Freedom Theatre from Jenin Refugee Camp, Palestine, Gives Historic Performance of “The Island” Sept. 16-17
Related residency events at Davis Performing Arts Center include post-show discussions with policy experts
Washington, DC — Following sold-out shows at its community-based theatre and cultural center in Jenin Refugee Camp, Palestine, Freedom Theatre performs the renowned South African anti-apartheid play “The Island” at Georgetown University’s Davis Performing Arts Center, Gonda Theatre (located within the Davis Performing Arts Center to increase capacity) on Monday, Sept. 16 and Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2013, at 7:30 p.m., as part of its inaugural U.S. tour. This historic event is presented by the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, (The Lab), an initiative of the Georgetown University Theater and Performance Studies Program and the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. The play will be performed in English.
Each performance will be followed by discussions with the artists and leading policy experts, including Khaled Elgindy, Fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, Brookings Institution on Sept. 16 and Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development, University of Maryland, on Sept. 17. Receptions, sponsored by Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and the Theater & Performance Studies Program, will follow the discussions.
“The Island,” written by famed South African playwrights Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona and inspired by a true story, takes place in a prison and revolves around a cellmate who is soon to be released, and another who is serving a life sentence. The two spend their days at mind-numbing physical labor while at night rehearsing for a performance of Sophocles’ “Antigone.” Is Antigone guilty of defying the laws of the state to bury her brother? Who decides? Under which law? The Freedom Theatre notes that this innovative adaptation reflects the experiences of Palestinian political prisoners, highlighting parallels between South Africa under apartheid and Palestine today.
Tickets are $15 general/$12 faculty, staff, senior, alumni/ and $7 student, and can be ordered at performingarts.georgetown.edu or at 202-687-ARTS (2787) from M-F, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. The Davis Performing Arts Center is located on Georgetown University’s main campus, at 37th and O Streets, NW in Washington, D.C.
Please note: To increase capacity, the venue for this performance has switched from the Davis Performing Arts Center’s Devine Studio Theatre and will now be held in the Davis Performing Arts Center’s Gonda Theatre. Tickets are available for both shows.
In addition to the performances and post-show discussions, the residency will also include an event co-sponsored with Georgetown University’s Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, whose undergraduate programs support the largest Arabic enrollment of any university in the U.S, and the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, an academic center at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service which distinguishes itself through the emphasis on the study of the contemporary Arab world. The Tuesday, September 17 discussion will be held at 3 p.m. with the actors and Prof. Elliott Colla and other members of the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies (in Arabic) in the Davis Performing Arts Center’s Devine Studio Theatre Gonda Theatre. (Please note: this event has also been moved to the Davis Center’s Gonda Theatre.)
The Freedom Theatre U.S. tour in September — co-sponsored by The Friends of the Jenin Freedom Theatre and the New York Theatre Workshop as well as theater programs at Georgetown University, Brown University, and the University of Connecticut — will include performances at all four locations and follows a tour last spring in Sweden. The cast features two Jenin actors, Faisal Abu Alhayjaa and Ahmad Alrakh, who make the refugee camp their home and are both graduates of the Freedom Theatre’s Acting School. The play was performed in Arabic when it opened in Jenin in March 2013, and will be performed in English on the tour, including the Davis Performing Arts Center shows. The tour will include one Arabic language performance in New York City.
Davis Performing Arts Center artistic director and co-founder of the Laboratory of Global Performance and Politics Derek Goldman says, “Building on recent visits to Georgetown’s Davis Center from internationally celebrated artists doing urgent, politically charged work such as Belarus Free Theater, Dah Theater, Ping Chong, Anna Deavere Smith, and Israeli playwright Boaz Gaon, we are honored to be hosting the Freedom Theatre on their first U.S. tour. Our Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics has made Georgetown an international epicenter for the convergence of theater and international politics, and this production of ‘The Island,’ along with the discussions that will take place through this residency with some of the most insightful experts on the Middle East, are sure to provoke dialogue and empathy, and to foster new understandings.”
Ambassador Cynthia P. Schneider, Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and co-founder of The Lab, adds, “The Freedom Theatre provides the youth of Jenin Refugee Camp in the West Bank a creative channel for their hopes and aspirations, as well their frustrations and disappointments with daily life. Now, for the first time, American and Georgetown audiences will see a performance by this groundbreaking company as it brings to light current issues in Palestine through a moving narrative based on South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle. Georgetown’s Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics (The Lab), seeks to bridge the gap between politics and performance, something the Freedom Theatre does admirably in ‘The Island.’”
The Freedom Theatre was founded in 2006 by Juliano Mer Khamis, Zakaria Zubeidi, and Jonatan Stanczak. The actor’s son of a Palestinian father and a Jewish Israeli mother, Mer Khamis famously described himself as “100% Palestinian and 100% Jewish.” Zakaria Zubeidi, the leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade in Jenin, ended his armed opposition to the occupation and committed himself to cultural resistance. The third member of the trio, Stanczak, a Swede, is the Managing Director of the Freedom Theatre, whose aim is to provide an opportunity for young people living their entire lives under occupation to create and express themselves freely.
Mer Khamis was shot dead in broad daylight just steps away from the Freedom Theatre building in Jenin on April 4, 2011. No one has been charged with his murder. In the weeks and months following the killing, the Theatre was attacked by the Israeli army and several staff members were detained by Palestinian and Israeli authorities. In recent months, the Theatre has presented several new productions that have been seen by thousands of young adults and children at its building in the refugee camp.
ABOUT
LABORATORY FOR GLOBAL PERFORMANCE AND POLITICS
The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics leverages Georgetown University’s distinctive strengths in international relations and theatrical performance, developing new interdisciplinary approaches to fostering cross-cultural dialogue and understanding, and to advancing peace and social justice through performance. In addition, the Lab is a generative creative space to foster collaborative artistic projects that realize these goals. Finally, the Lab is a hub and a resource center that, in actual and virtual spaces, brings together an expansive global network of artists, policymakers, scholars, cultural organizations, embassies, faculty, and students.
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY THEATER & PERFORMANCE STUDIES PROGRAM
Housed in the Davis Performing Arts Center, the Georgetown University Theater & Performance Studies Program features a nationally recognized faculty of leading scholars/artists and professional practitioners, with a dynamic interdisciplinary major that emphasizes the interaction of artistic and analytic inquiry. The Program has rapidly attracted significant national attention for its distinctive curriculum, which integrates the political and international character of Georgetown, a commitment to social justice, and high-quality, cutting-edge production seasons, including world premieres. In 2012, Backstage selected the Program as one of the top five college theater programs outside of New York.
The Theater & Performance Studies Program provides a unique focus on adapting, devising and developing new work, interdisciplinary research-to-performance projects, cross-cultural performance studies, and innovative approaches to design and multi-media, as well as playwriting, directing, dramaturgy, ensemble, and solo performance.
The Program invests in a distinctive array of professional partnerships and collaborations, including with Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, with a growing focus on global performance and politics, as represented by international convenings and residencies (Belarus Free Theatre, Ping Chong, Baghdad University, Anna Deavere Smith) and by the establishment of the Laboratory of Global Performance and Politics, a collaborative initiative with the School of Foreign Service. Each year the Program hosts residencies with guest artists who collaborate deeply with students in the classroom and in the life of the Davis Performing Arts Center. Our major prepares students for lives in varied fields, including the arts, education, public service, and cultural criticism. For more information about the Theater & Performance Studies Program, visit performingarts.georgetown.edu.
EDMUND A. WALSH SCHOOL OF FOREIGN SERVICE
The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS), founded in 1919, is a premier school of international affairs. At Georgetown University’s Washington, D.C. and Qatar campuses, SFS provides a rigorous education combining theory and practice and instills the values of service. The School’s liberal arts undergraduate program, leading to the Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service, includes a two-year required core curriculum followed by two years of multidisciplinary electives. Eight interdisciplinary graduate programs are designed to teach students to think, analyze and act with imagination, good judgment and compassion.
Members of the SFS faculty demonstrate an unrivaled commitment to world-class teaching, research and service. The school’s research centers and institutes facilitate scholarship that speaks to core debates in the social sciences, humanities and applied natural sciences as well as to the most pressing global issues of our day. SFS graduates are a diverse group, making careers in many different areas. Some work in the private sector, with law and business providing a range of opportunities. The traditions of public service and scholarship remain strong as well; alumni can be found in the areas of diplomacy, international organizations and humanitarian work as well as in scholarly careers as members of university faculties or research organizations. Wherever they go, SFS alumni carry with them Georgetown values.
The vision of the School of Foreign Service is to contribute to global peace, prosperity and human well-being by educating future generations of world leaders and expanding the knowledge, understanding and values that will inform their leadership. For more information about SFS, click here.