18.03.22
Hello! It’s Rebecca, the Marketing Assistant here at Griffin. You may remember me from my note to you last year where I spoke about all the delicious Egyptian meals my mother, Wafaa, was cooking up.
I recently learnt something that made me feel like my life is a lie. What we make in our household is not falafel—it’s actually called tameya. I just thought it was the same thing, you know? However, Egyptian tameya is a flatter, circular, disk-like version of a falafel, and it’s usually coated in sesame seeds. I love it because it’s crispier and the heartburn after makes it all worth it!
As well as the crispy tameya, Mum has currently been cooking wara enab (stuffed vine leaves with rice and veggies) and my absolute favourite, mombar (sausage skin stuffed with mince meat, tomato, onions and herbs) as well as roz bel laban (a classic rice pudding). Let me know if you’ve ever tried any of these goodies!
Now that I’ve made you all hungry, it’s time to announce that I have sadly, but very excitingly, decided to pursue a different career path, which means I’ll be wrapping up my time at Griffin very soon. I’m going to turn my focus to a new passion of mine—organising events! This realisation was all thanks to our very first Griffin Ambassadors Alumni event, which I recently organised for Griffin.
Thank you to everyone who attended—it was so heart-warming to see past Ambassadors come back from previous years and catch up with each other! It was incredible to see how some people went on to be teachers, theatremakers, and arts professionals. It was also great to speak to some current 2022 Ambassadors. Organising and planning that event was the best thing I’ve done in my career to date. I couldn’t have done it without a lot of help and guidance from my Grif-family, but meeting everyone at the event was just the most wholesome thing. I got to see the excitement and joy on our attendees’ faces, and that was all the reward I needed. I want to say a big, big thank you to the Robertson Foundation, who have been supporting the program for 10 years!
Our alumni attendees watched a performance of Orange Thrower by Kirsty Marillier. Which reminds me, if you haven’t seen it—WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! We’ve extended the season by a week, now closing on Saturday 26 March, so grab your tickets quick! From the incredible cast to the set design, it’s fun, fresh, and very a-peeling to all audiences (I may or may not have googled orange puns). You only have eight more chances to squeeze in a show before it closes.
A is for Apple by Jessica Bellamy is coming full steam ahead, kicking off our Griffin Lookout program for 2022—it opens directly after Orange Thrower. It’s a celebration of Jewish womanhood starring Amy Hack and Zoe Resnick. They’re deep into rehearsals, creating this exciting work ready to come to life in late March and by all accounts it’s going to be a wonderful show!
But before I say my final farewell, I have the entire Griffin company to thank: Ell, Frankie, Ang, Imogen, Ally, Jem, Declan, Tessa, Andrea, Peter, Julian, Dom and to Julieanne, who never stopped believing in me. Because I’m not just leaving a company, I’m leaving a family.
In true Rebecca style, I cannot leave without making a High School Musical reference (Ell this one’s for you): “once a Wildcat, always a Wildcat”.
Goodbye for now, not forever,
Rebecca
Rebecca Abdel-Messih
Marketing Assistant
