In 1994, Jackie Lubeck and Jan Willems founded the youth theatre company Theatre Day Productions. Their programme aimed at bringing theatre, drama, and creativity to Palestinian school students and began in the Gaza Strip. As they watched everyone and everything they knew being blown to bits, Jackie found herself lost with words, so she started to paint. Gaza Watercolors is Jackie’s response to the ongoing genocide and includes paintings of the first three months of the war. This evening, we will talk with her and other artists and supporters about the role of arts in times of genocide. The evening will be accompanied by music from Naseem Mgeer, along with Arabic coffee and storytelling by Alaa Shehada.
About the speakers
Jackie Lubeck has been living in Palestine since 1972 where she became engaged with the new and growing El Hakawati Theatre Company, one of the most important theatre companies in Palestine. From 1995 until now – along with her artistic partner Jan Willems – she developed the youth theatre company Theatre Day Productions, bringing theatre and drama to the school children in the West Bank and Gaza. In Gaza, the company is working through the war, partnering with aid organisations, and continuing to offer space for a free voice to all people.
Jan Willems lived in Palestine for 30 years where he designed and implemented the method that drives Theatre Day Productions. He became familiar with the Palestinian struggle during his activist work in the 1970s. He studied in Nijmegen and Utrecht and has degrees in both theatre and mass communications.
Alaa Shehada is the co-founder and director of the Palestine Comedy Club, based in London. He is an actor and comedian from Jenin in the Westbank, where he discovered and graduated from the Freedom Theatre. He works as a doctor-clown for the Rednoses International and is a mask player with the Troupe Courage in Amsterdam.
Naseem Mgeer is a musician from Jenin, who studied music at the BirZeit University, that defines itself as ‘a thorn in the side of the occupation, insisting on playing its role of enlightenment and creating a multicultural Palestinian society on the campus grounds’.
