Summer Fun Weeks – 2015

After reading a poem called “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” by Wallace Stevens, Jackie Lubeck came up with the idea of “Ten Ways to Know Us” which is a research on how Palestinian kids and drama teachers, and directors, would like to talk about Palestine from ten different points of view. Ten themes were chosen and were worked into scenes for a project of the same name (See “Ten Ways to Know Us.” For the summer games of 2015, we turned six of the scenes into plays which were shown to 150,000 school children throughout the summer. The plays are (1) “Three Birds” (2) “Snow Trip” (3) “One Thousand Questions (4) “The Boys Who Can’t Sit Still” (5) “Between the Sea and the Desert” and (6) The Boys in the Mirror

The Boys in the Mirror

Written by Jackie Lubeck
Directed by Ashraf Afifi and Hassan Al Najjar

Ahmad has stopped talking and eating. He is on his bed in front of large mirror. His mother, worried to death about the condition of her only son, has thrown everyone out of the house in hopes of curing him. As Ahmad watches himself in the mirror, he sees his reflection “disobeying” him. Soon, the two Ahmads are meeting and eating as the mother watches in confused relief that her son(s) will soon be fine. And who do you think that third boy is?

The Actors

The play was made by 3 groups of men performing simultaneously in different locations.

Group 1 – Ahmed Abu Hajjaj, Ahmed Al Banna, Mahmoud Al Belbesi, Muhanned Abu Khadra

Group 2 – Mohammed Al Khatib, Hassan Al Najjar, Mohammed Kharawat, Husam Nofel

Group 3 – Tarek Ghabayen, Mohammed Khader, Bilal Saada, Mahmoud Al Madhoun

TDP Production

Artistic Supervision and Direction – Rafat Al Aydeh, Mohammed Al Hissi & Jan Willems

Administration –Amal Abu Dawood, Rami Hijjo, Maryam Enaia, Tania Mourtaja, Doaa Abo Abdo, Rania Shawwa, Henriette Araman, Anan Terhi, & Francis Tams

Technicians – Riyad Al Akras, Ahmad Qadada, Ashraf Sirhan, & Mohsein Abu El Kheer