Freedon Theatre Attacked - Open Letter, Signatures welcome
Below is a draft of an open letter from theatre makers in Wales relating to the recent attack on Freedom Theatre in the Jenin refugee camp, where our colleague Jacob Gough is general manager. Please feel free to add your signature through the comment box below, and/or to comment on the draft. The goal is to send this off by the end of next week to key Welsh and UK newspapers, the Welsh Minister for Heritage, and the Israeli Embassy in London. This is a small gesture of solidarity on our part, written in a spirit of support and hope. John
Open Letter from the Theatre Makers of Wales
We, the theatre makers of Wales, deplore the recent attacks in Jenin on The Freedom Theatre, its people and property. Freedom Theatre is a beacon for artistic expression and cultural co-operation, offering children and young adults in the Jenin area a safe space in which they are free to express themselves, to explore their creativity and emotions. The theatre has the following admirable goals:
- To raise the quality of performing arts and cinema in the area.
- To offer a space in which children and youth can act, create and express themselves freely, imagining new realities and challenging existing social and cultural barriers.
- To empower the young generation to use the arts to promote positive change in their community.
- To break the cultural isolation that separates Jenin from the wider Palestinian and global communities.
Sadly, it is reliably reported that in the past week, Israeli soldiers attacked the theatre, and arrested staff members.
Unless initiatives such as Freedom Theatre are nourished and supported, there can be little prospect for wider understanding and peace. We call on the Israeli government to investigate and effect an immediate end to these attacks. We call on our fellow artists in Israel and beyond to support The Freedom Theatre as an inspiring source of cultural understanding and artistic hope.
Signed
John McGrath, Artistic Director, National Theatre Wales
Peter Cox, MBE, writer
Greg Cullen, writer and director
Terry Victor, writer and performer
Rebecca Gould, director
Meredydd Barker,writer
Kaite O’Reilly, writer
Abdul Shakek, Creative Associate, National Theatre Wales
Carys Shannon, writer and producer
Carmen Medway-Stephens, writer and director
Tim Price, writer
Bridget Keehan, director
Guy O’Donnell, designer
Kath Chandler, writer
Chris Kinsey, writer
Tom Beardshaw, media artist
Sam Burns, writer
Alun Howell, writer
Sam Boardman-Jacobs, choreographer
Lisa Perry, writer
Alan Harris, writer
Tom Wentworth, writer
Brad Birch, writer
Ian Staples, writer
Kit Lambert, writer
Views: 522
Add a Comment
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Comment by Jane Fox on August 2, 2011 at 21:40
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Jane Fox writer and director Asking4It Productions
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Comment by Terry Victor on August 2, 2011 at 11:31
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Janine Cooper-Marshall, actor, would like her name added please.
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Comment by Sarah Bickerton on August 2, 2011 at 9:05
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Please add me, Sarah Bickerton - director. Thank you
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Comment by Gilly Adams on August 2, 2011 at 8:35
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Hi John, please add me
Gilly Adams, director and workshop leader
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Comment by Mathilde Lopez on August 2, 2011 at 8:02
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Mathilde Lopez, director
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Comment by Anja Conti on August 2, 2011 at 7:29
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Hi John, please add me to the list! So important people get on board- Anja Conti, Actor.
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Comment by carmen medway-stephens on August 2, 2011 at 3:54
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Hi John, Peter Richards, Artistic Director, Fluellen Theatre
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Comment by National Theatre Wales on August 2, 2011 at 1:27
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Chris/Kaite. This poem is beautiful. Thank you so much for posting it.
Thanks all for the names. Please remember to include some kind of descriptor (writer, designer, company name etc) if you are gathering signatures - I don't want to offend anyone by guessing their role wrongly!
We are way over out target of 50 signatures, thanks everyone. Keep them coming for now and I'll let you know when I send it off (some time in the next day or two)
I will incorporate corrections I've bee sent at that point (including commas Peter!!) Thanks all and well done Wales! J
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Comment by Kaite O'Reilly on August 2, 2011 at 1:01
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Chris Kinsey asked me to put this up on the site:
Chris Kinsey worked with Jacob Gough on The Barmouth Assembly and has written this poem which others may like to see:
F.X .
A poem for Jacob Gough 31st July 2011.
Midnight chimes. Moist air carries the clangs
and the rattle-roar of the dark train that mends
the track between here and your old home, Aber.
No stranger to small hours, you work on
after rehearsals to make effects, cue sound
and light and programme visions.
At The Barmouth Assembly we asked,
What’s left after the summer tides?
And stormed the ice cream parlour
with music, words and war games
from Play Station conscripts. Barmouth’s band
of back bedroom snipers fire at screens of empty towns.
Now, manager of Freedom Theatre in Jenin,
your Call of Duty at 3.30 a.m. is to witness
the humiliation of your technician,
to squat in broken glass and become hostage
with young children whilst arrests are made.
Real IDF commandos with real guns,
pledged to uphold the impossible
‘Purity of Arms’ code to, “maintain
humanity even in combat.”
Earlier, on a level patch of Welsh hillside,
I reeled through a martial form: slow, elegant,
designed only to deflect unarmed attack.
The energy ball I held was an imagined globe
one hand on Wales, the other on Palestine.
Special ops were the hand-over of sky-
screaming swifts to soft fluttering bats.
Whilst turning the tides of Tai Chi
I focused on your impeccable sense
of timing, sharp ability to read cues
and hope this keeps you safe as gun
muzzles bore and silence.
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Comment by Phillip Mackenzie on August 1, 2011 at 23:53
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Please add me, Phillip Mackenzie - director. Thanks.
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