Part of BÉZNĂ Theatre's GLOD: Political Theatre as a Civil Right series
Monday 17 August 2020
International
Glod: Political Theatre as a Civil Right presented Peace by Piece by Nabil Sawalha livestreamed on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Monday 17 August 2020 at 10 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 1 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / 6 p.m. BST (London, UTC +1) / 8 p.m. EEST (Cluj, UTC +3).
An update on the situation for theatre artists in Palestine
Thursday 2 July 2020
Palestine
The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presented SEGAL TALKS: Iman Aoun livestreamed on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Thursday 2 July 2020 at 9 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 11 a.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 12 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / 17:00 BST (London, UTC +1) / 18:00 CEST (Berlin, UTC +2).
An update on the situation for theatre artists in Palestine
Wednesday 13 May 2020
Palestine
The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presented SEGAL TALKS: Amir Nizar Zuabi and Fidaa Zaidan livestreamed on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Wednesday 13 May 2020 at 9 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC-7) / 11 a.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC-5) / 12 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC-4) / 17:00 BST (London, UTC+1) / 18:00 CEST (Berlin, UTC+2).
Ash Marinaccio examines the importance of youth theatre in Palestine through the work of a number of organizations, including ASHTAR Theatre, the Freedom Theatre, and Al Rowwad Cultural and Theater Training Center.
ASHTAR Theatre in Ramallah, Palestine presented six performances from the ASHTAR Theatre International Youth Festival livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv Saturday 21 July to Sunday 29 July 2018.
Playwright Renée Darline Roden talks about her travels to Israel and Palestine to gain inspiration for a new play and encountering what Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie calls “the danger of a single story.”
For the last few years, professor Catherine Coray has been helping create collaboration opportunities for theatre artists in Arab countries and the Americas. Arab Voices: Stories of Palestine is the most recent iteration, and has taken place in New York, Abu Dhabi, and Beirut.
Jamil Khoury writes about curating a series of six staged readings about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and that power of theatre to speak to controversial issues.
Gary English, artistic associate at The Freedom Theatre on the West Bank in the Jenin refugee camp, discusses the complications of presenting work on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict in the US.
In a volatile, war-torn place, things change quickly and recurring issues of conflict, occupation, and survival dominate—all the more reason to have festivals like this and theaters like Ashtar that persist under such circumstances and create transformative experiences.
In 2012, eleven young theater students succeeded in starting Ashtar’s first youth festival. Ashtar Theatre, which was founded in 1991 by Iman Aoun and Edward Muallem, describes itself as “a dynamic local Palestinian theatre with a truly progressive global perspective.” Their core programs are drama training of local youth through an extracurricular after school program, Theater of the Oppressed Forum Theatre productions that explore “essential critical topics in Palestinian society” and international collaborations.
Patricia Davis writes about The Freedom Theatre in Palestine, focusing on its controversial work with youth and its history, which includes the assassination of their founder.
2026 National Institute for Directing and Ensemble Creation
Thursday 4 June 2026
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
This panel discussion explores the role of theatre artists in times of war, occupation, and state-sanctioned violence, in multiple contexts and locations around the globe, from Minneapolis to Palestine.
The Apartheid Free Zone (AFZ) campaign is a form of nonviolent action aimed to end complicity with apartheid Israel. In this interview, Theater Workers for a Ceasefire joins representatives of the first three AFZ theatres to discuss the role of theatre in the international struggle for peace and justice.
The Writing the Future workshop intended to create space where young Palestinian theatremakers’ could articulate their own precarity through monologue and solo performance. But its focus on futurity, Bayan Shbib writes, gave way to a harsher, clearer, and more necessary insistence on presence.
Presentation by Iman Aoun, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Ashtar Theatre in Ramallah, Palestine
Monday 16 March 2026
New York City and Ramallah, Palestine
The Theatre of the Oppressed NYC and Friends of Ashtar Theatre hosted an online presentation by Iman Aoun, co-founder and executive director of Ashtar Theatre in Ramallah, Palestine. Iman shared about Ashtar Theatre’s Forum Theatre projects, as well as the current context of the organization’s work, including a pilot for a theatre academy.
Ash talks with Zoe Lafferty, founder of Artists on the Frontline, about artist-led citizen journalism in Palestine’s Jenin refugee camp and the role of political documentary theatre projects in the current political climate.
