{"id":1623,"date":"2014-09-09T16:46:07","date_gmt":"2014-09-09T11:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/?p=1623"},"modified":"2014-09-09T19:49:52","modified_gmt":"2014-09-09T14:49:52","slug":"usefp-dramatic-reading-contest-beyonce-beats-manto-to-top-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/2014\/09\/usefp-dramatic-reading-contest-beyonce-beats-manto-to-top-spot\/","title":{"rendered":"USEFP Dramatic Reading Contest: Beyonce beats Manto to Top Spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Full disclosure: The writer, as a representative of DWL, was a member of the jury that selected the contest\u2019s winners.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Islamabad – Time ran out before Manto could \u201cput a ring on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Islamabad-based communications professional Eissa Saeed won the Dramatic Reading Contest, organised by the United States Educational Foundation in Pakistan (USEFP) on Monday, with his performance-based reading of American singer Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s song All the Single Ladies<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Saeed\u2019s innovative spin on Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s song helped him edge past social scientist Raza Naeem\u2019s hilarious recitation of Saadat Hasan Manto\u2019s prescient Urdu essay \u201cAllah Ka Bara Fazal Hai\u201d in what turned out to be a close contest for the first place. <\/p>\n

The USEFP<\/a> held the contest at its Islamabad office to mark the International Literacy Day, which falls annually on September 8.<\/p>\n

In the end, the contest\u2019s winner was decided by the time factor. Naeem, who went one minute over the time allotted to each contestant, lost despite his success at eliciting rounds of laughter from the crowd with Manto\u2019s sharp satire.

\"Eissa<\/a>

Eissa Saeed is the Manager Communications for the Citizens Archive of Pakistan [Photo from Twitter]<\/span><\/p><\/div>
\nThe performance of Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s song, with the chorus \u201cif you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it,\u201d ensured Saeed, who currently works at the Citizens Archive of Pakistan, went home with the top prize, an Amazon Kindle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had prepared Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s song, Why Don\u2019t You Love Me, for a school performance some time ago and for that performance, All the Single Ladies was my backup,\u201d Saeed told DWL. \u201cToday I went with the backup option and I\u2019m happy that it worked out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saeed used the song\u2019s lyrics with calculated pauses, tone variations and effective use of the performance space.<\/p>\n

Naeem, who travelled from Lahore to participate in the contest, was upbeat after the results were announced. He said he was happy that he introduced Manto\u2019s essay to an audience which might not have been familiar with it. His humorous, soft-spoken delivery of Manto\u2019s prose worked in his favour.

\"Raza<\/a>

Raza Naeem is a Lahore-based social scientist and instructor<\/span><\/p><\/div>\u201cI am a moody person so I had prepared three essays, all written by Manto and all equally good, for this dramatic reading contest,\u201d Naeem, an active member of the DWL Lahore Readers\u2019 Club, said.<\/p>\n

One of these three essays was Manto\u2019s Eighth Letter to Uncle Sam and the other was \u201cDarhi, Moonch, Burqa Unlimited,\u201d Naeem, who was also the 2013-14 Charles Wallace Trust Fellow at the University of Bradford in UK, told DWL. <\/p>\n

He went with the third option, \u201cAllah Ka Bara Fazal Hai\u201d (or \u201cWe\u2019re Blessed with Allah\u2019s Grace\u201d)<\/a>, a dystopian satire narrated by a mullah who is celebrating the removal of poets and artists from society to purify the land.<\/p>\n

Amna Gillani, a schoolteacher, won third place for her performance of a song from Disney\u2019s The Lion King<\/a>, and, for his performance of Al Pacino\u2019s speech from Scent of a Woman<\/a>, Arsalan Qureshi took the fourth position. The participants included children, teenagers and adults, with most contestants selecting English texts for reading.<\/p>\n

The contest attracted around 60 participants, said contest organiser Sameea Butt, who is an EducationUSA Adviser at USEFP. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was hoping for a good crowd response. I always had belief in the people of Islamabad, that they are looking for opportunities in the city to express themselves and can\u2019t find them,” Butt said. <\/p>\n

The idea of hosting a dramatic reading competition, in particular, originated from Butt’s personal observations about the reading culture or lack thereof in Pakistan. \u201cWe needed an event to celebrate the International Literacy Day and this seemed like a good way to get people engaged,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Butt said many contestants requested USEFP to hold similar events in the future. However, there might be an “e-Reason” for the interest generated by the contest. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll have to test if people were saying it because they wanted the Amazon Kindle or if they are really interested in the promotion of a culture of reading,\u201d she quipped.<\/p>\n

\"Group<\/a>

Group photo of the winners with the jury members – Winners: Arsalan Qureshi (right), Eissa Saeed (2nd from right), Raza Naeem (last row), Amna Gillani (2nd from left) and consolation prize-winner youngest contestant (front).<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Full disclosure: The writer, as a representative of DWL, was a member of the jury that selected the contest\u2019s winners. Islamabad – Time ran out before Manto could \u201cput a ring on it.\u201d Islamabad-based communications professional Eissa Saeed won the Dramatic Reading Contest, organised by the United States Educational Foundation in Pakistan (USEFP) on Monday, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":1647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[365],"tags":[366,367,55,75,102,369,275,368],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1623"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1623"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1653,"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1623\/revisions\/1653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}