Israeli-Palestinian Children's Theatre Project
3
Israeli-Palestinian Children’s Theatre Project Sharon Gershoni (Art Director) 2010 In 2010, I joined a theatre project that brought together Israeli children from the Jerusalem area and Palestinian children from Beit Jala (adjacent to Bethlehem and Jerusalem), ages 9-14. The group worked on a play that the children wrote together, based on the peaceful prophecy of the biblical prophet Micah about the end of times, when Jerusalem will be open and welcoming to all people and nations. In order to work together, both Palestinian and Israeli children had to overcome a language barrier, as well as their traumas of war and fears of the other, who represented the violence around them. They shared their stories and those fears through activity with photographs, drama and play to initiate trust and personal contact. 1 ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CHILDREN’S THEATRE PROJECT
-
Upload
sharon-gershoni -
Category
Documents
-
view
161 -
download
0
Transcript of Israeli-Palestinian Children's Theatre Project
Israeli-Palestinian Children’s Theatre Project Sharon Gershoni (Art Director) 2010!
In 2010, I joined a theatre project that brought together Israeli children from the Jerusalem area and Palestinian children from Beit Jala (adjacent to Bethlehem and Jerusalem), ages 9-14. The group worked on a play that the children wrote together, based on the peaceful prophecy of the biblical prophet Micah about the end of times, when Jerusalem will be open and welcoming to all people and nations.!!In order to work together, both Palestinian and Israeli children had to
overcome a language barrier, as well as their traumas of war and fears of the other, who represented the violence around them. They shared their stories and those fears through activity with photographs, drama and play to initiate trust and personal contact.!
�1ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CHILDREN’S THEATRE PROJECT
!Once, due to a terror attack followed by a closure, the kids from Jerusalem
could not travel across the checkpoint to visit their Palestinian peers. This reminded everybody how fragile the existence of this group really is, but was overcome with a skyped art workshop during which each child made two drawings of an object - one with a negative usage of the object and one with a positive usage of it. The children drew planes, guns, hand grenades, knives and stones.!
!The kids learned the biblical passages of the prophecy, and chose their
characters, which was an incredibly funny and surprising event. None were kings, soldiers or spiritual leaders. Instead, they included a corrupt taxi driver, who would take his passengers to the wrong place, a grumpy hotel owner, an orphan child who lost all her family, an old man who lost his son at war, a beautiful singer and a thief. These would be the protagonists of the play, who would bring the peaceful prophecy to Jerusalem. !
!
�2ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CHILDREN’S THEATRE PROJECT
The stage elements included a wall size landscape drawing of Jerusalem, a hotel facade (with the separation wall on its other side), mock building stones, and a taxi. !
!
�3ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CHILDREN’S THEATRE PROJECT
