The New School Presents NEITHER HEAVEN NOR EARTH 6/11

On June 11, 2010, PoliglotTheater will present the controversial new play Neither Heaven Nor Earth. In the fall of 2008, director-playwrights Gabriella Pinto and John Hansen-Brevetti spent three months in Israel and the West Bank conducting interviews. They lived under military occupation in the West Bank city of Nablus, serving as volunteers with Project HOPE, teaching English and drama to Palestinian students in the surrounding refugee camps.

The directors then traveled throughout Israel, conducting interviews in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Sderot. By the end of their stay, they had interviewed over 50 students, soldiers, humanitarian workers, political activists, community leaders, settlers, rabbis, policemen, politicians, taxi drivers - Israelis and Palestinians from across the ideological spectrum - collecting over 130,000 words of transcripts.

The result of their experiences is Neither Heaven Nor Earth, a groundbreaking new documentary play bringing voices from both sides of the Separation Barrier to New York theater audiences for the first time. The production features an international 21-person cast, hailing from the United States, Belgium, Hungary, Spain, Turkey, Bosnia and the Arab world.

The ensemble spins several plotlines out of the demolition of a Palestinian home in the West Bank, introducing the audience to a variety of characters from a range of backgrounds and views. The subject matter is divisive and controversial, and Pinto and Hansen-Brevetti have already received threats of harassment for merely holding auditions and presenting excerpts.

TICKETS: $40 Adult $20 Student
www.poliglottheater.org
LOCATION: The New School for Drama 151 Bank Street, NY, NY
CALENDAR: June 11-12, 17-19, 24-26
Thursdays 7pm, Fri-Sat 8pm

POLIGLOTTHEATER

PoliglotTheater is a New York-based company dedicated to the use of interdisciplinary theater to advocate social and political change. We travel to areas of conflict or crisis and conduct extensive interviews and research, while also engaging in hands-on relief work. The interviews and film we gather then provide the raw materials for new multimedia theatrical works that layer text with movement, music and projection. We strive to create work that is both artistically progressive and intellectually challenging, and that serves to raise American awareness of injustice and humanitarian need around the world.