The play, co-written by Palestinian Muslim playwright Muhammed Ahmad Zaher and American Jewish director/choreographer Billy Yalowitz, combines unexpected humor and hopeful irony to bring a much-needed fresh perspective to peace-building efforts between Israel’s Arab and Jewish populations. Discussion sessions accompanying the performances will encourage audiences to reflect on how the conflict touches their own lives.

Performances in New York are at the Nagelberg Theatre of the Baruch College Performing Arts Center at 55 Lexington Avenue @ 25^th Street (between Lexington & 3^rd Avenues). Tickets will be available through The Culture Project Box Office at 45 Bleecker Street in New York City (phone 212-307-4100) and through Ticketmaster. Performances are Thurs, Sept 28, Fri, Sept 29, Sat, Sept 30 (matinee and evening), Sun, Oct 1 (matinee at 2 pm), Tues, Oct 3, Wed, Oct 4, Thurs, Oct 5, Fri, Oct 6, Sat, Oct 7, Sun, Oct 8. All performances are at 8:00 pm, unless otherwise specified.

The play takes its title from Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author.  The storyline combines two distinct themes –the birth of two nations, and the difficulty of finding workable ground for communication. In the absence of an agreed-upon plot, three Palestinian and three Jewish Israeli actors try desperately to find some common human story that they can agree to tell which might somehow transcend the pervasiveness of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.  The actors propose a series of plots that seem politically neutral, but politics filters into and eventually overturns each plot idea.