RAMALLAH, September 6 (JMCC) - More then 150 US actors, directors and other artists have signed a letter of support for Israeli actors refusing to work in a new theater in the settlement of
Ariel. The text of the letter reads:
On August 27th, dozens of Israeli actors, directors, and playwrights made the brave decision not to perform in Ariel, one of the largest of the West Bank settlements, which by all standards of international law are clearly illegal. As American actors, directors, critics and playwrights, we salute our Israeli counterparts for their courageous decision.
Most of us are involved in daily compromises with wrongful acts. When a group of people suddenly have the clarity of mind to see that the next compromise looming up before them is an unbearable one -- and when they somehow find the strength to refuse to cross that line -- we can't help but be overjoyed and inspired and grateful.
It's thrilling to think that these Israeli theatre artists have refused to allow their work to be used to normalize a cruel occupation which they know to be wrong, which violates international law and which is impeding the hope for a just and lasting peace for Israelis an Palestinians alike. They've made a wonderful decision, and they deserve the respect of people everywhere who dream of justice. We stand with them.
*Statement organizers and signatories represent a wide range of political opinions and perspectives, but have come together for the sole purpose of making a joint statement on this one critical issue.
**All identifications and affiliations are for identification purposes only and do not imply endorsements by any institutions
Signatories:
Vanessa Redgrave
actress
The only British actress to ever have won the Oscar, Emmy, Tony, Canes, Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild awards; Mission: Impossible, Mary Queen of Scots, Atonement.
Cynthia Nixon
Actress
Portrayed Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City; Emmy, Tony and Grammy Award-winning actress
Ed Asner
Actor
8 time Emmy award Winner (more than any other male actor); Former president Screen Actors Guild, lead voice in Pixar's Up, Mary Tyler Moore
Tony Kushner
Playwright; Screenwriter;
Pulitzer Prize winner for Angels in America; Tony Award winner; Emmy Award winner; Drama Desk Award winner; Was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award; Co-author of Munich
Theodore Bikel
Actor, Folk Singer, Musician
Co-founder of the Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv; president of the Associated Actors and Artistes of America; Academy Award nominee; Tony Award nominee; actor in film, TV and theater; vocalist
Jennifer Tilly
Actress
Portrayed Olive Neal in Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway, Fabulous Baker Boys, Liar Liar, Bound; Academy Award Nominee
Miriam Margolyes
Actor
Portrayed Professor Sprout in Harry Potter; BAFTA Winner
Harold Prince
Director, Producer,
21 Tony Awards winner (Pajama Game, Cabaret, West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, Evita, Phantom of the Opera), National Medal of the Arts Recipient
Mandy Patinkin
Actor, Vocalist
Actor in Yentl, the Princess Bride (portrayed Inigo Montoya), Sunday in the Park with George; Vocalist, (Mamaloshen), Tony Award winner
Wallace Shawn
Actor, Playwright, Translator
Actor in Princess Bride (portrayed Vizzini) My Dinner With Andre, Vanya on 42nd St; playwright of The Fever, The Designated Mourner; translator of Three Penny Opera by Bertoldt Brecht
James Schamus
Producer, Screenwriter, Film Historian
BAFTA Award Winner; producer of Brokeback Mountain, co-writer and producer of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, The Ice Storm, Eat Drink Man Woman, Academy Award nominee, CEO Focus Features
Eve Ensler
Playwright, preformer
The Vagina Monologues; Obie Award winner; Guggenheim Fellowship
Liz Diamond
Scholar
Chair, Directing Dept., Yale School of Drama
Andre Gregory
Actor
My Dinner With Andre
Lynn Nottage
Playwright
Winner of 2009 Pulitzer Prize; winner of 2007 MacArthur Genius Award
Sheldon Harnick
Lyricist
Pulitzer Prize Winner, Fiddler on the Roof, Tony Award Winner
Paula Vogel
Playwright, Scholar
Pulitzer Prize Winner, Eugene O'Neill Chair, Playwriting Department -Yale School of Drama
Bill Irwin
Actor, Mime, Choreographer
Winner two Tony Awards ;Winner of the National Endowment for the Arts Choreographer's Fellowship; Guggenheim, Fulbright and MacArthur Fellowships
David Adjmi
Playwright
Steinberg Playwright Award, the Bush Artists Fellowship, and the Kesselring Fellowship for Drama, named in the New Yorker as up and coming playwrigh t
Najla Said
Actor, Playwright
Daughter of Edward Said; “Palestine,” Her one-woman Off Broadway play is a coming-of-age story about Ms. Said’s journey to become an Arab-American on her own terms.
Bruce Allardice
Managing Director
Ping Chong & Co.
Philip Arnoult
Director, Center for International Theatre Development (CITD)
Anthony Arnove
Author and Editor
Co-Directed (with Howard Zinn and Chris Moore) and Executive Produced The People Speak (film)
Caron Atlas
Cultural Organizer and Consultant
Founding director of the American Festival Project, a national coalition of activist artists (http://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/bios/staff/15/Caron_Atlas)
Arthur Aviles
Artistic Director
Artistic Director, The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Arthur Aviles Typical Theatre
David Barlow
Actor, Writer, Performance Artist
Laura Barnett
Theater Educator, Performance Artist, Director
George Bartenieff
Actor
Obie Award Winner
Mark Barton
Lighting Designer
John Bell
Director
Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, Puppeteer, Scholar, Great Small Works.
Melia Bensussen
Director
Obie Award Winning Director; Chair of Emerson College Department of Performing Arts
Eric Bentley
Theatre scholar, critic, author, playwright, editor and translator
Theodore S. Berger
Executive Director of the New York Foundation for the Arts for thirty years
Susan Bernfield
Artistic Director, New Georges
Philip Bither
Senior curator, Walker Arts Center
James Bundy
Dean, Yale School of Drama; Artistic Director, Yale Repertory Theatre
Kathleen Chalfant
Actor
Obie Award Winner, Drama Desk Winner, Tony Award Nominee
Linda Chapman
Associate Artistic Director, New York Theatre Workshop
Rachel Chavkin
Director; Founder and Artistic director of the TEAM (the Theater of the Emerging American Moment)
Trudi Cohen
Puppeteer, Theater Artist
Great Small Works
Kia Corthron
Playwright
Jorge Ignacio Corti?as
Playwright
Clare Coss
Playwright
Alex Courtney
Stage, Film and Television Actor
Tim Cusack
Artistic Director, Theatre Askew
Savitri D.
Director
The Church of Life After Shopping
Matthew Dellapina
Actor
Ivor Dembina
Comedian
David J. Diamond
theatre consultant, producer and career coach for theatre artists
Elin Diamond
Critic, Scholar
Sally Eberhardt
Theatres Against War (THAW)
Edward Einhorn
Director, Playwright, Novelist, Executive Director of the Association of Jewish Theatre
Deborah Eisenberg
Playwright, Author, Actor, MacArthur Fellow
John Clinton Eisner
Artistic Director, Lark Play Development Center
Oskar Eustis
Artistic Director, The Public Theater
Bertie Ferdman, Ph.D.
Artistic Director, ExPgirl; Theatre Artist, Curator, Producer, Educator
Corey Fischer
Actor, Playwright
Playwright of See Under: Love; co-founder of the Traveling Jewish Theater,(now the Jewish Theater San Francisco)
Elinor Fuchs
Critic; Scholar, Yale School of Drama
Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros
Playwright
2004 finalist, Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Adam Greenfield
Director of New Play Development, Playwright Horizons
David Greenspan
Actor, Award-Winning Playwright
Kathryn Grody
Actor; Writer
Obie Award Winner
Jason Grote
Playwright, Screenwriter
Del Hamilton
co-Founder and Artistic Director, 7 Stages
Karen Hartman
Playwright
David Herskovits
Founder and Artistic Director, Target Margin Theater
Joan Holden
Award-Winning Playwright
Jeffrey Horowitz
Founder and Artistic Director, Theater for a New Audience
Advisory Board of The Shakespeare Society and Artistic Directorate of London’s Globe Theatre, Artistic Advisor to the Shakespeare Globe Centre (USA).
Holly Hughes
Performance Artist, Guggenheim Fellow
One of the NEA 4, whose funding was vetoed for gay content
Birgit Huppuch
Actor
Julia Jarcho
Playwright, Director, Performer
Morgan Jenness
Dramaturge
John Jesurun
Writer, Director, Multi-Media Artist
Jeffrey M. Jones
Playwright, Curator -
Little Theatre @ Dixon Place, Pataphysics @ The Flea
Melanie Joseph
Artistic Producer
The Foundry Theatre
Chris Kam
Independent Producer
Stephen Kaplin
Puppeteer, Theater Designer/Performer
Great Small Works and Chinese Theatre Works
Melissa Kievman
Director
Josh Kornbluth
Monologist
Aaron Landsman
Independent Artist
Paul Lazar
Co-Artistic Director Big Dance Theater
Herbert Leibowitz
Writer and Editor
Maxinne Rhea Leighton
Author
Robert H. Leonard
Director, Professor, Department of Theatre Arts, Virginia Tech
Gideon Lester
Dramaturge and Curator
Former associate artistic director, American Repertory Theatre; former Acting Artistic Director, American Repertory Theatre
Roberta Levitow
Co-Founder, Theatre Without Borders
Irene Lewis
Artistic Director
Center Stage, Baltimore, Maryland
Ethan Lipton
Playwright
Casey Llewellyn
Theater Artist
Quincy Long
Playwright
John Carroll Lynch
Actor
Kirk Lynn
Co-Producing Artistic Director
Rude Mechs, Austin, TX
Matthew Maguire
Co-Artistic Director, Creation Production Company
Matthew Maher
Actor
Judith Malina
Actor Director
Founder and Artistic Director, The Living Theatre
Karen Malpede
Playwright, Theater Three Collaborative
Nina Mankin
Dramaturge, Writer
Emily Mann
Artistic Director/Playwright
McCarter Theatre Center, Princeton, NJ
Deborah Margolin
Playwright, Actor, Scholar
Vijay Mathew
Co-Director, American Voices New Play Institute
Marin Mazzie
Actress, Singer
Ellen McLaughlin
Playwright; Actor
Erin Mee
Director, Scholar
Swarthmore theater arts professor
Greg Mehrten
Actor, Director, Writer
David Michalek
Artist, Photographer
Visiting Faculty Member - Yale Divinity School
Tyler Micoleau
Lighting Designer
Tim Miller
Performance Artist
One of the NEA 4, whose funding was vetoed for gay content
Jennifer Miller
Performance Artist, director
Founder and Artistic Director of Circus Amok
Steve Moore
Artistic Director
Physical Plant Theater
Susan Mosakowski
Playwright
Co-Artistic Director Creation Production Company
David Moscow
Actor
Erika Munk
Critic, Professor
Yale School of Drama, theater critic
Tom Nelis
Actor
Jim Nicola
Artistic Director
New York Theatre Workshop
Annie-B Parson
Director
Co-Founder, Artistic director Big Dance Theater, NYFA and Guggenheim Fellow
Sally Ann Parsons
Costumer, Craftsman, Designer
Shailja Patel
Sundance Theatre Fellow 2010
Katie Pearl
Director
Sybille Pearson
Playwright
Rockefeller Playwrights Fellowship; founding member of The Playwrights Circle at The New York Theatre Workshop; an Artistic Resident at the Vineyard Theater
Ralph Pena
Artistic Director, Ma Yi Theater
Carla Peterson
Director
Artistic Director, Dance Theater Workshop
Brian Pickett
Theater Artist and Educator
Member Steering Committee - Theaters Against War (THAW)
Catherine Porter
Director
Co-Artistic Director Peculiar Works Project, Obie Award Winner
Ruth Reichl
writer; PBS Television host
former restaurant critic, NYTimes, former editor in chief, Gourmet magazine, PBS television series host, memoirist
Reno
Comedian
Gordon Rogoff
Theater Critic; Director; Professor of Theater
Yale School of Drama; Obie Award Winner
Jenny Romaine
Puppeteer, Theater Artist
Great Small Works
Avital Ronell
Writer, Academic, Literary Critic
Ken Rus Schmoll
Director
Brian H. Scott
Theatrical Designer
Regine Anna Seckinger, Ph.D.
Advisory Board Member, Rude Mechanicals, Austin, TX
Jamil Shamasdin
Actor
Peggy Shaw
Performance Artist, Actor, Playwright
Christopher Shinn
Playwright,
Obie Award Winner, Guggenheim Fellow
Sarah Schulman
Novelist; Playwright
Jeanmarie Simpson
Theatre/Film Artist
Michael Singer
Television News Producer
Former producer, CBS News
Alisa Solomon
Theater Critic
Director of Arts Concentration, School of Journalism, Columbia
Bonnie Stein
Performing Arts Administrator, Manager, Project Producer and Coordinator, Executive Director
GOH Productions
Kris Stone
Stage Designer
Mark Sussman
Scholar, Puppeteer Director.
Great Small Works; Concordia University
Caridad Svich
Playwright, Songwriter, Translator, Editor
Bill Talen
Director
The Church of Life After Shopping
Kathleen Tolan
Playwright, Actor
Basil Twist
Puppeteer
Obie Award Winner
Charlie Varon
Playwright, Performer
Naomi Wallace
Playwright, Screenwriter
Anne Washburn
Playwright
Guggenheim Fellow
Donya K. Washington
Director
Stephen Webber
Actor
Brenda Wehle
Actor
Mac Wellman
Playwright, Author, Poet, Scholar
Donald I. Fine Professor of Play writing at Brooklyn College
Anabelle Winograd
Writer, Critic, Educator
Eunice Wong
Actor
Kristina Wong
Solo Performer and Writer.
Recipient of awards from Creative Capital, MAPFUND, two Creation Funds from the National Performance Network, three grants from the Center for Cultural Innovation, three Durfee ARC Grants, and four Artist-in-Residence Awards from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. Had also received residencies from the MacDowell Colony, Atlantic Center for the Arts and the Hermitage in Englewood, FL.
Susan Yankowitz
Award-Winning Playwright and Librettist
David Zellnick
Playwright, Screenwriter, Lyricist