photo by S.E.T.

I’ve been writing, writing, writing here in Palestine, and our friends over at New Clear Vision are listening! Click here to read about an open-air performance The Freedom Theatre held to play back stories of the Israeli military’s recent actions in Jenin Refugee Camp…

…and click here to read about the follow-up performance, Midnight Raid, honoring the stories of released political prisoners.

Finally, for the third in the series, NewClearVision ran my article about the peaceful protest in Nabi Saleh; read it here.

photo by S.E.T.

For those who read Arabic, please enjoy the lovely article written about ImaginAction’s most recent work in Jenin, Palestine.

photo courtesy of S.E.T.

I have been living and working in Jenin, Palestine at The Freedom Theatre for the past two months. In about two weeks, the project will culminate in a Forum Theatre performance. Until then, please, follow my work on this blog with photos, video and written updates.

Stay tuned for performance date and times! In bocca al lupo,

Christine

ImaginAction-in-Action

Our Story

The artists of ImaginAction know creativity is everyone’s birthright and that tapping into the wisdom we all carry can lead us to transformative action. With the leadership of our creative director Hector Aristizábal, our workshops have traveled the globe, using theatre to create rituals that allow individuals to recreate themselves while bringing healing to the community. In a world where many people suffer from a sense of disconnection, in our workshops people spontaneously form “sudden villages” of mutual caring and concern.  ImaginAction villages have sprung up in Nepal, India, Palestine, Afghanistan, Italy, Northern Ireland, the US, Spain, Holland and many more places. Much of this work has been captured on film, and with your support, we’re ready to transform that footage into a series of DVDs offering new tools for facilitators, educators, social workers, artists, activists, therapists and many others.

ImaginAction in Action will illustrate different aspects of our work: Theater of the Oppressed (including Image Theater, Forum Theater, Cop in the Head, Rainbow of Desire), psychodrama , traditional storytelling, puppet-making, drumming, improvisational drama, creative ritual and more. These techniques are designed to inspire emotional connection and the sharing of personal stories.  In this way, we use the arts as a laboratory to explore social issues, inspire creativity and playfulness, and facilitate community and individual healing.

The ImaginAction DVD project will also tell the story behind the creation of Hector Aristizábal’s solo performance, Nightwind, and the interactive audience engagement process he has developed to accompany it. Nightwind takes the audience on a journey through Hector’s life including the dark days and nights when he was detained and tortured. After the performance, Hector engages the audience in a short workshop that enables them to transform their emotional reaction to what they have just witnessed into embodied knowledge using drumming, dynamic meditation and Image Theater. Our DVD will introduce the technique and practice of facilitating transformative engagement not only with Nightwind, but with any work of art that arouses powerful emotions.

The Impact

The DVD series, ImaginAction in Action, will allow us to introduce artists, community workers, students and educators to powerful techniques for creative transformation. The DVD will make it easier to share and multiply this work with communities across the globe.

What We Need & What You Get

Producing ImaginAction in Action From the hundreds of hours of footage that we have will take a lot of editing time. Additionally, we anticipate incurring costs for production and distribution. Our goal, to raise $6,000 (US) in the next 60 days, will help us get the project off the ground. All backers will receive updates with video links on the development of ImaginAction in Action. Rewards will include copies of the new ImaginAction in Action DVD; ImaginAction in Rome bonus DVD; production credits on the DVDs; and more.

Other Ways You Can Help

Share, Share, Share! The more people know about this campaign, the more backers we will have. Spread the word in your community and social circles! Your support will help us reach our goal, and ultimately, help these valuable techniques reach the global community. 

Learn more about ImaginAction and the artistic team here: 

http://imaginaction.org/ You could see some short videos from recent projects in Northern Ireland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEAHr_CpcBw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlktoZBpMjU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTZPnk-ZEn8

Project manager and main video editor for this project is Uri Noy Meir http://imaginaction.org/about-us/uri-noy-meir

Greetings ImaginActors!

I’m writing from the first floor of 11 Musgrave Park Court in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Tonight is my last night with Uri Noy-Meir, Allegra Fonda-Bonardi and Hector—tomorrow we disperse to a variety of projects around the world.

Belfast was the first stop on the last European tour of the year for Hector. From here, he travels to Vitoria in the Basque country to give master classes in T.O. techniques. Next stop is Bergen, Norway to give a series of workshops and performances with fellow ImaginAction teammate, Yael Harlap. From Bergen he’ll travel to Rome before heading back to the U.S.

Allegra will accompany Hector to Vitoria before returning to her work in China. She will be working with a local NGO there for another 6 months, bringing theatre techniques to students and educators. Uri is off to Leeds, and then Italy, where he plans to give a variety of T.O. workshops and work with hector in Rome.

After a wee interlude in Derry to assist with a conference at the Playhouse Theater, I travel to Palestine. For three months I will volunteer at The Freedom Theatre in Jenin, assisting Playback practitioner Ben Rivers as we work with youth there.

But before we scatter, we have much to celebrate. The past four weeks in Belfast have been a whirlwind as we introduced ImaginAction’s unique blend of theatre arts to youth in a variety of contexts. We brought stories and games to several groups in the Pathways program, an organization for youth who have been excluded or have disengaged from mainstream education. We also spent two nights a week at the 174 Trust, playing soccer and Complete the Image with a group of 8 to 14-year-old boys. From each of these groups, we edited footage of their improvisations and personal stories into a short film. The films are full of laughter, anecdotes and candid genius. “This is our way of saying we love you,” said Hector to the boys at 174 Trust after we watched the film together. Stay tuned for links to these videos as we complete them!

We’ll also celebrate Hector’s recent recognition as an Otto René Castillo Award winner. The Otto Award is named for the Guatemalan poet and revolutionary Otto Rene Castillo, who was murdered by that country’s military junta in 1968. Established in 1998, the Otto Awards have since honored such accomplished, dedicated and diverse artists and theatre companies as: El Teatro Campesino, The Living Theatre, Laurie Anderson, the Steppenwolf Theatre, Bread and Puppet Theatre, and the San Francisco Mime Troupe. We are so proud of Hector for this well deserved recognition!

On the other side of the world, Diane Lefer taught a guest class about torture and those who try to justify its use at  California State University at Fullerton in September. She’s also been invited to offer workshops and a Spanish-language performance in Bolivia with the organization Educar es fiesta, working with families in crisis and children without safe homes (including those who live in the street) in Cochabamba.

After all the celebration, however, ImaginAction still has ambitious goals in the works. We are still fundraising to bring Hector to The Freedom Theatre in Jenin, and after learning about the incredible opportunity for growth through theatre in China, we are dreaming of augmenting Allegra’s work there by bringing Hector to join her. Your support in these endeavors—financially or otherwise—is deeply appreciated. Stay tuned for a Kickstarter project, as well. Uri plans to compile footage and interviews to create a video toolkit of ImaginAction’s methodology. This ambitious project presents a fantastic opportunity to multiply the work and share it with other practitioners, and your support in the upcoming months will make it possible.

From the wet-green land of Ulster, I’m wishing you love and good fortune. All the best,

Christine

Dear friends of ImaginAction, we are happy to share with you that our Artistic Director, Hector Aristizabal, has received the Otto René Castillo Award for Political Theatre.  The Otto Awards were established in 1998 to recognize and support the ongoing development of political theatre internationally. The Awards Committee, made up of past recipients, recommend a slate of honorees each year, and Hector’s work was selected for recognition on May 20, 2012.

Over the years such politically engaged theatre companies and artists as Laurie Anderson, Bread and Puppet Theater, Ed Bullins, Joseph Chaikin, Kathleen Chalfant, the Living Theatre, Charles Mee, Richard Schechner, Split Britches, Ellen Stewart, El Teatro Campesino, and Robert Wilson, among many others, have received Otto Awards in recognition of their cutting-edge and/or community-based work.
The Ottos are produced by the Castillo Theatre, one of the programs of the All Stars Project, a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting human development through the use of performance, on and off stage. In addition to Castillo’s 27-year history of producing cutting-edge, experimental, socially relevant theatre, the All Stars creates outside-of-school educational and performing arts activities for tens of thousands of poor and minority young people.
The awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, May 20, 2012 at the All Stars Project’s performance and education center, located on West 42nd Street in Manhattan.

Diane Lefer joined Hector at the First International Theater Festival for Peace in Barrancabermeja, La Carpa de La Paz, where they offered theater and writing workshops.

She wrote two lucid, informative and moving articles about the experience: this one for the website New.Clear.Vision and this one for LA Progressive. For the many of us who couldn’t make it to Barrancabermeja, the articles are a quick & inexpensive trip there and back. Enjoy!