Background.
The Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip in December 2008 - January 2009 was extremely violent and led in 22 days to the death of at least 1380 Palestinians, amongst which 431 were children. Following this attack, the ASHTAR theatre in Gaza started training a group of children aged 14 to 18 using drama training, Theatre of the Oppressed and creative writing.
The first three months of work focused on the wounds of the Gaza attack of December 2008-January 2009, the youth's individual experiences, their dreams , fears and hopes... This work led to the birth of The Gaza Mono-Logues
On October 17th, recitals of The Gaza Mono-Logues were performed by youth groups around the world. Gaza was the starting point. At eleven in the morning the Gaza group inaugurated the event by reciting their monologues at the sea shore, sending them out in paper boats to the world through the sea..
Some 1000 youth, in 50 cities in 30 countries around the world started their own recitals of the Gaza Monologues, at 7:00 pm following international time zones. The British performance was at the Pegasus Theatre.
For more information about the fundraiser see
http://www.pegasustheatre.org.uk/Page.aspx?PageID=552&ObjectTypeID=3&NodeID=625
For information about The Gaza Monologues see
http://www.thegazamonologues.com/?lan=english