Bridging Performance and Politics
September 9, 2013鈥擜ccording to Professor of Theater and Performance Studies , the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics (the Lab) connects the arts and policy communities, 鈥渃reating a space for experimentation and risk-taking, for artists and thinkers.鈥�
This month, the Lab will host Freedom Theatre, a cultural and theater center in the Jenin Refugee Camp in Palestine, during the group鈥檚 first U.S. tour. Freedom Theatre will perform The Island by South African playwrights Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona from September 16鈥�17, 2013, at the Davis Performing Arts Center. Set in a prison, The Island follows two prisoners as they endure painstaking physical labor during the day and rehearse a performance of Sophocles鈥� Antigone at night.
鈥淣ow, for the first time, American and Georgetown audiences will see a performance by this groundbreaking company as it brings to light current issues in Palestine through a moving narrative based on South Africa鈥檚 anti-apartheid struggle,鈥� , distinguished professor in the practice of diplomacy and former U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands, said.
Ambassador Schneider and Goldman, who is also the artistic director of the Davis Performing Arts Center, founded the Lab in 2013 to bring artists and policymakers together. 鈥淲e wanted to create a space at Georgetown鈥攂oth for students and for the larger Washington, DC, community鈥攖o look at and learn from the ways that theater and performance are engaging, and in some ways making progress on, pressing international issues,鈥� Schneider explained.
A collaboration between the and the , the Lab connects policymakers to work often unknown outside of the arts community. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of amazing work that鈥檚 happening in corners of the world that engage politics in complicated ways,鈥� Goldman said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e looking to bring artists whose work we revere and value,鈥� he continued.
After each performance of The Island, the Lab will host panels with policymakers, including Khaled Elgindy, a fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, and Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland. Goldman intends these discussions not as 鈥渁 room full of people who more or less agree and are shifting through nuanced differences,鈥� but as an opportunity to challenge individuals鈥� perceptions about international issues.
鈥淸When] theater can really open up new ways of thinking and understanding鈥攖hrough empathy, communal connection, and the things that theater can be uniquely powerful at doing鈥攖hen we鈥檙e on to something,鈥� Goldman explained. 鈥淭hen people from the arts and policy worlds are being forced to think and feel in ways that are new to them鈥攖hat deepen or complicate their relationship to their own work,鈥� he said.
According to Ambassador Schneider, the discussions after Freedom Theatre鈥檚 performances represent an important element of cultural diplomacy. 鈥淚 think of culture as a way to understand what is going on in a country as intake and not as output, but as a prism to look through to understand what鈥檚 going on. This is particularly important in countries where the government does not really represent the people,鈥� she explained.
Schneider need only point to the first world tour of The Island to show the power and importance of culture in global politics. 鈥淭hose plays are what told the world what apartheid was. The South African government was foolish enough to allow [the play to tour], thinking, as some governments do, 鈥業t鈥檚 theater how much harm can it do,鈥欌�� Ambassador Schneider explained.
鈥淚t was absolutely devastating to the South African government. Those narratives and those stories showed what life was like for black people under the apartheid regime.鈥�
Freedom Theatre鈥檚 adaption of The Island will highlight the parallels between South Africa under apartheid and Palestine. 鈥淸That idea] is one that is provocative in our community,鈥� Goldman said. 鈥淏ut we know it鈥檚 being explored by world-class artists in a rich way.鈥�