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A bold and singular collection of six plays by Arab and Jewish playwrights explores the human toll of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The Admission by Motti Lerner, Scenes From 70* Years by Hannah Khalil, Tennis in Nablus by Ismail Khalidi, Urge for Going by Mona Mansour, The Victims by Ken Kaissar, and The Zionists by Zohar Tirosh-Polk.
Rather than striving to achieve balance and moral equivalency between "competing" narratives, the plays investigate themes of identity, justice, occupation, exile, history and homeland with honesty and integrity. The plays do not "take sides" or adhere to ideological orthodoxies but challenge tribalism and narrow definitions of nationalism, while varying widely in thematic content, dramatic structure, and time and place.
Where politicians and diplomats fail, artists and storytellers may yet succeed--not in ratifying a peace treaty between Israel and Palestine, but in building the sort of social and political connectivity that enables resolution.
List of contents
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction (in three parts) by Jamil Khoury; Corey Pond; and Michael Malek Najjar
The Admission: A Play in Fourteen Scenes-Motti Lerner
Essay: Motti Lerner's The Admission: Accounting and Atoning for the Past (Michael Malek Najjar)
Playwright Statement: Facing the Trauma of 1948
Playscript
Scenes from 70* Years¿-¿Hannah Khalil
Essay: Hannah Khalil's Scenes from 70* Years: Snapshots from a Seemingly Endless Occupation (Michael Malek Najjar)
Playwright Statement: Humanizing the "Other"
Playscript
Tennis in Nablus¿-¿Ismail Khalidi
Essay: Ismail Khalidi's Tennis in Nablus: Mining History for the Origins of the Conflict (Michael Malek Najjar)
Playwright Statement: Writing Palestine's Invisible History
Playscript
Urge for Going: Trilogy Version¿-¿Mona Mansour
Essay: Mona Mansour's Urge for Going: Dramatizing "Permanent Impermanence" (Michael Malek Najjar)
Playwright Statement: The Unspeakable Loss of Displacement
Playscript
The Victims: Or What Do You Want Me to
deleteAbout It?¿-¿Ken Kaissar
Essay: Ken Kaissar's The Victims: Sympathy for the Suffering (Michael Malek Najjar)
Playwright Statement: Who Are the Victims?
Playscript
The Zionists¿-¿ Zohar Tirosh-Polk
Essay: Zohar Tirosh-Polk's The Zionists: Tracking Generational Trauma (Michael Malek Najjar)
Playwright Statement: The Zionists-A Reckoning
Playscript
Afterword by Jamil Khoury and Michael Malek Najjar
Chapter Notes
About the author
Jamil Khoury is a playwright, essayist, and the founding artistic director of Chicago's Silk Road Rising, a non-profit theatre and media arts company that tells stories through Asian American and Middle Eastern American lenses.Michael Malek Najjar is an assistant professor of theatre arts at the University of Oregon and is a director, playwright, and scholar of Arab American drama. He lives in Eugene, Oregon.Corey Pond is the associate producer for Silk Road Rising in Chicago, Illinois.
