Pieces

Tuesday was the first day of rehearsals. In the afternoon, after our meet and greet, the cast and crew for both plays settled in for a joint rehearsal. Stacy read My Name is Rachel Corrie and I read Pieces. Hearing the two plays back to back with all of us in the room was astounding and intense. I felt myself want to sink into a deep despair. The Middle East and despair are not foreign concepts to me, not on a personal level nor on a political one. Sitting there, however, listening to the riveting Stacy Fischer read Rachel's words, it occurred to me there is real value in all of this. I'm not trying to fool myself into thinking that the theatre can single handedly fix the Israeli/ Palestinian conflict, but I was able to appreciate the fact that through telling these two very different stories, we're raising the questions and we're willing to sit with "the beast."

The Middle East is a many many things. It's filled with people and life and joy and pain. It is also scary and big and the situation is currently dire. This is why even in our little theatre, something happened, because, on Tuesday, together, we were willing to listen.

Peace,

Zohar.