The Land

In early 2009, after Israel launched Operation Cast Lead, I dug out some notes buried in a drawer for a decade, of I play I had started to write with Dorit Rivlin-Rak, an Israeli Peace Activist, who was living here at the time of the Second Intifada -2000. Dorit had a concept and together we began to flesh it out until, for some reason, we set it aside and it collected dust until last year. I finished the first draft in March of 09 and in July, having the third draft in hand, I began working with Cynthia Straus (who would play the role of Tamara) to develop it further. I also spent many hours talking to my friends, the Khweis family here in Taos, who are Palestinian ex-pats, in order to be certain that I was being fair to both sides, in my quest to find common ground and healing after decades of catastrophe. Angels began appearing, lending their wings to the project. Micha Kurz co-founder of Breaking The Silence and Grassroots Jerusalem, who coached our soldiers and appeared onstage both nights, translating Khalil's exquisite poem of reconciliation, from Arabic into Hebrew. We are donating 10% of The Land proceeds to Grassroots Jerusalem forever! Bob Dylan's office gave the okay to use Highway 61 Revisited in the opening scene, Tsvi Misinai and his amazing project TheEngagement, materialised as if to say YES this is the truth! And this is the time! In December after a month of rehearsal with an eleven member cast, I produced and co-directed (with David Behrstock) a workshop production of the play at the TCA in Taos. I'll use this blog to post updates - we'll be launching a fund raising marathon on Kickstarter in the very near future - meanwhile check out our links and look for us here, there and everywhere!