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Children's Play
Leads To Peace
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120
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1991
NECHEMIA MEYERS
Special to the Jewish News
eace Child, a musical
presented by young-
sters from Kibbutz
Maayan Zvi and the Arab
village of Faradis, is extraor-
dinarily naive.
It is based on the premise
that Jewish and Palestinian
children, working together,
can force the leaders of their
respective peoples to talk
peace and, sooner or later, to
make peace.
One thing for sure, the per-
formance — and the two years
spent preparing it — created
bonds between the children of
Maayan Zvi and Faradis that
had not existed before. For
even though they live only a
couple of miles apart, just
south of Haifa, it was only
through this common
endeavor that they became
acquainted with one another.
Peace Child did not
originate in Israel. It evolved,
over a decade ago, from Peace
Book by Englishman Bernard
Benson, which was turned in-
to a play by David
Woollcombe of the BBC. Then
music was added by another
Englishman, composer David
Gordon.
In its original version, Peace
Child featured youngsters
from the U.S. and the USSR
who banded together to pre-
vent the outbreak of a nuclear
war between the two super-
powers. The Lathrup Village
(Mich.) Youth Theatre produc-
ed Peace Child in July 1989.
Later versions were
adapted to the situations
prevailing in various strife-
torn corners of the world.
Thus when Peace Child was
produced in Belfast, the pro-
tagonists were Protestant and
Catholic youngsters.
The musical was brought to
this country by Yael Drouyan-
off, a veteran Israeli actress
and peace activist, who call-
ed in Hanan Peled, a well-
known playwright and script-
writer, to prepare a heavily
revised Israeli version.
Each Israeli production of
Peace Child and the one I saw
last week was the fourth —
came about because a par-
ticular drama coach became
excited about the idea. At
Maayan Zvi it was Efrat Gal,
who then convinced both her
fellow kibbutzniks and the
people of Faradis to support
the project.
Working together with Hal-
ed Muasi, principal of the
Faradis Primary School, and
Edat Abed El Hamid, an
p
English teacher in the school,
she organized a weekly
drama group of kids from
Maayan Zvi and Faradis that
met alternately in the two
communities. The first stage,
which took a year, was for-
mally devoted to learning
theater techniques, but, in
fact, its main purpose was to
allow the youngsters from
both places to become ac-
quainted with one another.
Also, since the play is bil
ingual, the boys and girl from
Faradis spent a lot of time
and effort polishing up their
Hebrew, while those from
Maayan Zvi learned a
modicum of Arabic.
Only during the second
year did Efrat begin working
with her charges on the
musical itself. This was not
Its main purpose
was to allow the
youngsters from
both places to
become
acquainted with
one another.
easy against the background
of the intifada and the Gulf
War, but she and her col-
leagues at Faradis managed
to hold the group together
even when there was a spate
of stabbings and Scuds.
Peace Child was to have
been presented at both
Maayan Zvi and Faradis, but
it couldn't be put on at the
Arab village for lack of
facilities. So the poeple of
Faradis — the men in Western
clothes and the women in
traditional Moslem dresses
and head coverings — came to
see it • in the kibbutz
auditorium.
They may not have under-
stood every word, particular-
ly in the Hebrew parts, but
they clearly enjoyed the
musical, as did the Jews in
the audience. But the most
enthusiastic people involved
were the kids themselves.
Moran of Maayan Zvi, for ex-
ample, said it freed her of the
prejudices she had about
Arabs. Lubna, a girl from
Faradis, said essentially the
same thing, that the ex-
perience "had completely
changed her ideas about
Jews."
And Amar, a boy from
Faradis, clearly spoke for
youngsters from both com-
munities when he declared:
"I only hope that what we
learned about peace becomes
a reality."
❑