Kickstarting The Land

We really need to move this thing now - it's sitting below a thousand dollars and I wonder why people are not copping to the timeliness of this piece? I'm startled that more (Jews especially) people have not come forward at this time. I see others generating enormous support for light entertainment - but The Land is seemingly untouchable. Why? Is the subject matter, the graphic violence (a fact of life on a daily basis in the Occupied Territories) the anguish of women attempting to lead normal lives in the midst of such insanity - is it just too much for the average, sheltered American ? We must become responsible for our collective actions if we are to grow and evolve as human beings. In order to heal ancient wounds, we must first look at them and acknowledge the scars we all bear! In writing this play, I dug deeply into my own collective and personal pain, in order to give authenticity to the characters I had created. Now as I revise The Land, I discover more dark corners, even I was afraid to explore the first time around. This play is my prayer for peace and reconciliation between a people long separated by conquest and time. There are those who believe the solution to the violence in the region, is a "divorce" between Israel and Palestine. I believe rather, in a "marriage", and this is what The Land is about! Please log onto Kickstarter and pledge! Every bit helps! If 350 people put in $10.00 a piece over the next month, The Land will be funded and back on its feet! Let's do it!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/402359860/the-land

Passover Wishes

As we Jews get ready to celebrate the ancient Festival of Passover, which commemorates the first successful Democratic uprising against tyranny, let the Spirit of this Universal Message of Freedom spread to all corners of the earth where people still are enslaved by injustice, slavery, crimes against humanity and the tyranny of War. May all be free, may all know peace and may Jerusalem be a free city, embracing ALL her citizens!

Very Special Thanks

We want to say a very special thank you to David Nichols and Arron Shiver. Arron came in a few times to coach our actors, a few of whom also attended his Monday night acting classes. Arron gave us some really good, important feedback and helped us in many ways. David, an Oscar winning set designer, read the play and agreed to come to the theatre during Tech, to lend us his amazing eye. Thank you so much, both of you.

The Ladies Of The Land

It's Women's Month on The Land so I've moved Micha to the bottom of the page (for the time being - we love you Micha!) and Ana and Anpo are at the top. Ana Chavez played the Palestinian Amirah, and is a singer, an actress, and a New Mexican traditional healer. Find out more about her in the link below. Anpo Cash is an Apache-Blackfoot mother, wife and actress who played three roles in the workshop production, including Hagar! Gen's been moved here from Kickstarter and soon we'll have a gallery of videos! The trailer is up at Kickstarter now! Enjoy!

http://taosrocks.com/

Kickstarter

We need to get to $1000.00 this weekend - $240.00 needed to get there! Spread the word, talk to everyone you know and let's keep this moving!

The Land Stirs More Controversy In Taos

The Land is the subject of the Editors Message in Hakol (the Taos Jewish Center's newsletter) this month! It's posted here - please go to page 2. Never mind that I upset them so much, they couldn't even get my name right - this is great news! As my late mother was fond of saying, "it's when they stop talking about you, that you need to worry!" To Karl's credit, he did attempt to calm down the controversy stirred by the TJC founder, Carmi Plaut in his Taos News Op-Ed, attacking the play, last January, by assuring them (TJC) that in fact, my intentions were and ARE to bring about peaceful resolution to the conflict through understanding and compassion for both sides. No matter, this old fear-ridden paradigm is dead. It's time for new ideas to bring light to this ancient conflict.

Or here and download Hakol
Page 2
http://www.taosjewishcenter.org/

What If?

What if the Palestinians are really descendants of the remnant who remained in The Land after the Roman Conquest? What if the Zionist movement was co-opted by a broader, Euro-American agenda that intended to get as many Jews into one small area as possible? What if the ongoing conflict between the Palestinians and Israeli Jews is a set-up to divide, conquer, weaken, numb and blind people to the truth? What if the Arab world (who care nothing for the Palestinian 'problem') is not innocent in these matters? The Land takes on all of this and more! Please help me raise the money I need to get this play back on its feet and seen by as many people as possible! Together we can change the paradigm AND the picture on the ground!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/402359860/the-land

The Land Trailer

I've brought Krystina Siebenaler into the mix - she's directing the editing process with Peter Walker. Making a video trailer of a play shot with video, is no easy feat, but now that Kiki is at the helm, I've no doubt we'll get something that will generate a little interest. It's going to take awhile longer, so please bear with us and be patient! Krystina is an award winning, short film maker and my partner on another project that has been in the works for a few years -a documentary about Kinky Friedman - Finding Kinky, see our trailer here.
http://findingkinky.blogspot.com/

Women's Month On The Land At Kickstarter

Tonight there is finally video up on the Kickstarter site! I was beginning to feel like the boy who cried wolf! My youngest daughter, the very talented Genevieve Oswald (she was married one week after we staged the play) was I felt, the appropriate person to introduce you to The Land. The Land is after all about women taking the reigns of power and turning the tide from war to peace. Who better than my daughter to speak for me, the writer of this play about two mothers? This month is International Women's month and over the next few weeks, you'll meet a few of the extraordinary women who helped me bring this play to life! Genevieve is an actor, yoga practitioner and teacher (she co-owns Shree Yoga studio here in Taos) and more importantly, a good human being. I'm very proud of her and was honored to have her in the cast. Genevieve brought depth and breadth to the roles of Catherine and the Shekinah. She was also my sounding board and my trusted advisor throughout the entire process - beginning with the writing of the first drafts, right up until we got it on the boards! I'm so grateful to her.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/402359860/the-land

Next week Ana Chavez who played Amirah, will be speaking about The Land with Anpo Cash who took on the roles of Hagar, a Zionist settler radical and a Gazan woman under siege!

Creative Activism

We live in extraordinary times - we can communicate with people across the globe at the speed of light, we have access to information like never before and never before have we, as a human race been in a position to take the reins of our Destiny in hand and shift the tide toward global peace and harmony. Artists have always been way-showers; cartographers of worlds yet to be traversed. Now more than ever before, artists have the unique opportunity to co-create with creation, a new and brighter future for all of our children. Because essentially art breeds compassion in that it shows us who we are and who we are becoming. I consider myself a creative activist. I'm a poet, painter and writer who believes I was given these gifts to serve a greater good. Money has never been my objective - I could care less about the next best new thing! But I care a great deal about those who live in perpetual suffering. That's why I wrote The Land and that's why I am here asking you to assist me in bringing attention to the ancient wounds at the core of this conflict so that we can begin to move forward with compassion, understanding and love. Because the fear, trauma and terror on both sides is too real to ignore and too embedded to approach without these attributes. Video will be up starting later today!

Log on to Kickstarter and pledge - $10.00 from you will enable me to spread awareness and change the picture on the ground!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/402359860/the-land

Video Delay

There's been a delay with the video due to a technical glich. Peter Walker assures me we'll have it by the weekend. Can't push the river...

What Makes The Land So Special

I believe my play is especially relevant because it doesn't take sides, shows the conflict from both points of view, doesn't shy away from graphic depictions of the very real violence (perpetrated on both sides,) but most importantly, it seeks common ground and finds it in the traumatic wounding both these people have endured. It is also a love story between a Muslim man and Christian woman and a story of friendship between two women - Israeli and Palestinian - that grows in spite of deep and mutual, mistrust. After our second performance at the TCA, David Behrstock had gathered the cast on the stage for final notes. At one point I looked around and saw Khalil Khweis and Micha Kurz - both born and raised in Jerusalem - Khalil's family are from the Mount Of Olives, Micha from West Jerusalem - but two very different Jerusalems. The show was over, the actors were emotionally and physically exhausted and there they sat, two homeboys, arms around one another's shoulders, talking and laughing as if they had known one another forever and nothing had ever come between the bond they shared. I thought to myself in that moment, if it can happen here, in Taos, it can happen in Jerusalem! Please log onto Kickstarter and join me in making it happen, by pledging as much as you can!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/402359860/the-land

In Solidarity

On Saturday evening over three thousand Palestinian and Israeli activists joined together to protest house evictions, demolitions and the building of Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem. The American press paid little attention, but this is a very positive development. Micha Kurz co-founder of Grassroots Jerusalem is on the ground in Jerusalem and he tells me that the IDF are not discriminating between Israelis and Palestinians with their use of tear gas and rubber bullets. This is precisely how change began in South Africa. A few thousand protesting at Cape Town University (I was there) became millions demanding freedom in a very short time span. My personal experience coming of age during South Africa's apartheid years and consequently years of exile, gives me a unique point of view regarding the situation in Israel. My play, The Land is a reflection of the growing grassroots movement in Israel/Palestine and supports the coming together of all the people of the region, against on-going colonialism and political agendas that have prevented a peaceful solution. The Land reveals the hidden roots of the conflict and supports the people on both sides of the divide who seek Peace for themselves and their children. In solidarity, The Land donates 10% to Grassroots Jerusalem.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/402359860/the-land

Political Theatre

Having never written a play does not mean I am a stranger to the theatre. I am not. I had the privilege of being around great theatre in South Africa - observing close hand Athol Fugard's process, from conception, through development and to completion. I was lucky enough to be there when he wrote and directed the first production of Boesman and Lena, at The Space in Cape Town. I've always had friends in the theatre and my mother was a trained actress who never acted professionally. I am told she was quite gifted. My daughter, Genevieve appears to carry the gene. She had a major role in the workshop production of The Land, and she'll make an appearance on Kickstarter, next week. I was also fortunate enough to be sent to a private, Anglican school where Drama was a mandatory subject. That classical education at an early age, ingrained in me a great love of words and the magic they can conjure. I loved Drama and had some talent for it, but my rebellious spirit rejected further formal education at sixteen when the road of life became my teacher. Along the way I've been blessed by a few great mentors, my own late, father being one of them. Brilliant and evolved human beings, these men and women saw me and nurtured my mind and spiritual awareness. I am indebted to them for the knowledge I was given. This play was born from years of immersion in a Poetic tradition that follows a classical theme. Years of reading classic literature, poetry and the Greeks, paid off as I crafted this story for the stage. The Land has a classical theme but it is completely modern and falls into the genre of Political Theatre, although I don't see it as being political at all!

Retracing My Steps

If you haven't noticed, I've been working on the text on Kickstarter http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/402359860/the-land Videos are being shot this weekend, with a few of the cast members from the original workshop production of The Land. The short trailer for the play is also in the editing process for a March 10th release right here, on the blog and on You Tube. I have also been working on revisions on the play itself. Seeing it on its feet, has enabled me to work on a few rough edges, awkward transitions and verbiage. It also helped me to see what worked and in doing so, gave me the confidence I lacked, going in the first time. After all I had no theatre experience and writing a play was a bit of a stretch for someone who has only completed one novel which sits collecting dust, and considers poetry her path - a much shorter writing form, unless one is creating epics. While writing The Land last year at this time, I fell in love with play writing! I came to it naturally and easily. It was as if the play waited for me to write it. And in the best parts - the parts I've left intact, it shows. I'm treading carefully as I cut things out and move scenes around, staying true to that place of love that inspired and continues to inspire me. I don't think this will be the only play I write, but it may well be the most important. Retracing my steps and doing these revisions has been an interesting process. I hate doing revisions, so I find all kinds of distractions to keep me from the job, but once I get to it, I can't tear myself from the page. Nights bleed into days. Last night I was up going through pages until the wee hours. Tonight I'm going to read through the pile and make corrections. Tomorrow I'll type. That's probably why I procrastinate. If I wrote on the computer it would certainly save me time, but would it still have soul? Something about the pen to paper... Off to work now, but wanted to keep everyone updated. Oh, I'm thinking of having a private showing of the video of the entire play, on the blog for all the Kickstarter backers as an extra reward!

Voices From The Ground

http://www.en.justjlm.org/

Laying Low

The Land is keeping a low profile for the time being. Video is being cut and I am waiting for the pitch clips by various cast members, plus trailer before I begin this fundraising in earnest. Hang in there with us for just a little bit longer!

The World We All Live In

The world we live in has become a global village - thanks to the web, we can all see how interconnected we are. What happens in the Middle East can no longer be ignored as something too far away to affect us - the time of hiding heads in the sand has passed.It is clear that the agenda in the ME, is a Global agenda that we cannot afford to support, knowing our individual freedom is at stake. Politics and power breed corruption and can no longer be counted on to bring change. Change will come from the people at the Grassroots level, once they understand that they, indeed have the power. It is my firm conviction, that women will be in the forefront of these coming Global shifts in awareness. Women, mothers especially do not want to keep burying their children as a result of another futile war. I am asking all my friends, especially my women friends, to help me raise the funds I need, to have this play seen by as many people possible! Please log onto Kickstarter.com and pledge as much (or as little) as you can!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/402359860/the-land