By Venus Zarris
One might ask how can a play, being produced in Chicago, impact conflict on the other side of the globe? I say it can because art has a way of creating personal paradigm shifts. It would be wonderful to have the ability to blanket the planet with warmth, understanding, reason and compassion but change so often takes place one person at a time. That may seem discouraging since there are billions of people on the planet but these individual paradigm shifts create powerful, at times even seismic, ripple effects.
Historically, addressing political issues it has been a primary role of theater. Around 410 BC, Aristophanes wrote the play Lysistrata. (loosely translated as SHE WHO DISBANDS ARMIES) In it, Lysistrata convinces the women of Greece to withhold sexual privileges as a means of forcing the men to negotiate peace. This was produced during the Peloponnesian War.
The musical Hair is a slightly more recent example of political theater. Aside from addressing the hippie counter-culture and the sexual revolution, it also addressed the anti-Vietnam War peace movement during the height of our country’s turmoil surrounding the war. Hair provided anthems to rally around and articulated the voices of so many caught in the conflict.
If you look at the last presidential administration, it was the arts that provided the most vital political analysis. We found out more about the actual events from the Daley Show on Comedy Central and from plays like Yussef El Guindi’s Back of the Throat then we did from our most of our journalists.
Hence, art steps in when it becomes too difficult or dangerous to discuss politics and conflict in other forums. Theater provides a mirror to events and a vocabulary that aides in defusing much of the chaos.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most politically charged issues today. On March 16, 2009, the Chicago Cultural Center hosted an event at the Claudia Cassidy Theater. Staging Conflict: Theatrical Narratives of the Holy Land presented previews of Silk Road Theatre Project’s Pang’s of the Messiah and Theatre Mir’s Arab-Israeli Cookbook.
I was fortunate enough to host/moderate this event that shed light on these ambitious productions which examined the current Middle Eastern crisis in vary different ways.
The directors of each play, Jennifer Green for Silk Road Theatre Project and Rob Chambers for Theatre Mir, gave overviews of their respective productions and actors from the shows performed scenes. A panel discussion followed the presentations.
During the event, Jennifer Green discussed the challenges of translating the script of Pang’s of the Messiah, originally written for an Israeli audience, to an American stage. Rob Chambers discussed the challenges of creating compelling theater from the real-life-first-person narratives that comprise the text for Arab-Israeli Cookbook.
Actors from each production also contributed to the conversation by describing the processes of preparing for their roles in these unique and politically charged plays.
The audience weighed in with questions and comments regarding the staging of these productions and the conflict that the plays portray, resulting in an evening of conversations that reflected on the role of theater in politics and the unique challenges of these determined productions.
Before the event started, I asked Silk Road Theatre Project’s Artistic Director Jamil Khoury what he hoped Staging Conflict: Theatrical Narratives of the Holy Land would accomplish. He answered, “Exposure for the two plays, greater context for political theater, and a chance to explore the issue of representing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on stage.”
To that end, the evening proved to be a successful event for the companies involved and the sponsoring Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs.
About Theatre Mir, Silk Road Theatre Project and the DCA Theater:
Theatre Mir, a nonprofit corporation, was created in 2007 to actively engage audiences and artists about current issues affecting our multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society and world – to entertain as well as to inform. Inspired by the Russian word “mir,” which means both peace and world, Theatre Mir’s goal is to create opportunities for dialogue and discourse through performance and humanities programs.
Theatre Mir
Silk Road Theatre Project showcases playwrights of Asian, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean backgrounds, whose works address themes relevant to the peoples of the Silk Road and their Diaspora communities. Through the creation and presentation of outstanding theatre, we aim to promote discourse and dialogue among multi-cultural audiences in Chicago.
Silk Road Theatre Project
Chicago DCA Theater offers downtown audiences the best off-Loop theater experience. Each season, we accept proposals from the city’s emerging and developing theater companies who wish to bring their innovative productions downtown to the Storefront Theater. Presenting companies benefit from our space and resources, while theater-goers get an exciting glimpse into Chicago’s world-renowned theater scene.
In addition to fully staged productions, we present many other theater programs that showcase the Chicago theater community. Special limited-run and one-night-only events include staged readings, radio plays, directing workshops, and festivals.
DCA Theater - Chicago Dept. of Cultural Affairs
Staging Conflict: Theatrical Narratives of the Holy Land event photos by Debbie Dodge
