{"id":83180,"date":"2013-09-05T08:34:01","date_gmt":"2013-09-05T12:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=83180"},"modified":"2015-12-14T11:04:17","modified_gmt":"2015-12-14T16:04:17","slug":"freedom-theatre-opens-u-s-tour-of-fugards-the-island-in-storrs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2013\/09\/freedom-theatre-opens-u-s-tour-of-fugards-the-island-in-storrs\/","title":{"rendered":"Freedom Theatre Opens U.S. Tour of Fugard\u2019s \u2018The Island\u2019 in Storrs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Faisal<\/a>
Faisal Abu Alhayjaa and Ahmad Alrakh in Freedom Theatre\u2019s production of The Island, by Athol Fugard. (Mohammed Moawiya for UConn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Freedom Theatre, an independent Palestinian cultural center located in the West Bank\u2019s Jenin refugee camp, opens a limited tour of Athol Fugard\u2019s award-winning play \u201cThe Island\u201d at UConn\u2019s Nafe Katter Theatre on Sept. 6.<\/p>\n

Performances will begin at 7 p.m. on Sept. 6, and at 2 and 7 p.m. on Sept. 7.<\/p>\n

The play explores the lives of two prisoners who share a cell during South Africa\u2019s apartheid regime. One is soon to be released and the other is serving a life sentence. The production is directed by Gary M. English, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Dramatic Arts at UConn, who just completed a one-year sabbatical serving as artistic manager of The Freedom Theatre, and features actors from the Jenin refugee camp.<\/p>\n

The U.S. tour \u2013 which will also head to Brown University in Providence, R.I., Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and New York City \u2013 will be an English-language production of the original Fugard play. The performance in the West Bank was an Arabic translation of the play.<\/p>\n

\u201cFugard is a brilliant playwright and part of his brilliance is what he chooses to be specific about,\u201d says English. \u201cEven in the original play, while it\u2019s generally known that \u201cThe Island\u201d refers to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison, they never speak of Robben Island specifically. Part of that is the idea of the island as an existential place, a psychological space, a point of isolation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Freedom<\/a>
Freedom Theatre\u2019s production of The Island, by Athol Fugard, opens a tour of the U.S. at the Nafe Katter Theatre on Sept. 6. (Mohammed Moawiya for UConn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The two Palestinian actors say the core story told in \u201cThe Island\u201d is likely familiar to some residents of the Jenin community who have been imprisoned as a result of the conflict over disputed territories or have had a family member in prison.<\/p>\n

The actors are both graduates of The Freedom Theatre\u2019s Acting School, and have toured Europe with various Freedom Theatre productions. After the original performances in Jenin, the Freedom Theatre performed the play in Sweden.<\/p>\n

English says taking the Freedom Theatre productions on tour provides a challenge for the acting company.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerforming in the English language is a tremendous and wonderful challenge for them,\u201d he says, adding that it also changes the nature of how the Freedom Theatre production is perceived, not just as Arabic theater, but as \u201cPalestinian theater that reaches out through another cultural window.\u201d<\/p>\n

The actors say they hope their performances in the United States will provide a better understanding of what is happening in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we\u2019re done here, we want people to visit us in Palestine,\u201d says Ahmad Alrakh.<\/p>\n

Adds Faisal Abu Alhayjaa: \u201cI grew up in the Jenin refugee camp. It\u2019s 17,000 people living in one kilometer square. \u2026 What I want as an artist is to take this experience with the Freedom Theatre and give it to the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information, go to the Connecticut Repertory Theatre website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The play, written in the context of South Africa’s apartheid era, explores the experience of imprisonment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":83007,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-83180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 04:32:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83180"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107141,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83180\/revisions\/107141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/83007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83180"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=83180"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=83180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}