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