Nemashim Arab-Jewish Theater
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NEMASHIM workshop 2007-2008
Third meeting
January 11th-12th
Uri Shani. Translation, once again (thousand thanks!!!):
Mia Tamarin
In short: it was cold!
The night between Friday and
Saturday was most definitely one of the coldest nights of the 21st
century so far in the land of Israel and Palestine.
Present: Muna,
Miar, Shani, Gal, Dana, Yonni and Biki. Tali went to a weekend in kibbutz Samar
for an application process because she doesn’t know if there is going to be a
commune and if she would be in it, therefore she must reserve herself an
additional spot. In the mean time Jonathan
and Yuval decided in the last moment, about two days before the meeting, to
quit the workshop, which is extremely irresponsible.
Friday
Making plaster
masks
We were in a bit of a rush because
in Ness Amim dinner is served early.
Dialogues from
the Hebrew and Arab drama
The dialogue which made the most
discussion around it was the one of Mona
and Miar from “Rape” by Sa’ad
Allah Wannous, a Syrian playwright. The play was
written in 1989 and it’s about the First Intifada (uprising). In the play Dalal decides to join the armed struggle against Israel
after she was raped by Shabak (GSS) people. Even
though the Hebrew-speaking audience didn’t fully understand it (the dialogue
that was given in Arabic) however they accurately reacted in a very awaken and
involved way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa5vXPe02SA
Saturday
Only Gal,
Yonni and myself arrived at
the breakfast. We three got up shaking from the cold and ran to the hot showers
to warm up a bit. It was horrible!
However the warm-up was nice:
Continuing
work on the dialogues
In the second round we had more
improvisations based on the prepared scenes. This was mostly easy with the two
scenes from “The Palestinian” by J. Sobol
since it is a play in which actors talk about how to make a movie. A video
example (for those who understand Hebrew): Samira is trying to convince
Fahd the importance of making the movie
Drawing all
together:
In the discussion on the drawing Mona explained why she didn’t fill the Palestinian
flag with colors: There is only red color in the flag because it is the blood
that was spilt. In addition, Palestine
is pale; it doesn’t have color because she doesn’t have strength. It was
conquered by Israel.
She was not referring only to the ’67 occupation but to the Nakba
(the catastrophe of 1948) too.
Video
Work with a
white mask
This way of acting with a white mask
takes the students to universal, mythical and essential places. Places of life
and death, nature, earth, air, Fire and water. This is a very physical work and
not literal at all.
Video
Painting the mask
Not everyone has the same artistic
skills in shaping the mask, but overall they all turned out very pretty.
Conclusion and
evaluation
In the grading given by the
participants the very low grading for the meals stood out. The highest grade was
given to the making and the painting of the masks.
Oral conclusion:
Dana: I disappointed myself with my acting.
Biki: The game with the white mask relaxes and
frees me, I feel that I am in “my own element”.
Gal: I felt much better, a lot thanks to Shani who worked with me on the dialogue. Congratulations
to Shani.
Shani: I am learning and developing; both from the
good and the bad criticism.
Most of the time was spent on a
long discussion which was a result of the (pale) Palestinian flag mona
painted in the common painting. Mona
said that for her the ideal situation would be a Palestinian country without
Jews, something that of course shocked and disappointed some of the others. Dana said that she could never live under Palestinian
power and the discussion heated up: what is “an ideal situation”? why Mona can live
under Israeli power and Dana cannot
live under Palestinian power? And so on.
As a result we finished later than
usual.
More
pictures
Up to now I wrote no single word about money. It is still a heavy
problem. We continue somehow, but the constant fear of closing the project does
nothing good to us. We could do more and be better, that is clear, even if we
had only a little more clearance. Unfortunately we received too little money
from our donation calls in the last months, and we hope,
it will be more in the future.
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