Palestinian Studies

Book Talk | Samer al Saber | A Movement’s Promise: The Making of Palestinian Theater

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Thursday, April 3, 2025

5:00 - 6:30 p.m.

Ashamu Dance Studio, 83 Waterman St, Providence, RI 02912

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Join the Brown Arts Institute, Department of Theatre Arts & Performance Studies, and New Directions in Palestinian Studies at the Center for Middle East Studies at Brown University for a book talk by Palestinian playwright, director, and scholar, Samer al Saber.

About the Book

Starting in the 1970s, Palestinian theater flourished as part of a Palestinian cultural spring. In the absence of local radio, television, and uncensored journalism, theater production became the leading form of artistic expression, and Palestinian theater artists self-identified as a movement. Although resistance was not their sole function, these theater makers contributed to an active cultural resistance front. With this book, Samer Al-Saber tells the story of the Palestinian Theater Movement over nearly three decades, as they created plays and productions that articulated versions of Palestinian identity, critiqued social norms, celebrated and extended Palestinian cultural values, and challenged the power disparity created by the Occupation.

The struggles between Palestinian theater artists and Israeli authorities form the central relationships in this history. Al-Saber juxtaposes the agency of Palestinian theater artists, in their determination to perform against immense challenges, with the power of Israeli authorities to grant or deny permission to theatrical productions. The legal structure of institutionalized censorship prevented Palestinian artists from expressing their chosen message, and the theater movement's search for permission to perform illuminates the disparity in power between the occupier and the occupied. In writing the first history of the Palestinian Theater Movement, Al-Saber amplifies necessary voices in this Palestinian cultural history, told from below.

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About the Author

Samer Al-Saber is a scholar, director, playwright, and Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre at Williams College. He joined Williams after serving for over a decade at the Department of Theater and Performance Studies at Stanford University, the School of Theater at Florida State University, and the Theater Department at Davidson College. He received the Walter J Gores Award at Stanford and the Undergraduate Teaching Award at Florida State University, the most prestigious teaching award at both institutions. 

Samer's scholarly work has appeared in Theatre Research International, Performance Paradigm, Critical Survey, Theatre Survey, Jadaliyya, Counterpunch, This Week In Palestine, and various edited volumes, such as Palgrave’s Performing For Survival, Edinburgh Press’ Being Palestinian, and Routlege's Troubling Traditions. Samer is co-editor of the anthology Stories Under Occupation and Other Plays from Palestine (Seagull Press/University of Chicago Press) and editor of To The Good People of Gaza (Bloomsbury Press). He also co-edited the just-released Arab, Performance, and Politics by Routledge (2024). 

Directing credits include Betty Shamieh's As Soon As Impossible, Hasan Abdelrazzak’s The Prophet, Arthur Milner’s Facts, and a Palestinian adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (in Arabic). As a playwright, most recently in 2023, he wrote and directed Decolonizing Sarah for Chicago’s Uprising Theater. He recently directed Ghassan Kanafani’s Returning To Haifa for Golden Thread Productions in San Francisco, an adaptation by Ismail Khalidi and Naomi Wallace, and a widely acclaimed sold-out production. Look out for his acting and writing turn in the short film Barja'lak, which is in festivals throughout 2025.