Los Angeles Theatre, Let’s Talk About Palestine

To the Los Angeles theatre community, I love you and I adore you. I’ve been part of you for the past 15 years and despite the many challenges I have come across when it comes to meaningful representation and opportunities, I will always cherish the countless memories we have experienced and will continue to experience together as an artist and as a critic. But I think it’s time we desperately need to talk about the one subject that you have been avoiding for so long — Palestine.

It may be unfair why I’m singling you out when the subject of Palestine still gets outrageous condemnations or at best, uncomfortable strained whispers from particularly the western world and mainstream media/companies/corporations. IndieWire writer David Ehrlich did an incredible op-ed article about the film industry’s cowardice on Palestine and in that same vein, I wish to turn the magnifying glass on our theatre community.

I do believe that our theatre community, at least here in the United States, has had more examples of courage and bravery than the Hollywood film industry (although Watermelon Pictures is shaking things up by making it a mission to distribute Palestinian films), when it comes to platforming Palestinian playwrights and stories, whether it be in Chicago with the world premiere of Sadieh Rifai’s The Cave at A Red Orchid Theatre, Montreal with Dalia Taha’s Keffiyeh/Made in China at Teesri Duniya Theatre, or Golden Thread Productions in San Francisco who dedicated their entire 2024 season to Palestine.

Mind you, these kind of stories that get full productions can be counted at best with two hands throughout the United States in the past few years while there are definitely many more examples of solo performances that have more flexibility and less red tape to tell Palestinian stories or those that are critical of Zionism and Israel.

I bring up all of this because there is still a prevalent belief that if a theatre production puts up a Palestinian story, audience members will be hesitant to watch it, let alone be willing to talk about it with others. At worst, the charges of antisemitism and terrorism will be brought upon the theatre company for even putting up such a production.

This is where I bring up the Hollywood Fringe Festival, a fringe theatre festival that just concluded their 15th season, and use them as a pivotal example that this is certainly not the case in both the audience demand and a L.A. theatre company having the courage to platform such stories.

This year’s best solo performance award winner went to QFWFQ, which was written/performed by Gregory Nussen and directed by Hannah Pilkes. Last year’s winner was Handala, which was written/performed by Myriam Ali-Ahmad and co-directed by Becca Khalil and Mahmoud AboBaker. What do both of these shows have in common? Other than being excellent shows on their own merits, they both directly deal with the subjects of Palestine, Israel, and Zionism right in the face and do not shy away from the issues addressing the fact that yes, there is indeed ethnic cleansing and a genocide happening in Palestine and yes, there is an ongoing apartheid inflicted upon the Palestinian people by Israel for over 76 years which was made possible by Zionism. Both shows were resoundingly voted as nominees by audience members and out of those nominees, these shows received the most votes.

This shows that audience members very much want these stories. They in fact want them very much as QFWFQ sold out their entire run and their encore show and the demand for the show to go on has yet to cease. Handala also experienced similar resounding success and went on to perform for fringe festivals in New York and Philadelphia. But just as important is that the Hollywood Fringe Festival itself, which just experienced their largest programming ever with 400+ live shows, platforms such stories. I’m not surprised by this as the Hollywood Fringe Festival is an annual, open-access, community-derived event celebrating freedom of expression and collaboration in the performing arts community.

So it is with this being said that I address directly to you, the Los Angeles theatre community and particularly the decision makers, that it is time for the next season (which in this case would be the 2026-2027 season) to start incorporating Palestinian stories and Jewish stories that are not about the Holocaust but rather focusing on a future where one is still very much Jewish even while criticizing the Israeli government and condemning Zionism. Loyalty to Israel and Judaism are not synonymous and there needs to be more stories that showcase this.

To the Asian American theatre companies like East West Players and Artists at Play, Palestine is very much part of our ANHPI family as they are Southwest/West Asians (and NOT Middle Eastern as that term is very much a colonial term created by the British when they saw themselves as the center of the world) and thus deserve every bit of attention as the rest of the community.

To the PWI theatre companies like Geffen Playhouse, Center Theater Group, Pasadena Playhouse, and so many others, there are Jewish stories out there that remember the horrific past but forges a future where the Jewish identity can disentangle the trauma of the past from the zealous ethno-religious nationalism of a country that cannot come to terms that they are conducting a holocaust of their own on a people that have lived there for centuries.

LA theatre, I know it’s hard. It’s especially hard when our current U.S. administration weaponizes the threat of antisemitism to deport college students or dogpile Democratic NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani as a national threat simply because he criticizes the Israeli government and that he is Muslim. It’s not any better overseas as recently, the U.K. parliament deemed the activist group Palestine Action as a terrorist faction and will arrest anyone (and sentence them to prison for 14 years?!) who remotely supports it but doesn’t have the spine to condemn the actual Israeli leaders who have been charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court. And especially here in the Los Angeles community, there is a considerable Zionist presence that will balk at any Palestinian stories being told or any criticism of the Israeli apartheid & ethnic cleansing taking place, as evidenced by their aggressive efforts to delegitimize and blacklist folks who are supportive.

But it’s possible. The world, truly the entire world, has shifted to see that the Palestinian struggle is a struggle that needs to be validated and understood. There is an extraordinary amount in the Los Angeles community who see that, even if many of them are not vocal about it (yet). That also within validating this struggle is the belief that the safety of Jewish people and that of Palestinian people are not at all separate but intertwined. It is in that belief that theatre is truly the place where we see bold stories being told, to remind us that the art is the one essential gift to humankind in reflecting a harsh and honest mirror to our world. And stories about Palestine, stories about the Jewish identity breaking free from Zionism, these stories will resonate with our Los Angeles folks.

In fact, it already has.

So to my dear Los Angeles theatre community, I encourage you to take inspiration from the Hollywood Fringe Festival and tell these stories. Hire Palestinian actors, writers, directors, and creatives. Explore stories of Palestine and of Islam and bring the margins of our diverse community that continues to be demonized relentlessly into the light and show that there is more in common than what divides us.