Playback Theater is not conventional and predictable, it depends on the cooperation between the audience and the actors. From the audience comes a story and the actors reflect it in an abstract and personal way. This festival hosted People with Disabilities, Refugees, Members of the LGBT Community, Immigrants, etc. The festival is therefore called ‘The Quiet Voices Receive a Stage’.
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TIMELINE
1st EVENT – International Women’s Day
DATE • 8 March 2018
GOAL • Meeting and getting to know the “other”
PARTNER • Lace Embroidery Org.
AUDIENCE • Druze women from Hurfeish, Arab and Jewish women from the Galilee
WHERE • Hurfeish – Druze village in the Galilee
WHO • 82 Attendees
“This is the year we stopped being silenced as women” said Maya Bolzman, a woman’s rights activist, at the event Together Beyond Words and the Hurfeifsh Lace Embroidery group held in the Druze village of Hurfeish on International Women’s Day. The event sponsored by Peace Through Commerce and the Sobell Foundation. Included a bazaar of Arab and Jewish entrepreneurs, a Playback Theatre performance as well as Listening and Dialogue Circles. Several women were moved to tears and empowered by the courageous stories shared by the Arab Druze and Jewish women who attended the event. Everyone enjoyed the beautiful products of the entrepreneurs who themselves exchanged information so they could collaborate in the future.
2nd EVENT – Strive For Peace
DATE • 20 April 2018
GOAL • To design together, from our past life experiences, future possibilities for an egalitarian society and joint living in Israel.
PARTNER • Sindyanna of Galilee Association
AUDIENCE • Jews and Arabs from the Galilee
WHERE • Kana village – 90% Muslim, 10% Christian village near Nazareth
WHO • 58 Attendees
Two stories evolved during the Strive For Peace event that were greatly moving.
One Arab woman said that today she looks out of her house window, in Nazareth Illit (mostly populated by Jews), towards the village from which her parents and grandparents fled in 1948. There were many years when in her heart there was great sorrow. But today, after working with Jews for common causes, the sorrow has changed in her heart and has become compassion … compassion for all those who participated in the 1948 war, compassion for the conflict situation between two peoples who suffer.
Another story was told by a Jewish woman who had cancer and is now receiving chemotherapy (our hope she recovers.) The woman shared that her greatest fear was that she would no longer be able to support and help her relatives, friends, and those in her community, as she had done in the past. Her greatest fear is not that she might die, but that she will not be able to contribute to others.
Feedback from the entrepreneurs:
– “I went through a very exciting experience.”
– “Wow, how powerful was this day, both the performance and what we shared in circles.”
– “Thank you, even though I sold only a little jewelry, it was still worth coming here, It was inspiring to hear so many touching stories from people I don’t know.”
3rd EVENT – Developing Socially Committed Leadership
DATE • 20 June 2018
GOAL • Supporting young Arab and Jewish leaders in challenging patterns of thought and action that increase social gaps in Israel and distance us from a reality of the common good.
PARTNER • Kav Hazinuk Association (“The Starting Line”)
AUDIENCE • Approximately 100 Arab and Jewish youth, parents, alumni and staff.
WHERE • Acre – A mixed city of Arabs and Jews
WHO • 100 Attendees
The Starting Line :
Minimizing inequality and training vision-oriented leadership – these are two of the main goals faced by Israeli society. The “Kav Hazinuk” Association copes with these challenges by training high-quality youth from Israel’s social and geographic outskirts, in a first-of-its-kind in-depth model. The Association’s youth participate in a ten-year training program that starts in high school, continues in their military service and throughout academic studies – enabling them to express and exert their hidden abilities – each in his/her own area. The program enables its participants to make a significant contribution to the community and undergo individual development as future leaders in the areas of their choice.
Kav Hazinuk poses selected youngsters with the challenge of their lives, providing the tools and long-term mentorship required to transform them into the social, political, and business leaders of the future – role models for their and the next generations.
Kav Hazinuk identifies teens with potential and builds regional leadership groups comprising youth from the surrounding towns and villages. Every year, twenty of the students with the highest leadership potential are selected out of thousands in each region. The groups are formed under a plethora of cultures enabling the diversity required to create high-quality leadership groups around the country. Leadership values at Kav Hazinuk are based on integrity, social involvement and long-term vision, but above all – on groundbreaking social enterprise.
Within the Association there are currently 360 teenagers from 44 municipalities around Israel, who have affected over 60,000 people through their actions of social enterprise.
We performed at the event to mark the end of a year of activity in the north.
The audience was attended by 100 youths, parents, alumni and staff.
In my opening speech, after presenting Beyond Words Org, PTC as contributors to the event and our Playback theatre (and its uniqueness), I emphasized some values that are needed for youth in order to break through the economic and social framework in which they live:
- Character – determination, flexibility to change, social skills.
- Understanding and acceptance – the importance of diversity in the society
- Knowledge and skills to lead social projects.
The performance was great, the reactions were warm and enthusiastic.
Our playback this time was Arab, Lamis and she turned to the youth, the staff, the alumni and the parents to get stories from different angles.
We asked questions such as:
– If you had to explain to someone, in one sentence, what the “Kav Hazinuk” plan was, what would you say?
– Share something you’ve learned about yourself in one of the workshops you’ve been through
– What a unique gift the program gave me
– How did I meet boys/girls from another sector of my own, from a different life environment of my own
– To the parents: How do you take pride in your child? What team member do you want to praise?
– To the alumni: Fifteen years from now, you’ll have a childץץץ talk to him now, in the present tense, and tell him what you’d like him/her to do, what program should he/she choose? What social circle would you like him/her to belong to?
– Share in the memory that you will carry in your heart for many years to come…
When we “returned” and presented the stories, in different ways, a strong experience arose in all of us.
After the show we divided into 4 circles and the participants told us other experiences that were meaningful to them during the years of the program.
4th EVENT – Drama Therapy at Tel-Hai College
DATE • 25 June 2018
GOAL • Supporting women’s leadership in Peacebuilding and Social Change
PARTNERS • Tel-Hai College in collaboration with the Department for Peace, Democracy and Multiculturalism Drama Therapy Department, and Women Wage Peace organization
AUDIENCE • Approximately 100 Arab and Jewish youth, parents, alumni and staff.
WHERE • Tel-Hai College – Close to the border of Syria and Lebanon
WHO • 70 Attendees
Our messaging was about the necessity to transform pain so it will not rule our thoughts, behaviors and actions. When we make peace with ourselves, we can go out with this call to our community and lead peace operations.
Speaker Miss Tufaha Saba, head of the Unit for Peace and Democracy, explained the difference between a charismatic, innate and unchangeable leadership, and the ability to become a leader who does a “leadership act.”
A leadership act is a “worthy” act that influences and benefits reality.
Such leader has a moral view, a desire for change and the ability to change.
It is a process that is learned and acquired (unlike the charismatic leader, who is perceived as static …), a process in which the personal development of the leadership women occurs, through the course of their actions for change.
Another speaker was young student, a representative of the “Young Women’s Cell” of “Women Wage Peace” at Tel Hai College. She talked about the power we receive when we make the change ourselves.
Of course at the beginning of the event gave the women time to walk around the bazaar conducted, watch art, beauty products and buy.
In the Playback event, we asked them to share the deeds they do for peace, actions from a young age to the present. How do you want to see the future of all of us in Israel …
The actresses played the stories. Some were amusing, some touching and moving.
Then I divided them into five listening circles. There was another sharing of their experiences in working for a shared society … They really did not want to finish …!
5th EVENT – Oneness Event
DATE • 10 October 2018
GOAL • To create and expand an energy of unity for a tolerant world, accepting and enabling the human beauty in its shades and colors
PARTNERS • A collaboration of 27 groups and organizations
AUDIENCE • Came from all over Israel, from all religions, from communities with different views, Women, Men, Adults and Youth
WHERE • Beit Gavriel (the house of Gabriel) on the Sea of Galilee
WHO • 240 Attendees
The Oneness Event was wonderful! “Together Beyond Words” contribution was very big and appreciated. A school in an Arab town called Tamra sent some high school students and teachers to participate in the event – many of the students hardly spoke Hebrew. There were also Jews in our performance who did not speak Arabic. All the rest of the event was in Hebrew except for TBWs performance which was in both languages. We felt like real oneness. The setting was amazing and the stage space was outside right next to the Sea of Galilee in a place called Beit Gabriel (the house of Gabriel).
TBWs new concept will give the entrepreneurs a deeper understanding of peace building through business collaborations, will promote lasting friendships and will give the entrepreneurs and their partnerships the space they deserve to show what they have accomplished and the opportunity for large exposure and extensive networking.
Recorded by a visiting teacher
“What touched me most was the energy of this performance both of the actresses and all of the of our students who were so involved and also me and the other teacher. All of us were looking and feeling awe because of how the actresses took our stories and immediately turned them into theatre. It was amazing!!
I am going to tell about this to our director because when we came here to this Unity Conference she told us: “You must go see the playback theater workshop.” So we came and were present and it was truly beyond words. I would like to ask our principle if we could collaborate with you in some way with our students. I believe it will create something incredible. Thank you so much and we hope you continue your work!! ~ Rim from Tamra
6th EVENT – Human Rights Day
DATE • 10 December 2018 – COMING SOON
GOAL • Bring into awareness that Human Rights includes everyone
PARTNERS • the Galilee for Everyone Network that includes 42 different organization
AUDIENCE • Jews and Arabs, from different communities and organizations in Galilee
WHERE • Maarag Community Center in Kfar Vradim
WHO • xx Attendees
The Quiet Voices Receive a Stage
SocialTV Published on May 11, 2017