a play based
on community interviews
History
In writing this play, Dr. Victoria Rue recalled that she was not new to the subject of Palestine. In 1996 Dr. Rue adapted and directed Emily Shihadeh in the play Grapes and Figs are in Season a Palestinian Woman’s Story that subsequently toured nationally and internationally. A few years later, 9-1-1 affected the world. For Dr. Rue, she saw the increase in class size of my Abrahamic Traditions course (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) at SJSU. Many wanted/needed to learn more about Islam. At this time countless acts of violence in the U.S. directed towards Muslims (and those, like Sikhs, who were mistaken for Muslims). White Supremacy was targeting the “other,” immigrants, as well as the continuation of violence toward African Americans, and all people of color. Dr. Rue's religious studies classroom became a place to ask questions, to knock down stereotypes, to understand. At the same time, she began reading Michael Sells book Approaching the Qur’an. Through his translations of the early suras (chapters) of the Qur’an, she was struck by the Arabic sense of poetry and the compassion of Allah. Sells’ work also opened up the possibility of gender fluidity in some of the suras, especially in recounting Mohammed’s experience of the Qur’an’s revelation. For Dr. Rue, theatre is a way to explore my questions and to go deeper into learning about a subject. She use it in the classroom as a teaching tool (Acting Religious: Theatre as Pedagogy in Religious Studies 2005).
In 2005, thanks to the Sells' book , Dr. Rue created a short theatre piece that compared Mary’s Annunciation in the Christian Bible to Mohammed receiving from an angel the revelation of the Qur’an. It flowed from there to research more deeply the stories about Mary/Maryam in the Qur’an. At the same time, for many years she had the gift of Maha El Genaidi as a guest in her classroom “opening the door to Islam” for the students. Maha founded The Islamic Network Group in Santa Clara, and was also its director (she is now its Chief Innovation Officer). In the many coffees the two enjoyed together, one day in 2015, Maha asked if Dr. Rue would adapt and direct ING’s play A Halaqa-Seder: Muslim and Jewish Perspectives on the Exodus Story. This was an opportunity for Dr. Rue to enlarge her Abrahamic Traditions classroom. Some of her students acted in the play, some helped technically and many attended. It was also an opportunity to deepen her knowledge of Judaism and its connectivity to Islam.
Dr. Rue was very pleased with the dialogue created by the format of that play. Jews and Muslims sat at round tables watching the play which would start and then stop to allow people to discuss what they had just seen in the play from each of their perspectives.
The summer of 2016, Dr. Rue realized it was time for her to go to Tantur Ecumenical Institute in Jerusalem. She had never visited Israel and Tantur very clearly stated that visiting biblical sites would also include Palestine. There were dual narrative guides (Jewish Israelis and Palestinian Arabs). While she was there, she did two things that influenced her future with Palestine. Dr. Rue went to Bethlehem and stayed in Aida Refugee Camp with a family who taught cooking classes. She also reached out to Dar Al Kalima University of Arts and Culture (DAK). She gave them her book and offered to return to do workshops with their students involving religion and theatre. They graciously responded and invited her to come for two weeks in 2017 to work with their students. Her time at Tantur in Israel/Palestine and returning to teach theatre workshops at DAK (2016 & 2017), allowed her to see the conditions that Palestinians live with under Israel’s occupation that helped Dr. Rue to become an advocate for the liberation of the Palestinian people.
Back in the US, Dr. Rue wrote a new play Mary/Maryam in Christian and Islamic Traditions. A church and a mosque in Santa Cruz, CA. jointly presented the play. This time Christians and Muslims came together at tables to enjoy enacted stories of Mary/Maryam from the Christian Bible and Qur’an. Once again dialogue occurred at tables. The performance was a great success and it was subsequently done in other parts of the US. And so it was that in 2017 she applied for a Fulbright. Dr. Rue knew that the subject of Mary still fascinated her. She wanted to learn more about Maryam—in Bethlehem, Palestine. Dr. Rue was happy to be awarded a Fulbright. And Maryam: A Woman of Bethlehem was the outcome of her time there in 2018 and 2019. She taught performance studies at Dar Al Kalima University of Arts and Culture (DAK) in Bethlehem, and simultaneously interviewed thirty Palestinian Christians and Muslims, posing the initial question “who is Mary/Maryam in 21st century Bethlehem?” The Christian Mary mother of Jesus in Islam is Maryam, mother of Isa the prophet, who is deeply venerated in both communities.
All the interviews with Palestinians were conducted in English. Dr. Rue edited and then shaped them into Maryam: A Woman of Bethlehem. Her collaborator, Hind Abu Shkhadim, then translated the play into Arabic. It was performed in Arabic, with English subtitles. She also directed the play. The first performance was in Bethlehem, January 2019. Later, the play toured seven cities in Palestine that spring. Two Palestinian actresses, Waad Azzeh and Dalia Shakhtour, depicted the twenty-two characters of the play. Nadeem Abulaban and Ayham Ayesh provided musical interludes on the kanoun, oud and percussion.
Maryam: A Woman of Bethlehem “overhears” the voices of these twenty-two characters from Bethlehem who range in age from 14 to 87 years old: high school and college students, theologians, clergy and a sheik, a university dean, an iconographer of Mary, and two senior founders of a Christian Liberation Theology center among others. The Muslims were Sunni; Christians were Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic (called the Latin Patriarchate), Lutheran. In all, Christian and Muslim Palestinians offer their stories, speaking of their customs and daily lives through their experience of the iconic figure of Mary/Maryam.
In 2005, thanks to the Sells' book , Dr. Rue created a short theatre piece that compared Mary’s Annunciation in the Christian Bible to Mohammed receiving from an angel the revelation of the Qur’an. It flowed from there to research more deeply the stories about Mary/Maryam in the Qur’an. At the same time, for many years she had the gift of Maha El Genaidi as a guest in her classroom “opening the door to Islam” for the students. Maha founded The Islamic Network Group in Santa Clara, and was also its director (she is now its Chief Innovation Officer). In the many coffees the two enjoyed together, one day in 2015, Maha asked if Dr. Rue would adapt and direct ING’s play A Halaqa-Seder: Muslim and Jewish Perspectives on the Exodus Story. This was an opportunity for Dr. Rue to enlarge her Abrahamic Traditions classroom. Some of her students acted in the play, some helped technically and many attended. It was also an opportunity to deepen her knowledge of Judaism and its connectivity to Islam.
Dr. Rue was very pleased with the dialogue created by the format of that play. Jews and Muslims sat at round tables watching the play which would start and then stop to allow people to discuss what they had just seen in the play from each of their perspectives.
The summer of 2016, Dr. Rue realized it was time for her to go to Tantur Ecumenical Institute in Jerusalem. She had never visited Israel and Tantur very clearly stated that visiting biblical sites would also include Palestine. There were dual narrative guides (Jewish Israelis and Palestinian Arabs). While she was there, she did two things that influenced her future with Palestine. Dr. Rue went to Bethlehem and stayed in Aida Refugee Camp with a family who taught cooking classes. She also reached out to Dar Al Kalima University of Arts and Culture (DAK). She gave them her book and offered to return to do workshops with their students involving religion and theatre. They graciously responded and invited her to come for two weeks in 2017 to work with their students. Her time at Tantur in Israel/Palestine and returning to teach theatre workshops at DAK (2016 & 2017), allowed her to see the conditions that Palestinians live with under Israel’s occupation that helped Dr. Rue to become an advocate for the liberation of the Palestinian people.
Back in the US, Dr. Rue wrote a new play Mary/Maryam in Christian and Islamic Traditions. A church and a mosque in Santa Cruz, CA. jointly presented the play. This time Christians and Muslims came together at tables to enjoy enacted stories of Mary/Maryam from the Christian Bible and Qur’an. Once again dialogue occurred at tables. The performance was a great success and it was subsequently done in other parts of the US. And so it was that in 2017 she applied for a Fulbright. Dr. Rue knew that the subject of Mary still fascinated her. She wanted to learn more about Maryam—in Bethlehem, Palestine. Dr. Rue was happy to be awarded a Fulbright. And Maryam: A Woman of Bethlehem was the outcome of her time there in 2018 and 2019. She taught performance studies at Dar Al Kalima University of Arts and Culture (DAK) in Bethlehem, and simultaneously interviewed thirty Palestinian Christians and Muslims, posing the initial question “who is Mary/Maryam in 21st century Bethlehem?” The Christian Mary mother of Jesus in Islam is Maryam, mother of Isa the prophet, who is deeply venerated in both communities.
All the interviews with Palestinians were conducted in English. Dr. Rue edited and then shaped them into Maryam: A Woman of Bethlehem. Her collaborator, Hind Abu Shkhadim, then translated the play into Arabic. It was performed in Arabic, with English subtitles. She also directed the play. The first performance was in Bethlehem, January 2019. Later, the play toured seven cities in Palestine that spring. Two Palestinian actresses, Waad Azzeh and Dalia Shakhtour, depicted the twenty-two characters of the play. Nadeem Abulaban and Ayham Ayesh provided musical interludes on the kanoun, oud and percussion.
Maryam: A Woman of Bethlehem “overhears” the voices of these twenty-two characters from Bethlehem who range in age from 14 to 87 years old: high school and college students, theologians, clergy and a sheik, a university dean, an iconographer of Mary, and two senior founders of a Christian Liberation Theology center among others. The Muslims were Sunni; Christians were Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic (called the Latin Patriarchate), Lutheran. In all, Christian and Muslim Palestinians offer their stories, speaking of their customs and daily lives through their experience of the iconic figure of Mary/Maryam.
