Palestinian Street Theatre Recap

By Thomas
www.studentorg.vcu.edu/fpn
fpn@vcu.edu

Yesterday, Monday February 1st 2003 apx. 20 activists from Free Palestine Now! (FPN), Food Not Bombs (FNB), Students for Divestment at VCU (SD-VCU), and Richmond Jews for a Free Palestine (RJFP) performed Guerrilla Palestinian Street Theatre at three locations on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University.

  The activists performed the street theatre in protest of not only Israel’s murderous actions in Palestine, but also the continued support of both VCU and the US in that terror.  The Street Theatre was performed as a protest of Israel and Israel's supporters, and also in support of Free Palestine Now!'s divestment campaign at VCU.  VCU has over 8 million dollars of VCU students money invested in companies internationally recognized as sustaining the Israeli occupation of Palestine and of arming the Israeli military.  VCU students have little or no knowledge of their complicity in the murder of Palestinians and have been routinely shocked and horrified when it was brought to there attention.  The Street Theatre was to bring home realities of what is happening in Palestine to their daily lives.  The Street Theatre was not permitted and was made to be highly mobile with all props (including houses, bulldozers, costumes, signs, and a megaphone) being carried by the actors.  The Street Theatre was scheduled to be performed at 3 locations around the University grounds.

    Street Theatre was an idea that FPN had been contemplating for a couple of months, but only was decided upon about a week and a half ago.  With a little more than 2 weeks before our next speaking event with Ramzy Baroud (Thurs Feb 6 8pm) we decided at our weekly FPN meeting that we would embark upon Street Theatre as publicity for the event, our divestment campaign, and the horrific plight of the Palestinian people in general.  Seeing that none of the 20+ Free Palestine Now! members had ever done Street Theatre before we took the idea to the next Richmond Food Not Bombs who had a small contingent that had performed Street Theatre many times.  They agreed that it was a great idea and agreed to help out with the performance.  A planning meeting was set up for a week before the performance and all the general specifics were sorted out (Date, Time, Locations, etc) and a committees were formed to work on the script, fliers, and publicity.  It was planned that the unpermited Street Theatre would take place in three locations at VCU, between the library and dining hall (that would be the meeting place) in the walkway to the Student Commons, and in a grassy area near the business building.  It was also agreed that to do this everything was going to have to be extremely mobile and the actors had to know how to set up and dismantle the props quickly.  The Saturday before the performance was designated Props and Rehearsal time.  On Saturday 15-20 people helped out for up to 6 hours making props, costumes, and scrounging up equipment.  A megaphone (veteran of many protests) was found, and in accordance with the script the plot committee had formulated 2 houses, 1 bulldozer, 1 checkpoint, 1 camera, 3 signs, and 4 "M16's" were made out of cardboard and painted. In addition 4 military uniforms were procured and Israeli flags pinned on, as well as 3 military helmets, 2 pairs of military pants, and a medics shirt.  Kaffiyas of course were in abundant supply.  After about 5 1/2 hours of prop building we decided to run through the script a few times.  Things were choppy but worked out ok, so we called it a day and hope for the best for Monday.

  On Monday everything went right.  First of all it was a beautiful day.  It was about 60 degrees and sunny all day, a real change from the 20's-40's we had been experiencing previously.  Everybody was outside and this guaranteed us good crowds.  By 3 PM when everyone was scheduled to meet at the first location, all the props had been safely stored at 3 nearby locations.  As people started to arrive we dispatched teams off to the various locations to retrieve the props, and by 3:20 apx. 20 activists and all the props had arrived.  People who wanted to perform who wernt at the rehearsal were encouraged to take on roles, while some of the experienced activists moved to other jobs like handing out fliers, circulating petitions, and holding signs.  10-15 people acted (each performance had a fluctuating cast depending on who wanted to play what role), 2 people narrated, 3 people held signs, 2 people handed out fliers, 2 people circulated petitions, and 1 person operated the megaphone and keyboard (with sound effects on it).  The Plot of the Street Theatre was based at an Israeli checkpoint near an occupied town.  Two soldiers at the checkpoint first bar a journalist into the town despite his pleas to investigate a massacre there. While this is happening at the checkpoint two Israeli soldiers are patrolling the town announcing it is under a 24- hour military curfew and that it is a closed area.  Two Palestinian children step from there homes and are accosted by the soldiers who demand to know where they are going, they plead with them to be allowed out to find food for their families and go to school, the Israeli soldiers refuse and threaten to kill them, as the children start to run away the soldiers shoot and kill them yelling that they are terrorists.  After the children are killed a medic comes running out to check on them, and is then shot by the Israeli soldier screaming "terrorist", after this has happened a Israeli Caterpillar bulldozer enters the town and demolishes the homes of the children. All the while that this action is going on the narrators are providing background on the atrocities committed in Palestine by Israel and the complicity of VCU and the USA in those atrocities. As the bulldozers leaves the town, several Palestinian children start throwing rocks at the Israeli soldiers who had killed their friends, and the Israeli soldiers ruthlessly gun them down.  As the narration end, the journalist finally fights his way past the checkpoint soldiers only to be shot by the soldiers. I was sure that we would have to run through it a couple times in the first location to get it right, but I was wrong.  The group performed the Street Theatre perfectly in front of apx. 30-60 people in the first location.  After we finished the piece we got a good reception from the crowd who applauded and took pictures.  At this point a VCU policewoman was nervously standing to the side of our Theatre talking into her walkie-talkie so we decided it was best to move on to the next location.  We made the 3-4 minute walk to the student commons entrance way and again set up the Street Theatre, the police woman followed us but no more police arrived. We performed the Street Theatre again in front of the Student Commons but most of the activists switched roles around to giver everyone the opportunity to play a part (the narrators switched as well) We again performed it first try this time in front of a smaller, yet more vocal crowd of 20-30 who booed the Israeli soldiers and cheered the Palestinian children. Again at the completion of the piece the audience clapped and we picked up our props and prepared to move again to the third location.  This is where everything went right again.  As we arrived at the planned third location in the grass next to the business building (minute walk from the Commons) we looked across the street to the Temple building.  There had been a fire alarm in Temple and 400 students and a fire truck where milling around outside the building.  It was immediately decided to abandon the third location and move the performance across the street to the grassy area in front of all the students.  We again performed the Street Theatre in front of the curious eyes of 400 students many of whom didnt even know there was a problem in Palestine.  People were very interested and surprised when we presented them with the reality of what is happening in Palestine and how Virginia Commonwealth University was helping destroy the Palestinian people.  After the performance was over, the students were still not allowed inside, so FPN members took turns on the megaphone explaining specifics of VCU investments in companies arming and sustaining Israel, and a petition for divestment was circulated among the crowd (it ended up getting 50+ signatures before we had to abruptly leave) while this was going on, some of the FPN members spotted the right-wing zionist president of the VCU Jewish Student Union (Hillel) (which as an organization violates its own national by-laws by taking a pro-Israeli zionist point of view thus shunning the members of the Jewish community who have pride in their heritage and culture but do not approve of the oppression of the Palestinian people, like one of the founding members of FPN and members of Richmond Jews for a Free Palestine. Hillel had also brought two openly anti-Muslim speakers to campus in the past year, one of which called Islam a violent religion, and another who decried all of Palestine was given by god to the Jews.) She was talking on her cell phone and we casually joked that she was calling security.  One of the actresses in the Street Theatre went over to talk to her, as they knew each other previously.  When the activist returned she informed us all that the zionist girl had called the police on us.  So we collectively decided to leave the area, and proceeded on to the identified "safe-house" to store the props, and recount the many small victories of the day.

  When we founded this organization we made it a goal that by the time we were done we would have made everyone on our campus understand that something terrible was happening in Palestine.  We were confident that if we passed them the truth they would support the Palestinians and carry that support into the rest of the world after they left VCU.  We understood that as a Student group our actual aid for the Palestinians could only be minimal, so we decided that knowledge of the situation was out aim.  Today we made a great step towards that goal.  Not only where we able to show 500 or so students the truth about what is happening in Palestine, but we were able to generate a buzz of interest in the Palestinian cause on our campus.  We received only positive feedback, not one complaint (unless you count the zionist who called the cops.  People where genuinely amazed and repulsed by what we had exposed them to.  Many students expressed their amazement at the level of oppression of the Palestinians, and the financial amount that they help this oppression through their school tuition and US tax dollars.  Everything went absolutely phenomenally today and not all of our battles will turn out such stunning results, but I am immensely happy at the results of todays Street Theatre.  We reached a massive number of students, we had 20 dedicated activists turned out to help, and we informed and educated many unknowing people who we hope will support the Palestinian people in the future.  Thank you to all the activists who put in long hours of prop work, rehearsals, and performed in the actual event.  Also thank you to all the people who watched and learned about Palestine.  Lastly thank you to the Street theatre actors and actresses from Food Not Bombs for showing us how to do street theatre, and the people from Richmond Jews for a Free Palestine for taking the moral high ground and helping us fight for justice and freedom for Palestine and a future in which Jews and Palestinians can live side-by-side in peace.  This will defiantly not be the last time FPN does Street Theatre.