Ramallah

The objective of C:NTACT's project in Ramallah was to initiate a collaboration between the C:NTACT Foundation and the Al-Qasaba Theater in Ramallah, and to adapt the methods developed by C:NTACT to a Palestinian context. Applying theater as a method to empower local communities and strengthen cross-cultural dialogue was the essential emphasis. The collaboration resulted in two theater productions.

The first production took place in Denmark in 2008. A producer and a director from Al-Qasaba were invited to help organise and conduct a C:NTACT workshop and production, thereby learning the C:NTACT method at first hand. In relation to larger collaboration projects, we believe that the best starting point is to have collaboration partners from abroad come and participate in workshops at the C:NTACT headquarters and monitor the production of one of our performances.

The second theater production, titled Homeland, was staged at the Al-Qasaba Theater in Ramallah in 2009. Al-Qasaba recruited 10 young participants from local schools who were trained as performing storytellers relating their own personal stories under the Homeland theme. Present during the production were a Danish producer and a director assuming the roles of consultants and advisors and helping to set up a workshop for the young participants.

Although C:NTACT had originally aimed at a larger and more diverse group of participants, a number of young Palestinians did get the opportunity to tell their own stories on stage in front of an audience. The process of working with their own stories while inevitably reflecting on their own life situation was indeed very successful. The opportunity to communicate and debate directly with an audience was clearly a very positive experience for the youngsters - they suddenly felt that they had a platform where they could debate the major concerns in their lives. Moreover, the audience at the local schools and camps where the performances took place experienced the liberating effect too. In this setting, they could freely discuss difficult and delicate aspects of their society.

C:NTACT is currently planning more projects in other areas of Palestine.

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