The Journey
In early October 2000, Palestinians throughout the West Bank, Gaza and inside Israel staged mass demonstrations to protest Israel’s occupation and repressive violence, marking the beginning of the Second Intifada. During these demonstrations, Israeli forces killed 13 Palestinians inside Israel and 49 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Hundreds more were injured. One of those murdered was a seventeen-year peace activist, Asel Asleh. Playwright Jen Marlowe (who was a friend of Asel’s) reached out to Asel’s sister, Nardin, to ask if she would be interested in collaborating together on a play in order to amplify Asel’s story and the injustices he and his family faced. Jen began interviewing Nardin, a process which continued for nearly 15 years and became the heart of There Is A Field, woven between interviews with Asel’s other family members, email exchanges that Asel left behind, and transcripts from the Israeli government’s commission of inquiry investigating the October 2000 killings. There Is A Field, has seen multiple iterations over the years:
Israeli forces murdered 13 Palestinians inside Israel (including Asel Asleh) during the the first week of October 2000. Another 49 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza were also killed during the same period.
2010 Global Theatrical Action
Donkeysaddle Projects (DSP--the organization Jen Marlowe founded) called on theatre companies, artists, and activists worldwide to remember the ten-year anniversary of the October 2000 events with global performances, staged readings and "living room readings" of an early version of the play. This “Global Theatrical Action” occurred in October 2010 across 40 cities in 18 countries, on six continents.
2016 University Tour to commemorate the 40-year anniversary of Land Day
In preparation for a university tour of the play, Marlowe dove back into script development during the summer of 2014. As she re-immersed herself in the details of her young friend’s murder, 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed in Ferguson, MO. As the Ferguson uprising erupted in response, Jen could not help but notice the parallels to Asel’s story. Plans developed for a 20-university tour across ten states -- four of which were Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The final performance took place in St. Louis, a special event for those who had been part of the Ferguson uprising. Themes of state violence and structural inequality resonated so strongly with the HBCU and Ferguson audiences, and it felt clear to Jen and the DSP team that the next iteration of There Is A Field needed to examine these connections more deeply--spurring the development of the There Is A Field Residency Program.
2017/2018 Residency Program
Partnering with activists and organizations in the Movement for Black Lives, DSP facilitated a series of intensive theatre-based community residencies, using There Is A Field as a framework for political education, Black-Palestinian solidarity, and movement building. Participants rehearsed a Performance-Reading of There Is A Field, alongside engaging in workshops to learn about Palestine/Israel, explore how injustices there are connected to injustices experienced in the US, and nurture joint visions of liberation. The process culminated with activists performing There Is A Field for their broader community.
2018 partnership with GildaPapoose Collective & Black Mama Bail-Out Fund
DSP was honored to partner with the GildaPapoose Collective on a year-long community effort to fundraise for the Black Mama Bail Out Fund with staged readings of “There Is A Field” across D.C. Following the bail out of six local mothers from funds raised by these readings, several of the women joined the GildaPapoose Collective’s theater fellowship, engaging in performance-based education to highlight the impacts of racism, state violence, and mass incarceration on Palestinian and Black communities. The project culminated with The Kennedy Center’s 17th Annual Page-to-Stage festival in September 2018 with a staged reading of There Is A Field, led by three formerly incarcerated women.
2019 Zimbabwe production
In 2019, Zimbabwean director Tafadzwa Bob Mutumbi mounted There Is A Field in Harare. The production fused traditional Zimbabwean music and dance, and was intended to reflect on Zimbabwe security forces’ brutality and the national healing discourse.
2020 Documentary Film
In the summer of 2018, DSP invited a select number of prior residency participants to travel to Peñasco, NM to film a Performance-Reading of There Is A Field, as well as engage in deeper discussions about the connections between different experiences of oppression, resistance, and the movements towards liberation. This experience became the basis for the current documentary film.