'Weaving' - Shai Schwartz on tour in the USA
Shai Schwartz, who has lived in NS/WAS with his family for over twelve years,
is a professional storyteller, actor and playwright. As such, he has 
entertained many groups visiting the community and toured the
country, teaching and performing. He has also been invited to give performances in Europe
and the USA. Last November he toured the USA with his two-man show, 'Weaving.'
The show is a tapestry of Jewish and Arab folk tales and songs, which serve as a
background to introducing Shai's life experience in Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam. An
integral part of the show is a musical performance on the oud by Nazih Mugraby, a talented
musician from East Jerusalem. The combination of Shai's storytelling and Nazih's
music becomes a Jewish-Palestinian artistic dialogue.
The two traveled to New Jersey, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and many other places, and were received enthusiastically in Institutions, Temples, campuses, schools, clubs and parlor meetings. Many of the audiences included Palestinian and Jewish Americans. In California they performed at an extraordinary event called 'Building a Common Future,' which brought together 400 Jewish and Palestinian Americans and others. (For more information, please see the Website http://www.igc.org/traubman).
Besides offering excellent entertainment, the tour made many new friends and supporters for NS/WAS. In the last performance in Chicago, at the Emmanuel Congregation, more than 30 people expressed interest in beginning a new chapter of the American Friends of NS/WAS.
Shai's wife, Dafna, is also involved in the arts - her contribution to NS/WAS is reported elsewhere in this newsletter.
A Description of "Weaving" Follows.
A storytelling evening of Jewish and Arab folk tales interwoven with anecdotes on my life in Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam. My show "Weaving" is a storytelling evening created out of the dynamics of my life in NS/WAS, the only Jewish-Palestinian collective village in Israel. The show is comprised of Arab and Jewish folk tales interwoven with anecdotes about difficult, embarrassing or amusing moments I have gone through, moments in which I have found myself inattentive, defensive or intolerant to the other side. There are other stories of moments of beauty, hope and brotherhood. The folk tales lend depth and perspective to the message that comes through the anecdotes. This show has been performed to Jewish, Palestinian, American and international audiences in Israel. I have found that every audience identifies and reacts warmly to the issues arising in the show.
"Weaving" has just returned from a second successful tour in Germany and Italy.
The music to the performance was composed by the musician Nitsan Peri and is accompanied by guitar, oude and percussion, played by the musician Guy Kark who also plays a few of his own compositions. Nitsan Peri is writing his doctorate in musicology in the Hebrew University. He has written many scores for theater productions in Israel, performing in "The Between Times," a group roughly defined as "New World."
Guy Kark has studied music, composition and song at the Jerusalem Academy of Music, guitar and oude, with different teachers. He is the founder of the "Good Earth," a contemporary music group, and "The Between Times." He produced a disk of his work with this group in 1996. He also performs in a duet of guitar and harp. He has performed in many combinations in Israel and overseas.
