In 2012, ASHTAR Theatre created the first international youth theatre festival. The Festival aims to generate a creative exchange between local and international students through workshops and collective theatre projects. As shown in the advertisements for films, music, dance, and theatre festivals, Palestine has a robust performing arts scene. As a result, the ASHTAR International Youth Theatre Festival has become a staple of summer programming throughout the West Bank.

Here, youth participants work with puppets. Due to the many languages spoken in the room, movement, dance, physical improvisation, and puppetry are utilized in collective devising to push students beyond text and language barriers.

A favorite evening ritual includes gathering together on the top of the theatre to watch the sunset over Ramallah. This photo was taken on the roof of the guest house where students and faculty were staying together.

Notes from leading my first workshop.

During ASHTAR International Youth Theatre Festival workshops, the rehearsal space is used to conceive and build the world participants wish to live in. Young people are tasked with thinking through actions to build that world outside the theatre space. Young actors create tableaus in response to the prompt, “what images come to mind when you think of Palestine?” Some students made olive trees, while others built the lion fountains that sit in the city center of Ramallah; these students created media oppression and the international silence surrounding the murder of Palestinians. They connected their experiences to the silence around police murders in the United States and discussed how the Black Lives Matter movement helped them to connect various state-sanctioned murders across borders.

Young people from Ireland, England, and Palestine gather together for introductions. Theatre workshops are translated into Arabic and English.

At night, students bond through meals, games, and walks to the local grocery store to buy candy and ice cream.

Students take excursions to various sites on days off to learn about Palestinian culture. Here, they visit the Dead Sea. The time "outside" of the rehearsal room is as important as the work in the space because it allows participants to connect and develop friendships. This photo was shot on an Instax camera. The Instax camera's ability to immediately develop photos is a popular novelty amongst teenagers.

Director Khalil Al-Batran gives final notes, and a pep talk to ensemble members prior to their performance of “I’ll Betray My Country,” an adaptation of Syrian writer Muhammad al-Maghut’s book by the same name.

ASHTAR Theatre students warming up in the theatre before their production of "I'll Betray My Country." Here director Khalil Al-Batran leads them in a yoga stretch and centering warm-up. The stretching helps them to focus, find their center, and remain calm through the performance.

ASHTAR students participating in a massage train before a performance of "I'll Betray My Country."

Palestinian flag spray painted on the wall across the street from the theater.

Costumes and prop pieces hang on the guest house's balcony, where international participants join Palestinian artists to live, create, and have meals together for the duration of the festival.

An ASHTAR student participates in an imagination warm-up before a public performance. “Due to the Israeli government’s travel restrictions on the West Bank, despite our proximity to the Mediterranean coast, a lot of Palestinian youth have never visited the sea before. Our lives are ingrained in concrete gray blocks, so seeing something that encourages you to think, imagine, and travel somewhere else with your mind is very healthy and important,” notes Emile Saba, the 2022 festival coordinator and graduate of the ASHTAR theatre school.

Handala spraypainted on the wall in the Al Rowwad Theatre in the Aida Camp. Handala is a prominent national symbol and personification of the Palestinian people, particularly youth. The character was created in 1969 by political cartoonist Naji al-Ali, and first took its current form in 1973. According to UNFPA, youth in Palestine comprise 30% of the population, of which 38.1% are adolescents aged 15-19 and 61.9% aged 20-29.

Rama Al Asqar, a youth participant in the festival, is a visual artist and theatremaker from Palestine. Here, she helps to sew a giant puppet for the final street performance.

Rama Al Asqar watches a rehearsal of the giant puppet she helped to create from the gymnasium door at the 2022 ASHTAR International Youth Theatre Festival.

Ramy Hassan from the Mandala Theatre, a youth company based in the United Kingdom, prepares for ASHTAR Theatre’s final street parade in Ramallah.

Prop list and materials for the festival's stage manager.

Dancing is a significant component of the festival. Oftentimes music and dance will erupt in public and private gatherings. Here, students dance on the party bus that takes them from Ramallah to a theater in the suburbs to see a show and meet local artists.

Students dance to Palestinian music as part of their warm-up before their performance.