In a joint project, The Freedom Theatre and Ashtar Theatre will use community theatre as a tool for social mobilisation and empowerment, through performances and trainings in interactive theatre methods.
Both theatre companies will give workshops and performances in Palestine and in Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan. The aim is to create long-lasting networks among Palestinian populations fragmented by the deliberate policies of the Israeli occupation powers. Community theatre methods will bring people together in a process of reflection, dialogue and mutual sharing of stories that illuminate narratives of trauma, creativity and resilience. Through capacity building, the project will enable target populations to apply interactive theatre techniques to mobilise for social change.
Edward Muallem, Ashtar Theatre’s general manager, says: “For us this project is very important to expand our relationship with our PPAN partners The Freedom Theatre, also we believe that theatre of the oppressed and forum theatre techniques are a tool of change and development. Presenting these workshops and performances in Palestine and in Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan will help the participants discover and apply these tools for a more cohesive community and a brighter future.”
Both The Freedom Theatre and Ashtar المسرح have many years of experience of working with marginalised communities all over the West Bank, including refugee camps, bedouin encampments and villages in Area C, and have collaborated in past projects. Ashtar Theatre has also previously worked with Palestinian refugees in camps in Jordan, while The Freedom Theatre has performed and held workshops in Amman.
Trainings and performances will include forms of street theatre, Playback Theatre and one of Ashtar’s pioneering specialties, Forum Theatre. All of these methods engage the audience as active participants and allow skills to be built and kept in the communities.
The Freedom Theatre will perform a new play, Return to Palestine that centres around Jad, a Palestinian born in America, who goes to Palestine for the first time in his life. Wanting to know more about his people and identity, he finds out that reality is very different from what he has seen in the news. Ashtar Theatre will perform the forum play ‘Machine and Hammer’ that raises questions about the situation of workers in Palestine, as well as the ‘Gaza Monologues’, written by theatre students in Gaza in 2010 and 2014, after the Israeli aggressions on the Gaza Strip, and sent out to the world to tell these stories. Ashtar will also perform a theatrical reading of ‘The Syrian Monologues’ written by Syrian refugees in Jordan.
Mustafa Sheta, secretary of the Board of The Freedom Theatre says: “This project is special for us because it is in cooperation with Ashtar Theatre who are our colleagues in PPAN. It is even more important for us to cooperate during this time of 68 years of Al Nakba. We will go to refugee camps in the West Bank and two Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan. This will build a platform for networks between the refugees in Palestine and outside Palestine.”
Dates and details:
May 14, ‘Return to Palestine‘ by The Freedom Theatre performed in Tulkarem refugee camp
May 15, ‘Return to Palestine‘ by The Freedom Theatre performed in Jenin refugee camp
May 15, ‘Return to Palestine‘ by The Freedom Theatre performed in Arrabee
May 18, ‘Return to Palestine‘ by The Freedom Theatre performed in Nablus and Balata refugee camp
May 21, ‘Return to Palestine‘ by The Freedom Theatre performed in Ramallah
May 17, ‘Machine and Hammer‘ by Ashtar Theatre performed at The Freedom Theatre, Jenin refugee camp
May 19, ‘Machine and Hammer‘ by Ashtar Theatre performed in Tulkarem
May 22, ‘Gaza Monologues‘ by Ashtar Theatre performed at Ashtar Theatre, Ramallah
May 24, ‘Machine and Hammer‘ by Ashtar Theatre performed at Ebn Sina Nursery college, Huwwara, Nablus
May 26, ‘Gaza Monologues‘ by Ashtar Theatre performed in the National Center for Culture and Art, Amman, Jordan
May 26-28, Forum Theatre Workshop by Ashtar Theatre in Hetten refugee camp, Jordan
May 27, Return to Palestine by The Freedom Theatre and theatrical reading of ‘The Syrian Monologues’ by Ashtar Theatre in Hetten refugee camp, Jordan
May 28, ‘Return to Palestine‘ by The Freedom Theatre performed in Hetten refugee camp, Jordan
May 29, Playback Theatre performance by The Freedom Theatre in Al Wehdat refugee camp, Jordan
May 29, ‘Return to Palestine‘ by The Freedom Theatre performed in Hetten refugee camp, Jordan
May 29, Theatrical reading of ‘The Syrian Monologues’ by Ashtar Theatre in the National Center for Culture and Art, Amman, Jordan
June 11, ‘Gaza Monologues‘ by Ashtar Theatre performed at Ashtar Theatre, Ramallah
June 16, ‘Machine and Hammer‘ by Ashtar Theatre performed at Ashtar Theatre, Ramallah
The performances of ‘Return to Palestine’ are supported by the Swedish Postcode Lottery.
