In September 2007, Uzbeki theater director Mark Weil was murdered. Two days ago in Jenin, Israeli-Palestinean theater director and actor Juliano Mer-Khamis was murdered. Shockingly, theater is so important a political force that its creators must be murdered to stop their ideas from being seen.
Juliano Mer-Khamis, who described himself as "100% Jewish and 100% Palestinean," was the son of a Jewish Israeli mother and Palestinean Christian father. Both parents were radical activists. Juliano's 2004 documentary, "Arna's Children," which showed his mother's work with children in Jenin before the second intifada, won many international awards at film festivals, including the Tribeca Film Festival. His own Freedom Theater, created in 2006, drew threats for offering co-educational programming, among other innovations. Juliano was shot point blank by a group of armed men. He was 55 years old.
Weil, also 55 at the time of his death, was Jewish and Uzbeki. He founded his Ilikhom ("Inspiration") Theater in 1976, and its productions were seen around the world. Prior to his murder Mark Weil, like Juliano Mer-Khamis, had received threats about the content of plays. He was stabbed and beaten to death on the eve of a new theatre season. (For an interesting history of Weil's legacy, see http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thearts/2004268079_ilkhom090.html)
We who live in freedom can barely imagine why anyone would murder, of all things, a theater director -- the theater being the poorest and least popular of popular entertainments. But if one thinks back to the heyday of the Bush administration -- when the media were agog with "Shock and Awe" and "embedded" reporters rode with American troops into Baghdad, when torture and corruption flourished and all protest went unreported -- one place you could go for a strong dose of the unvarnished truth was the theater.
Theater doesn't have to be broadcast, it doesn't require permission or publication, it doesn't need state support -- it can be a public voice for unpopular opinions.
Both Mer-Khamis and Weil flouted those who would control thought and speech in their communities. So far, the murderes and their motives remain unidentified, so we cannot know for sure why or by whom these artists' voices -- delicate, strong, humorous, creative, wise, honest and courageous -- were stilled.
