from the Debbie Allen Dance Academy and ranged in ages from about 30 to 5 – the kids were so adorable and all were amazing dancers! My favourite sequences were the African themed number and another that features two women, one called Aisha (from America) and one called Salame (from Oman). It highlighted the differences in opinions about being a woman in both countries, for example in America women value being independent and not answering to men and in Oman women think it’s more feminine to cater to their men but rule silently. It was very interesting.

The show was only on over the weekend and was held at the Royce Hall on UCLA’s campus. Quite a few celebs were in attendance too, I saw CCH Pounder and Yvette Nicole Brown, which was fun! I think they’re looking into taking it on tour so hopefully it might come back and maybe even to the UK. Although it was centres more around American themes it really was an important topic as a lot of people, the world over, have distorted views about Muslims and people from the Middle East because of terrorism.

Well done Ms. Allen, you did it again!

Oh, and just cause I feel like it… here’s me with Debbie in London when I went to see ‘Cat’

Truly lovely Debbie Allen