Theater as resilience and joy

Focus: Cultural resilience and artistic capacity building
Who: 2,000+ direct participants, 4,000+ indirect
Where: West Bank, Palestine
When: October 2024 — ongoing
Partner: Al-Harah Theater

In occupied Palestine, theater is more than art – it is an act of cultural resistance, a space for healing, and a bridge connecting communities across isolation. Working alongside Al-Harah Theater, one of Palestine’s most established cultural institutions, we support programs that use performance arts to strengthen Palestinian identity, develop artistic capacity, and create moments of shared joy even in the most challenging times.

For twenty years, Al-Harah Theater has created spaces where Palestinian stories can be told, where children can laugh and dream, and where communities can gather to celebrate their culture. Theater requires imagination, collaboration, and the belief that another world is possible – exactly the qualities that help communities not just survive, but thrive under occupation.

When Palestinian children watch a performance in their village, when young artists learn acting skills and cultural leadership, when communities gather to see theater that addresses their social concerns, they’re participating in something profound: the preservation and evolution of Palestinian culture, the strengthening of community bonds, and the assertion of their right to beauty and creativity.

What we do together

Working with Al-Harah’s experienced artistic team, we support a comprehensive program that spans community outreach, professional development, and new artistic creation. We facilitate capacity-building workshops that train community center facilitators across the Bethlehem and Hebron areas, helping them bring theater programming directly to their communities.

The project includes the creation and touring of multiple theatrical productions that address real issues facing Palestinian communities today – from children’s plays that help young audiences process their experiences to performances tackling contemporary social challenges for youth. We also support professional development for emerging Palestinian directors, ensuring the next generation has the skills to carry this socially engaged cultural work forward, and facilitate touring of existing productions to reach new communities across the West Bank.

Al-Harah’s 20th anniversary celebration becomes an opportunity to document and share two decades of cultural resistance, while community performances bring theater directly to villages, schools, and refugee camps across the West Bank.