A Tale Of Three Cities

One of the issues that The Land takes on is the frightening and dangerous Fundamentalist element that dwells at the root of the crisis: Religion. Not spirituality. That is another matter, but Religion in all it's different attire can become problematic when people start taking allegorical stories, literally. Fortunately, more people are waking up. Unfortunately modern Crusaders, Saracens and Ottoman hoards are still hammering at the gates of Jerusalem. In Israel right now, with the aid of Christian Fundamentalists, world wide, the radical Settler Element has taken over. Together, these bible thumping zealots, are rousing up their followers with the millennial pattern of end of world scenarios, and preparing them for the imminent arrival of a Jesus-like saviour. Islam, the third aspect of the Western Trinity, is portrayed as the Devil in the way of the Redemption. On the other side,Extremist Islamic doctrine (not all of Islam) embraces both of its elders but neatly qualifies their place in God's scheme of things and insists that Mohamed was the Last Prophet, who is also due for a second coming, under the guise of The Thirteenth Imam. The major problem of course, is the site of the Judeo/Christian timeline, happens in the place where the Al-Aksa mosque stands. The alleged location of Abraham's aborted sacrifice of Isaac and the location of the First and Second Temple Compounds of the Ancient Kingdom of Judah. As if that were not enough, it is rumoured (some point to another mosque in the area) to be the spot from which Mohamed ascended to the Heavens on his winged steed. The chaos that is ensuing over archaeological digging and land grabbing , combined with the collective expectation of Divine intervention is not surprising. In revising my working script, I've continued to portray all this, in the most real, shocking and immediate way possible. I've also tried to do it with humour and tenderness. This subject provided me with great and inspiring fodder for a classic, dramatic tragedy, while also enabling me to bring a little attention to a very worthy and important cause. Please help us help Grassroots Jerusalem.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1152809.html

Iris Keltz in The Electronic Intifada

Iris Keltz has a piece about Shuhada Street here !http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11096.shtml

Please share the link. Iris is brilliant and has a personal history with the Palestinian Territories. She also courageously came to my defense in a letter to The Taos News, during the aftermath of the The Land's workshop production in Taos.

Shuhada Street

Hebron's Shuhada Street is the scene of ongoing demonstrations by Israeli and Palestinian activists protesting the destruction of a once vital market place, and demanding it be reopened! One of the scenes in The Land is based on Micha Kurz' experience there as an IDF soldier during the Second Intifada. Breaking The Silence was born out of that. Above, Micha on the ground earlier this week. Help us help him and Grassroots Jerusalem! Please log onto Kickstarter and pledge!http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/402359860/the-land

The New York Times

Sunday's edition had a great article that proves we are on the right track! The Land addresses one of the most important issues of our day !

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/theater/21webcritics.html

3% Funded On Kickstarter!

We are slowly gathering momentum on Kickstarter.com. Thanks to all who have come forward and pledged, we are now 3% funded. Considering we launched less than a week ago, this is good news! Please keep the site bookmarked and check back in the next week for video footage from the TCA performances! And log on to Kickstarter.com and pledge!

The Land Trailer

We'll have some video up in the next couple of weeks, edited and shot by Peter Walker. Keep checking back for updates. The Land is on the move!

Bank Holiday/President's Day

It's a crapshoot, but I'm rolling the dice!

Propaganda on both sides of the divide - disenfranchised Palestinians, traumatised by the Nakba and Israeli might - fear-ridden Jews haunted by centuries of persecution - colliding in time/space - each, a perfect reflection of the other. One people divided by Political Agendas - the only way out is Peace, Love and Understanding. It's too late for the blame game. Accusation creates more accusation, feeding the cycle of violence. Neither are blameless but who are we to judge? We can only help if we come from a place of compassion and forgiveness. This is the message of The Land. It brings to light the fears that have driven each side of this hopeless war. Please help us spread the word. Log on to Kickstarter, and pledge!

Happy Valentine's Day

We launched our Kickstarter project tonight http://kck.st/aUC6j6 and got our first backer less than two hours after lift-off! Please take a look and give what you can! The minimum is $10.00.

Another backer this morning! Please log on to Kickstarter.com and pledge to our very important project!

The Process

Taking on the Israeli/Palestinian catastrophe (which is also the English translation of Nakba) is no small feat. I began writing this play in the year 2000, with Dorit Rivlin-Rak, who had come to me with a concept and asked for help fleshing it out. Dorit envisioned it as a performance piece with two women, in their kitchens going about their daily rounds; making the same food, doing laundry, reading the paper -essentially doing the things women do everyday. Tasks that are part of the natural order of things in a woman's world. At one point Dorit (also an amazing actor) had an Iranian actor friend fly in from L.A. to play the Palestinian role. The rehearsals were intense. The Muslim and the Jew moving past all commonality (Islam and Judaism are so similar, after all) to find the rage, the fear and the grief created by tragic, historical misunderstanding. I was moved but also shaken by what came out of those workshops. Ultimately, Dorit wanted to direct the piece, so she brought in Cynthia Straus ( to play the Israeli,) whom I met at that time. For some reason, Dorit and I set the project aside. She soon returned to Israel and it remained in a file buried under others for a decade. When Operation Cast Lead devastated the Gaza Strip in 2008/9, I dug out the notebooks and began a draft, keeping Dorit's concept and the monologues we had written together, at the core of the play. I laughed and cried as I wrote - certain parts rolled off my pen as I tapped deep into my subconscious; my buried and ingrained Jewishness. The long and tragic history written in my DNA. I had long believed the Palestinians were the remnant who had stayed in the land after Rome enslaved so many of us; selling us into an endless and heartbreaking Exile. Much longer than the Babylonian Diaspora which lasted less than a century. Living in New Mexico most of my adult life has also brought me in close contact with Crypto-Jewry, the descendants of Sephardi conversos. I approached the character of the Palistinian woman (whom I named Amirah) from this point of view. I drew on my historical knowledge of the territory the Greeks and Romans called Palestina, after the Philistines who occupied Gaza in Biblical times. I thought about the invaders who came later; the Crusaders and Islamic armies of the Prophet. I considered their influence; both the brutal imposition of their creeds, but also the good that they brought. My Palestinian characters were born from this place. This consideration. One day, after I'd completed the third draft, I ran into Cynthia Straus. I asked her to read it, in hopes I could have her play Tamara, a role written with her in mind, because of her history with the project. We spent a couple of months working before bringing in Ana Chavez a New Mexican with roots in Spain. I felt that she could identify with Amirah totally. I was determined to cast the play with actors who came from diverse racial backgrounds; specifically from people who had known genocide, exile and both collective and /or personal suffering. The actors in the cast of The Land are Native American, Hispanic, Anglo, Palestinian, Israeli, Chinese and American Jews. The role of Ahmed took longest to cast-no one wanted to play him. He was too hot to touch. Finally Christopher Heron appeared. Christopher comes from a theatrical family background and is a fabulously gifted actor. He also spent time in Morocco and was familiar with Islamic culture. Khalil Khweis who plays his father, was comfortable with him right away. A good sign. Khalil's niece, Majdolene Khweis (her parents, Ziad and Heyam were my Palestinian consultants while writing) was early on, picked to play Leila, Amirah's daughter. The actor who was to play Daniel, dropped out at the last minute, so Gus Chinlund (originally one of the IDF soldiers) replaced him. Two days later Gus' mother passed away. It was as if the intensity of the piece was but a microcosm of the macrocosm of the collective human drama. Gus brought his grieving into the part and gave Daniel depth and weight. There was a bittersweet irony to these circumstances. Cynthia (who as Tamara is mother to Daniel) and Gus (both with Chicago/NY) backgrounds have been close friends since they were teenagers. She was able, both as friend and actor, to ground and anchor the sensitive situation. My daughter Genevieve was cast as Catherine, an American, Christian journalist who falls in love with Ahmed. She also plays the role of the Shekinah, the feminine aspect of G-d In Exile. Mother and daughter working together on the most mundane level can be a challenge, but asking your daughter, the actor , to go to the deepest parts of herself can become a war in itself. I called in Arron Shiver whom I had tried to coax into playing Ahmed prior to Christopher's arrival, to work with Cynthia and Genevieve, coaching them and helping develop their characters. I also brought in David Behrstock to co-direct (I'd never directed a play) and to play the role Gus had vacated. Alan Tafoya had long been committed to the role of the fierce, Druze soldier, Anpo Cash and Krystyna Siebenaler were cast as Chorus members who also play the roles of Sarah and Hagar in a scene with the Shekinah. As we rehearsed, the emotional fallout from the play began to manifest in personal dramas. Our band of cast and crew grew to resemble the Israeli/Palestine crisis in miniature. There is no way to take on this issue day in, day out without it affecting one's entire life. Even as we all understood what was happening, the process was not without moments of total insanity - escalating tempers and outbursts were not uncommon toward the end of our rehearsal period. But the show must go on. And it did because the passion and commitment of this cast was unquestionable and I could not have done this without them. I think when we go back to rehearse a few revisions, it'll be a lot smoother, but one can't expect to inhabit these characters and their worlds, without taking on a few of their traits which are rooted in centuries of conflict. I know, because as I wrote them, I went through every single emotion that they bear.

Horsefly Article

A piece I wrote (which was badly edited by the paper) about Goldstone's report, Breaking The Silence and The Land. Hopefully, crappy edit aside, you can still catch my drift...

http://www.taosdaily.com/index.php?fuseaction=home.viewarticle&article_id=3307

Taos News Archives

A link to the Taos News archives and Tempo article - on top, scroll down from 'main' to Tempo , date Dec 10, 09. If you bring up the following three weeks (after December 10th, ) and go to Parallax and letters (in Tempo section) you can read all the responses this controversial and provocative play has generated in our very liberal and sophisticated little town...

http://taosnews.nm.ussrv17.newsmemory.com/index.php

Caveat

Reading over my last post, I thought I should clarify a thing or two. Firstly, the gallery job I was laid off from - or did I quit? Hard to tell in hindsight, but I believe it was a bit of both. My heart was no longer in it. Five days a week doing routine work, is tough for any creative soul, let alone one who is working five nights on top of the days. At a certain point, once the candle has burned down on both ends, one makes a choice. I chose The Land. I'm very grateful for that job however, as it provided me with the means to jumpstart this project. Secondly, lest I sounded on the brink of doom, let me assure you this is not the case. I was immediately hired by a former employer part time (two days) and I freelance for a few publications so money is trickling in, keeping me alive with a roof over my head for the time being! More importantly, I have time for grant writing, fund raising and working on revisions. Hoping the video footage gets cut this week and I can launch my Kickstarter project next. Do not fear, you'll be the first to know! We are counting on you all to dig deep into your pockets and fork up a big $10.00 bill at the very least!

A Wing And A Prayer

Because my vision was so strong and the urgency of the situation in the Holy Land, so apparent, I was determined to waste no time getting this play on its feet so that I could revise and refine it, in order to take it on the road. No one was willing to produce a play by a first-time playwright, let alone one with such controversial subject matter. So with $500.00 dollars raised from selling program ads, and money from my hourly wage at a gallery (a job I was laid off from the day after our second performance) I booked two nights at the TCA here in Taos and began rehearsing the actors and working around the clock to promote the project. KTAO radio advanced me ad time for spots cut by my talented son, Joshua Cunningham ( http://www.concentratedefforts.com/live/) and Southside Printing allowed me to pay half for printing programs, agreeing to be paid the balance after the show. The sets and costumes were put together by Christopher Heron, the play's Art Director Stacey Huddleston (http://www.humanlinestudio.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=58:stacey-huddleston-neo-southwestern-woman-artist&catid=36:about-stacey-huddleston&Itemid=74) who provided us with furniture and odds and ends from her home, and Becky at Pieces, a local consignment shop. Ivan G'Vera lent his muscle and his eye (schlepping heavy objects and video taping.) I had storyboarded the entire play, so the set and wardrobe design was basically paint by numbers. My daughter Genevieve co-owns a yoga studio (Shree Yoga) and I still owe her for the rehearsal time. All but one of the actors and crew - Lyn-Li Pugh (Props) Fossie Graham (Stage Manager and provider of combat gear) donated their time and talent - Fossie even paid for her flight to get here, ran into a snow bank on her way up from the airport and still managed to do her job like a pro! What a trooper! The two performances covered most of the costs of the theatre time, food, beverages and miscellaneous stuff (for the play) and the light tech (the fabulous Juniper Purinton) and if it were not for an anonymous patron, I would still be freaking out over the balance due to radio and printing. After all was said and done,I was out around $2500.00 of my own money. This is why I am now applying for grants and launching this project on Kickstarter, just as soon as we get some video edited and up. I need to raise $10,000.00 in the next three months, in order to keep the momentum going, to pay for rehearsal time (past and present) and pay Maryanne for the fantastic Shekinah costume, Heyam for the delicious food she made for our wrap party, Stacey for postcards she designed, Christopher and Sean Ratliff for work already done and more to come! I would also like to be able to pay the rest of our wonderful cast and start booking more dates in the region before taking this play East, to NYC! On top of all that, I want to donate three months rent to Grassroots Jerusalem for a Peace House in Jerusalem. Oh, did I mention that I'd also like to pay myself back and thus avoid eviction? I and the entire cast and crew of The Land, hope that you will help!

The Cast

The cast of actors who came together for the play were as eclectic as the people of The Land! Ana Chavez (http://www.taosrocks.com/) a Latina New Mexican with roots in Moorish/Jewish Spain played Amirah, the Palestinian mother of Ahmed (a challenging role, played by the gifted Christopher Heron.) Cynthia Straus (who is Jewish) http://www.cynthiastraus.com/ played Tamara, the conflicted Israeli mother of Daniel, played by Gus Chinlund (who has Chinese and Jewish heritage.) My talented daughter, Genevieve Robinson-Oswald, who is a Jewish Viking (her father is of Nordic descent), played the American (Christian ) journalist Catherine, as well as the intense role of the Shekinah. Khalil Khweis (born and raised on The Mount Of Olives) and his niece, Majdolene Khweis played (not a huge stretch) Palestinians whose lives have been torn asunder by the well meaning but disastrous turn of events, caused by the Balfour Declaration and Zionist zealots. Alan Tafoya http://www.alantafoya.com/ played an Israeli Druze soldier and David Behrstock (himself, of Jewish heritage) owner of The Taos Plaza Theatre and co-director of The Land, took on the role of an Israeli soldier. Anpo Cash (Apache/Blackfoot) and Krystina Siebenaler played radical Jewish settlers and Hamas supporters. They also played the roles of Hagar and Sarah in a scene with the Shekinah. They were part of the three women chorus (with Majdolene Khweis) symbolising the Paleolithic Triple Goddess. A recurring theme in the play which calls to the Eternal Feminine Principal to bring healing to these ancient wounds.

Link To Taos News Interview

http://www.taosnews.com/articles/2009/12/18/news/doc4b216fdbaba4d200361187.prt

Interview from the Taos News December 10 '09, with Lynne Robinson, author of The Land