Playing catch-up

     When I get behind a day or two, I scramble to catch up.  "What did I do two days ago?  Have I written about Hussam?  About the workshops at the al Ashab middle school…?"  I'll try to catch up now.  My apologies for mistakes and omissions in my last entry; I was in a hurry and didn't proof it carefully.

Hussam talks to the young actors

     Hussam abu Esheh is a Palestinian actor in his fifties.  "I have been acting since I was ten years old. When I was in school, I was not a good student, but the teachers were nice to me because I was good at imitating them and making them comic, and they didn't want that, so they were nice."  He works now with Hakawati Theatre, the Palestinian National Theatre.  Their work is challenged by the occupation. Palestine includes the West Bank and because it is so difficult for West Bank Palestinians to get permission to come to Jerusalem.  After Hakawati, located in East Jerusalem, performs in their theater, to make it available to Palestinians in the West Bank, they have to find a space in Ramallah in the West Bank and move the production there.  Often this is not possible because of the expense of renting a space and transporting sets and props and costumes and actors to Ramallah.
     This year, Hussam received support from an NGO to work with Nasser in Husni al Ashab school and with a nearby girls school, developing plays with teens.  At Husni al Ashab School, Hussam works with Nasser's kids, the troubled and troubling young teens.  They have already produced one play and are now working on another.  I did some work with them and then watched Hussam work on the their second show.  He's good with them, and they like him and respect him.  He is famous in Palestine as the host of a televised quiz show.  He has also been with Hakawati for many years and theater-goers know his work.  He has toured in France with a production of Sophocles' ANTIGONE and an original production he and the rest of the cast developed.

Learn those lines!

     Nasser is excited about this work he started with kids a few years ago.  He knew little if anything about theater (reminds me of someone I know too well) but believed it could help the kids behave and learn because it would help them believe in themselves.  I wrote in an earlier blog when I was last here that Nasser works with the difficult kids who come from violent homes, single parent families and families with substance abuse issues.  He has learned what he suspected: when the kids do theater and are given responsibility and expected to "measure up," most of them do.  You see it when they work with Nasser, when they do theater exercises with me, when they rehearse with Hussam.  They are focused most of the time, a wonder for boys 12 - 15; they are respectful and they want to do well.  In order to do theater, they must be at school on time and absent only when they have an acceptable excuse.  Not only has attendance improved markedly, but Nasser has noticed more and more of the kids performing better in school.

I'm listening

     Khitam and I went into East Jerusalem to see Hussam and four other actors perform scenes from a play Hussam wrote that they will be taking to France soon to perform in Arabic with a running French translation.  We met our friend Cotton there and watched the scenes.  I could follow well enough to get the gist without looking up at the French translation and then back down at the action.  Because the play has energy and movement and because the actors are focused on bringing the words to life for us, we enjoy and admire it.  Afterwards I talked with Hussam and three of the other actors; the the three are young and as engaging and energetic offstage as on.  Insha'allah we'll see them in Maine one of these days!

We're all listening…pretty much

     Why make it so hard for this kind of work to happen?  Here kids' hopes are circumscribed by the occupation and its effect.  Families are sometimes separated by the wall; travel from one area of Palestine to another without Israeli license plates is difficult, if not impossible; jobs are scarce and commerce is restricted by the occupation.  And there are cultural obstacles also.  The traditional Palestinian school is the teacher, as master, talking at the kids.  To change that, schools need more Nassers.  The Palestinian bureaucracy is as cumbersome as any and worse than many.  At the same time, the people are remarkably hospitable and tolerant.  They are helpful and bright.  The wall and the separation of Israelis and Palestinians is artificial and it imprisons both  Israel and Palestine.  The difference between them is that Israel has all the power, Palestine none, except what they can find within.