Newsletter
info@ashtar-theatre.org www.ashtar-theatre.org February 2010
۞ Ashtar celebrates Jerusalem as
Capital City of Arab Culture 2009.
Ashtar theatre
produced a special
theatre
performance, “I am
Jerusalem,” to
celebrate
Jerusalem as the
Capital City of Arab
Culture 2009. The
Ashtar team went to
Jordan in February
2009 to join the
author and director
of the play, Nasser Omar, in order to rehearse
the work. The team rehearsed for one and a
half months in the Balad Theatre in Amman,
where the first three shows were performed
before opening in the Royal Cultural Centre.
A group of Jordanian artists joined the play
and it was produced under the umbrella of
Jerusalem the Capital City of Arab Culture
2009, with its support as well as support from
the Dutch Representative and the Danish
Cultural Organization.
The play opened in Palestine among the
activities of the Manara Festival in Ramallah,
then was shown in Jerusalem and Bethlehem,
and the work also took part in the first festival of
the Arab Theatre Organization in May in Cairo.
The play also represented Palestine in
“Carthage Theatre Days” in Tunis, in November
2009, with several additional performances in
the West Bank and Galilee.
۞ Second International Theatre of
the Oppressed Festival
The second round of the Theatre of the
Oppressed Festival took place the year 2009
under the title of “Raise your Voice … Preserve
your Rights” and was gifted to “Jerusalem,
Capital City of
Arab Culture”
and to all
Jerusalemites,
who have to
keep their
voices raised
to the world
so that they
do not
disappear inside the sphere forced on them by
the occupation.
Six countries, in addition to Palestine,
presented during April and May 09, 45 theatre
performances through a unified theatrical form,
which does not only reach out to people and
deal with their issues but opens the door wide
to them to display these issues and have their
say on them, in search of a solution not merely
a release, and to search for a better reality,
which is the final aim of art, chiefly the art of
theatre.
۞ Ashtar moves Forum Theatre to
television
For the first
time, Ashtar
Theatre
moved the
idea of
Forum
Theatre to
television,
attempting to
reach out with Palestinian social issues to
every Palestinian home in order to facilitate live
participation in solving them.
The theatre partnered with the Ma’an
News Network which produced the Forum play
“The Story of Mona” for television and
screened it, following the screenings with
discussions involving decision makers and
women in influential positions, on the subjects
addressed which deal with the issue of early
marriage and “honor” crimes. This work was
shown with the discussions on all local
stations, and received notable attention. The
experiment will continue with other theatre
performances in the second half of 2010.
۞ Touring the forum play “Story of
Said Al Masoud”
The play was produced, using the Forum
Theatre technique, at the start of 2008. It deals
with the problem of widespread drug use
among youth in Palestine. The play was shown
more than 85 times to date, the latest of which
was a group of 32 performances, with the
support of
UNICEF, to
school
students from
all villages
and schools
in Hebron,
Nablus,
Jerusalem,
Bethlehem
and Ramallah.
۞ Drama Trainers in Clubs
Ashtar led a program to qualify drama trainers
for the benefit of a group of youth clubs run by
the organizations Ma’an and Tamer, in the
villages of Hebron, Ramallah, Bethlehem,
Nablus and Gaza. 73 trainees took part in this
program and were trained by the training staff
of Ashtar. Each group trained on the basic
techniques of Forum Theatre for 80 hours.
These trainees then transferred their skills to
the students in the clubs, with whom they
produced Forum Theatre scenes that were
performed to the local public in the various
Palestinian areas.
۞ “Last Supper in Palestine” takes
part in Algiers, the Capital
Ashtar Theatre took part in the professional
Theatre Festival in Algiers in its round
“Jerusalem the Capital City of Arab Culture”
with the play “Last Supper in Palestine”, which
was shown in the Metropol Theatre and
received great
liking and large
audiences. In
this round, the
Artistic Director
of Ashtar
Theatre, Iman
Aoun, was
honored for her
long theatre
work in Palestine.
۞ Ashtar Theatre’s Artistic Director
takes part in the International Culture
Conference in Johannesburg
The artist Iman Aoun took part in the
fourth round of the International Culture and
Arts Conference held in Johannesburg,
South Africa in autumn with two working
papers: the first on “Culture and politics in
Palestine and the concept of conscripting
culture”, which she participated in at the start
of the conference, and the second,
presented on the second day, on “The role of
the theatre in cultural and intellectual
development in Palestine.” More than 400
cultural activists attended the conference
from various countries around the world,
among them workers in official and
community organizations.
۞ Ashtar Theatre transfers the
experience of the Theatre of the
Oppressed to Yemen
The IRD organization contracted Ashtar
Theatre to extend its experience in the Forum
Theatre to Yemen. A group of actors in the
“Hudaida” province will be trained on using
the Theatre of the Oppressed methodology to
spread theatre techniques as a tool for
expression and change, in the local society,
and to reach marginalized areas in Yemen.
The training program spans a whole year
during 2010.
۞ "Gaza Mono-Logues"
Ashtar Theatre launched an international
art initiative entitled “Gaza Mono-Logues”
to reach out with the voices of the
besieged Gaza children to the world. 36
children from Gaza will take part, who
have been the target of direct and indirect
aggression during the war on Gaza. The
training is led by Ashtar’s trainer in Gaza,
Ali Abu Yassine, accompanied by the
psychologist Nadel Sha’ath. In partnership
with Ashtar Theatre in this project is the
Qattan Centre for the Child and a large
group of worldwide theatres in Arab and
foreign countries. This project spans a
year in 2010.
۞ Translation into Arabic of
Augusto Boal’s “Legislative
Theatre”
Continuing
with its series
of publications
on the Theatre
of the
Oppressed,
the Ashtar
Centre for
Theatre of the
Oppressed in
Palestine
translated
Augusto Boal’s
book,
“Legislative
Theatre” into Arabic. The book is currently
in print and 4000 copies will be circulated to
four Arab countries with the help and
support of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. This book is dedicated to the spirit
of Augusto Boal, founder of the Theatre of
the Oppressed technique, who passed
away in 2009.
۞ A year full of movement and
colored with new, lively faces
A new group of employees, in addition
to current staff, joined Ashtar Theatre in
2009 to enrich the organization and
propel it forward:
Edward Muallem, General Manager
Iman Aoun, Artistic Director
Fida Jiryis, Executive Director
Abdallah Musleh, Financial Specialist
Olivia Magnan, “Gaza Mono-Logues”
project coordinator
Rabie Abu Dayya, Administrative
Assistant
Mohammed Eid, Actor and Trainer
Raed El Ayasa, Actor and Trainer
Riham Isac, Actress
Athar El Hajj, Actress
Rasha Jahshan, Actress
Mohammed Ali, Technician
Atallah Tarazi, Technical Specialist
Nathalie Kashou, Theatre of the
Oppressed Festival Coordinator, 2009
Ali Abu Yassine, Trainer for UNICEF
program in Gaza
Hassan Daraghmeh, Coordinator of
UNICEF project, north and middle
areas, and Actor
Akram Obeid, Coordinator of UNICEF
program in Gaza
Rami Abu Laban, Coordinator of
UNICEF program in Hebron
K
efah Ayyad, Housekeeper
Ashtar
For theatre productions and Training
Ramallah, Palestine
Tel: 02-2980037
Fax: 02-2960326
E mail:
info@ashtar-theatre.org
ashtar-theatre@yahoo.com
www.ashtar-theatre.org
