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Silk Road Theatre Project ' Precious Stones' about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict By Emily Salner |
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| "Precious Stones," a play about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, was performed last week in Davis Auditorium. The play is written by Jamil Khoury who is co-founder of the Silk Road Theatre Project, a company dedicated to sponsoring playwrights of Asian, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean backgrounds. Khoury is an Arab American, whose father is from Syria and whose mother is from Poland. "Precious Stones" is set in 1989 in Chicago. During this time, Khoury was in Jerusalem working for the United Nations as a human rights monitor for the Palestinian refugees. The play is about two women, one an American Jew, played by Heather Graff, whose parents are Holocaust survivors from Poland and the other is a Palestinian from Beirut, played by Maja Wampuszyc, whose relatives were kicked out of Israel when the Jews came to settle there. The women meet when Andrea, the Jewish woman, who works for the Jewish Council, wants to start a dialogue with a group of women from both the Jewish and Arab communities. Leila and Andrea meet and start a discussion about the politics surrounding Israel/Palestine. They both give their opinions about how things happened and what should be done to solve the problem. Andrea is a progressive Zionist who supports the making of two states, one for Israelis and one for Palestinians, while Leila is a nationalist who would like to see one state for both groups of people. Even though Andrea and Leila already have enough differences between them, there is still more to this culture clash. Andrea is a lesbian who fights for gay rights and struggles every month to make rent. Leila, a closet lesbian, married to a gay man, is in the upper class because she inherited money from her parents and is also supported by her husband. As anyone can see class differences, political and cultural standpoints and sexual politics are the main themes of the play. Besides the two main characters, Andrea and Leila, there are also four secondary characters. These characters are also played by the women playing Andrea and Leila. Graff plays Leila's husband, Samir, and Leila's cousin, Bassima. Wampuszyc plays Andrea's boss, Esther, and Andrea's roommate, Rachel.
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