 and risk their life when they do theater on a regular basis. So it's really extraordinary to be in their company. Oh my gosh. Nick, we're growing. We're growing as a panel. Yeah. I think the audience will become. Yeah, everyone's going to come. I'm sorry, Nick. Yep. The reason is we thought we would separate resilience and laughter and then we thought who can separate resilience and laughter. So we're all together. And before I introduce every single one of these very courageous people, we just add another person who risks his life. When he does his work, Nick Kauser, who's a cartoonist, we're going to go to Reem, who is there with us virtually because Reem has to leave us because of Ramadan. So we're going to start with Reem. Reem, talk about deja vu all over again. This is a wonderful moment to have you with us. Reem Alsaya is one of our lab fellows. She is a Syrian living in England. We first got to know Reem four years, five years ago, exactly this way when Reem was working as one of the actresses on a fantastic project, which was then called Syria Trojan Women, which was a group of Syrian refugee women who performed Euripidesa's Trojan Women interweaving their own stories of escape from Syria into Euripidesa's play. We got to know Reem this way because she was not given a visa to travel to perform. And so all of the cast assembled in Amman, Jordan at three in the morning, their time, so that they could join us virtually for a program we held here in this auditorium, which was very generously introduced by the President of the University's Act of Joya. And it makes me so happy to see you and so sad to see you that way and not actually with us this many years later, and this is exactly where we are in the same position where you're still not able to travel here. And usually we try to come to you, but this time it wasn't possible. So Reem, in your journey from Syria to Jordan to England, where you now live, theater has played a very important role. Would you share with us a little bit about that story, what theater has been for you? Please. Thank you, Cynthia. And first of all, I'm so happy and thrilled to be with you even virtually. Thanks for technology. And thank you for having me in this panel. Thank you for the question. Actually, without the theater, I won't be here with you. I mean, I won't be in the UK, won't be one of the lab fellows, I won't be now talking to you at this moment. So theater has changed my life truly. It started with Syrian children women back in Jordan. And they told us that they wanted women to tell their own stories on the stage. And to be honest, I didn't had any kind of experience in theater, so that was the first time that I stand on the stage. And it was to tell my own story, how I left Syria to Jordan. So it was a sad story, but at the same time, I met so many women who did the same. So we were 25 women. Theater was so powerful. And I noticed that especially when I came here to the UK. So I came here to the UK to do a second version of Syrian Trojan women. It's called Queens of Syria. But the stories were different. And there were new women and there was like a new kind of director. So it was like kind of the same idea, the same abstract, but it's in a different way. And we did the tour all around the UK. And for the first time, I noticed that there were people who are interested about the Syrian crisis. It was so moving when you saw people crying while they are listening to your story, crying while they are listening to the other stories and in the play, when they are all with you in the end, when they all like stand up and clamp for us. And many people said that you are so brave to be able to stand on the stage and do this. So theater is much about the truth. It wasn't like for me, it wasn't like acting. I performed my story. I didn't like act because it was something from the heart of my heart. It wasn't something that I pretended or something that I created. It was my own story. So theater was the gateway for me to start speaking up, to start telling people about what's happened to me, what was going on in Syria. And theater is amazing in the way that it's presented itself. Like you don't have this physical virus. You don't have the screen virus at all. So you can feel the connection with the people eye to eye, the emotions. So yeah, I believe that theater changed my life. And now I'm doing another thing called Dispair Journeys, which is a simulation. So it's like immerse the theater and we're telling the story of refugees by making the people stand or walk in the refugees shoes. So theater was from the beginning till now it was a way for me to be more brave. It was a way for me to be able to tell my story. It was my channel to the world. And I'm so happy to be able to do that. I mean, I won't be able to do that without many people who helped me. So yeah, what can I say more? Brie, maybe tell us a little. I wondered if you could tell us a little bit about between these two projects, you said that for the Queens of Syria, you're not really acting because you're performing your own story. And then Desperate Journeys, has anyone here experienced Desperate Journeys? You know this, where the audience actually participates, right, is that correct? Yeah. Talk a little bit about those two different experiences. Do you find that they have a similar impact, do you think, on the audience, different? And also I want to invite people here. If you have a question for Reem, since she will have to leave us earlier than the others, I'm gonna give you the chance to talk with her now before she has to. Go ahead. Thank you, Cynthia. So yeah, Desperate Journeys was absolutely a different experience because you have to be in touch with the audience, you have to make them be involved in the story itself. So I played a role of a refugee in one of the camps, and I had to say that I was back in the camps, et cetera. But to be honest, I'm as a refugee, I've never been in a camp. So it was for me to live the experience for other refugees like me. And it was too real. And by the way, I know so many people who have been through this experience. So it's helped me to know and to touch how it was to live in a camp. And I was able to pass it to the other people who were like kind of stuck with me in the camp as well. And of course, it was all about the decision-making, the struggle of decision-making. You always have choices to make, but all of these choices are equally too bad. The most amazing thing about this journey is it was the thing after the performance because I had to stand in front of the people and tell my own story as a person, which is similar to the thing that I've done in children, women, and queens of Syria. And it was like you can feel how shocked they were because they know that this is all virtual. This is not like kind of true, but when they know that this person in front of us had to make the same decision that we had to do. And he faced the same terrifying things. So it was very important for me to be in touch with people both like within the journey inside of the simulation or the theater. And after it, so that's built something inside of the people that they can now understand more. They can be more empathetic. When they listen to the news, they won't just stay in their bubble. They now know what's exactly it is. They won't judge refugees. They won't say that why they left or why they are going, what they want to come to our countries, et cetera. So I hope that I made a change for the people who watch me on the theater, rather if it was the first Syrian Trojan women or queens of Syria or disparate journeys. I wish, I hope, I don't know if I did, but I hope that I passed the message that I wanted to pass. And I hope that what I've done has changed something in them as much as it's changed something inside of me. Thank you so much, Reem. I wanna give the panel and also people in the audience a chance to ask you a question before you need to leave. I wanna just remember one decision that you had to make and your family had to make, which was a very difficult one, a very challenging one. Derek and I were lucky enough to be able to go see the last performance of Queens of Syria in London two summers ago. And Reem told me the day before when I saw her that her family unit, which was six people in the play, had made the decision that they were going to stay behind in England and seek refugee status. And that meant that, but at that point, the rest of the cast didn't know. And so they were all performing on stage in the play that they'd built together and been working on together for four years. And Derek and I knew, and they knew, that they would never do that again. Because they would never be with those people again. And two cast members already had done this when you performed in Switzerland. So they were then living in Germany. And this terrible choice that we then saw later in the evening when the whole cast knew, and of course some of them would have loved to stay, but they had their families in Jordan that they had to return to. And these really just heart-rending decisions playing out in real life. But we have to also commend you, Reem, for the incredible job you've done since you've been in England. Reem has recently graduated from college. She was really the English speaker for her extended family. So the ambassador to Great Britain for her extended family who are all learning English now too. But what you've accomplished in the short time is really breathtaking. But I would love to open it up for anyone who has questions for Reem. Oh, this is, excuse me, I haven't even introduced you yet. This is a dear friend of the lab, Nick Hauser, who happily lives here in Virginia now because, frankly, the Iranians don't want him. And he's a cartoonist and also a researcher and activist around issues of water, particularly in Iran. Thank you very much, Cynthia. Many people in the world do not know about the experience of Syrian people, especially from the Hasaka province before the civil war. Many people had to migrate from Hasaka to other cities, to the margins of other cities in the western side of the country. Do you also talk about that experience of first migrating from inside the country to another part inside the country? And so many of those people have also had to leave the country again. So it has been different phases of hardship and migration. Were you able to hear that? Okay, Reem. Just the last bit, is it like, what's the difference between the two things? Yeah. Do you, does your work reflect the situation that those people have had in that first phase and then going to the other phase, first inside the country and being unwanted in the country, then going outside of the country? Well, sure, because I had to experience that. Like, I left my home after a massacre. Like there was a massacre happened near my home in Syria. And next morning, we had all the flee and that was one of the most horrible days in my life. And not just my family, all of our district, like all of the people were trying to leave. And then we were like moving and we moved in more than six times, within six months, trying to find safe place. And in the end, when we found that we have no place, no safe place to stay. And my dad was afraid that my brother's going to be taken to the military surface. And you know what that means. Like he's either be a killer or he will be killed. Either this or that. So my dad decided that it's the time to leave to Jordan. And from Jordan, I came to the UK for Queens of Syria and we decided to, I had my mom with me and my two sisters with me. They were actually in the play. They had rules in the play. So we decided to stay along with my other two aunts who were with us as well in the past, as Cynthia mentioned. And we decided to stay here in the UK. So I had it all. Like I left my home in Syria many times. Actually, I went back to my home like for two days and then we had to flee again because there wasn't moving. So it's a very long story. I hope I have like more time. I'm happy to tell it because I've told my story many times and I'm happy to share it with anybody. But yes, of course, when we did this journey is I helped with editing the text of the play. And I put so many things that happened to me and my family. And which including much of what's happened to us and what's happened to many refugees. I was lucky to not be in a camp but I have lots of family members who've been in camps for a while. And I have friends who've been in camps as well. So I kind of know about it but I never experienced it myself. So I hope that's what answered the question. Does anyone in the audience are there questions for Reem before? George, oh, sorry, go ahead. I think I don't know if we can... No, that's not gonna work. I'll repeat it. Go ahead and ask it and I'll repeat it. An interesting question. The question is what were the differences Reem in the responses of the audiences in Jordan in comparison to the audiences in Europe, in England and in Switzerland? Thank you. Well, I think that we have to ask the question about what is the theater situation in both countries? Is the situation of the theater in Jordan as an art like or the same as the UK? I believe no. We have a theater movement in Jordan. It's not that big. It's not very popular. People watch TV, watch cinema, but they don't really go a lot to the theater. And we only did like two nights, two performances only in a man. So it's hard to tell. We didn't have that big audience, but we had like a very good reaction. Like people loved the thing that we've done and we had audience like both Jordanian and Syrian from other nationalities, obviously from the UK because it was a UK company who've done the play back in Jordan. But when we came here to the UK, it's absolutely different. It's absolutely different. Like we've been interviewed. We had like full audience for all of the seventies performances that we've done here. People will stay, talk to us. We had like five stars in the times and another journal that I can't remember the name. As I said, we had like a full media coverage. So we were like movie stars for almost a month. So of course it was different, but as I said, it's because people give value to the theater here more than Jordan. This is maybe the thing. It's not about the play itself or what's the play speaks about. That's interesting, because I suspect your question was a little more about what was the reaction to the stories that they were presenting. Yeah, so you did, I think the question was more about what was the reaction to the story that you were doing. Well, I believe it's the same because we had like a very good reaction from our audiences when we were in Jordan. But as I said, it was like only two nights, we didn't have much people as well attending. Most of the people who attended were families of the women who've been performing the play, but we had like a very good reaction. Like people, we received it very well, to be honest. We had like some media coverage, but it wasn't that much actually. It was very low profile. Thank you, Reem, so much. I think you told us you need to leave us around now if you would like to stay, we would love to have you stay and be part of the panel. I have five minutes, five minutes. I'm gonna have to turn to some of the other panelists because we have a bit of a crowd up here. But I just wanna, but I do wanna make sure there's, does anyone else have a question for Reem? And then you feel free to join in. Oh, we do have two, okay. Let's do both questions really quickly. Why don't you just go ahead, we'll ask them both and give you a chance to answer them both. And I can repeat it if you don't have them. Yeah, hi, Reem, because this panel is made up not only of resilience, but also humor. Does humor, how does that play a part in your work either in the rehearsal process or in the actual performances? Okay, so question about humor and what is your question in the back and we'll do it at once, please. Thank you. I was wondering, I was working on a project recently that exposed me to metal bands that have been coming out of Syria and other countries. Sorry, what has been coming out? Metal, like metal genre music. Bands that have been coming out of Syria and operating more in Denmark and the Netherlands and the UK and I just wanted to know if you are in contact with any other artists in the UK who, whether they play music, they do theater, if you're aware of anything that's going on. So one is how much does humor play a part in your work? And two, are you in touch with other Syrian artists who also have moved to England such as, for example, heavy metal bands or any other Syrian artists who are in England now? Yeah, thank you. About the humor, there is like, when we did the first play, the Syrian Trojan women, there was no humor at all. It was like all sad. But about the other one, which is Queens of Syria, we had like a time of humor because we wanted also to tell the people about Syria before the war. And to be honest, we as Syrian, we love to love, or love, or try to make humor out of the agony that we have. So we have lots of black comedies, I mean, before, during, and I believe after the crisis, hopefully when the war ends. So there was like a little bit of a humor in the second one, but because most of those stories that we have is sad, it was like harder for us to show the humor, but we were trying to tell the bright side. I am speaking about Queens of Syria, which is the one that we've done here in the UK. We were trying to speak about the bright side, what kind of countries was Syria before the war, what was our lives before the war, et cetera. So we were trying to show the bright side more than like the humor, but there was like a humor bit in the play because we were trying to ask the, I was, that was my part, to ask, to go to the audience and just start asking them the questions that any journalist is going to do to ask a refugee in the camps. And like some of them really loved about it because it's quite funny, but at the same time it's sad. So it was like a dark comedy somehow. I hope that will answer the question and about the other question, but to be honest, it's a bit hard for me. I have connection with artists like from the UK, from other places, but I have connections with people that I worked with before, but they came here to, not to the UK, to Europe in general. So I'm afraid that I don't have, like I have the connection, but only with people that I knew before. It's, I don't know, maybe it's something that I had to work on. So thank you to make me kind of think about it because I should, but I already have a good connection with people, especially the people who worked with us in the Syrian Trojan women and in Queens of Syria, but many of them actually not here in the UK. Most of them in France actually. France got all of the artists and like, you know, the art people. Queen, thank you so much. You have a number of your lab, fellow lab fellows here. So I wonder if you could just, and by just, you know, we all miss you so much and wish you were here actually with us, but I wondered if you could just end with just a couple of senses about what it has been like being a lab fellow. Well, it's one of the most amazing thing that ever happened to me. I loved being with a group of people from all around the world that I found things that we share, values that we share, art that we share. It's amazing to be part of this thing. Like I met people from Cambodia, from Colombia. Like it's very special. You feel that you're special. No doubt. We feel empowered to do more and more. We feel you're really special too and thank you, thank you for joining us. We really, really appreciate it. Denny, you a big hug. Thank you so much. And someday we're gonna get you here in person. Everybody vote. I would love before we go any further, I wanna at least tell you who these other wonderful people are starting with Shahid Nadeem at that end. Our dear friend from Pakistan who runs a Joka theater. We had them here and did a production together with a Joka a number of years ago. Amrika Chalo, we'll come back to it maybe in the comedy part, but it was a wonderful play that takes place in an American consulate. Makes equal fun of both sides. They were desperate. Apparently I couldn't find anyone to play the ambassador so I had to play it in that play. And one of the tests to get a visa were things like arm wrestling and looking each other without blinking. And in the end terrorists come and of course they want visas too. So everyone had a good laugh at each other through that which showed the revelation to our Washington audiences that newsflash, Pakistanis have a sense of humor. So that was an important new idea. And then we have next to Shahid Iman Awun. I hope many of you were able to see Ashtar Theater's beautiful production of Oranges and Stones last night. Iman works in Ramallah, but also all over but that's where she's based. Next to her is Joanna Sherman who works at Bond Street Theater, runs Bond Street Theater and they work all over the world but particularly has been a long presence in Afghanistan and I wanna particularly focus on that but also now Malaysia, Myanmar and really many many countries with using theater to tell stories, to empower people to communicate messages in a very powerful and engaging way. Next to Joanna we're so happy to have with us one of our friends from Cambodia. You heard yesterday how much Cambodia is a part of Derrick's and My Life at Georgetown and at the lab through our Centennial Lab and for the past two years in Cambodia we have had a session with Sopek Song who is really like a one man institution of drama, spoken drama in Cambodia and who like many of the people on this panel takes huge risks and takes on challenging subjects, issues in society that is a very dangerous thing to do in Cambodia with this extremely authoritarian government and you will hear about that momentarily. Next to me is Faisal Abou Alhaya, another one of our, oh hi John, never get that right. You're gonna do a spelling test after that. Who hit, you're right, Abou Alhaya who is one of our other lab fellows. You can see they obey us, they do what we say, they respect us. Who we have known here at Georgetown for 10 years, I think more than that, even more over 10 years who first came here with the Freedom Theater from Janine Palestine and performed The Island and that is a play that The Island, the famous anti-apartheid play initially performed in South Africa took really relatively little translation to place it in the West Bank or in the Middle East with Palestinian prisoners held by the Israelis and that was a really, it's such a searing impressive production and my students still talk to me about that production, they still remember. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And finally, as you heard, Nick Kauser, a very close friend of the lab who lives here and where it worked as a cartoonist in Iran until he made a cartoon that the government did not find very funny. So we're gonna begin with Sopak who's gonna give us, and I feel very badly, several people asked me if they could show videos and I said, no, no, it's gonna take too much time and then Sopak said, well, I have videos to show you and so he's as the one, so everyone else does too but I forbid them and since Sopak traveled the longest, we're gonna let him show his video and next to Sopak of course you will recognize in her civilian clothes Poonam Penn, the one who was bending in every impossible direction yesterday in the beautiful dance for our Cambodian piece and Poonam's gonna help a little bit with Sopak translating if he needs you. But Sopak, would you like to just tell us, do you wanna show the video first? Which would you like to do first? Use your mic, please. Hello, I'm from Cambodia. Yes, I'm sincere and everyone to give me a chance to join this program and I learn a lot from all of you. Yeah, and what inspired me to do theater in Cambodia? Yeah, I want to show the video that inspired me to do theater in Cambodia first, 10 years ago. Yeah. On a backpacking trip to Cambodia, I was traumatized myself after the first day there. It spans eight football fields. It is 100 feet deep. It's stench carries for miles and it is where the poorest of Cambodians desperately poor children eke out a living. This massive garbage dump in Cambodia's capital city offers up scraps of glass and metal that these children sell for less than a dollar a day. The children are here because they have nowhere else to go. Many of them have lost their parents and this dump site is a lifeline for their survival. Former Hollywood executive Scott Nisen was on vacation when he saw the dump for the first time. Shattered my world, it was like walking from... Yeah. I worked with him for 10 years. Yeah, and I always go with him to dump site in Phnom Penh. And my people in Phnom Penh city is... They don't know about the dump site. How the people from the province to live in the dump site, how the kids, how they live there. Yeah, and how they go to school. Yeah, eat everything my people in Phnom Penh, they don't know. Just a little. Yeah, so I go with him every day. And then how can I help them? How can I... All the children to express, to show my people in Cambodia, in Phnom Penh, to show, I need your help. Yeah. So I go to the morning and afternoon and night to meet all people in the dump site to interview and then I wrote the script and then I play in the Phnom Penh in the big theater. Yeah. And just to give you a sense of how difficult the climate is to do this kind of documentary theater that is revealing negative aspects of society. I saw another one of our lab fellows in a contemporary dance festival which they now hold every year in Phnom Penh. And in one of the dances, there were some handicapped people dancing and the representative from the Ministry of Culture said, this is not appropriate for Cambodia. We do not want this kind of thing in Cambodia. Cambodians can't understand this kind of complexity. We, art is just for entertaining and it should just be beautiful. So in that climate, it's quite a different thing to do what Sopek does. Yes, all the kids, they form the dump site. Yeah. My actor and actress, the real life on the stage, they show the story. Yes, there's a thousand audience here to see the show. We're now seeing pictures of the production which is being performed by the people who actually live on the dump site. Yes, is that correct? Yeah, and then my Ministry of Culture, they call me and they say that I am a lie. Yeah, not true, yeah, or not true. Yeah, just 10 years ago, yeah, okay. Yeah, and then I stopped doing it just two, last two years ago that I made the other one story, the driver home, yeah. And the driver home is the story I love. It's the story right 10, before Port Port. Yeah, 1990, 1969, 64. Uh-huh, so a story that was written and a well-known story in Cambodia, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, every, every, my people they know about the story, but the story is still powerful now. Yeah, but before the story in the book, in the school, not in the theater. Yeah, I transform to the theater. And then it talks about the corruption, yeah. So the story of driver home is a story about corruption that is very well known. Was it still in the school books? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, still in the school books. Yeah, this, what happened before on stage, yeah, before on stage one day and I rehearsed all and then my main actor accident, crash, car crash. Yeah. So and you have the very strong feeling that it was not an accident. The big theater in Phnom Penh, yeah. And they say that they cannot, the doctor say that they did not came ago to perform, but he, yeah. Again, please. So just so it's clear, this is one of the main actors in this performance of Driver Home on his way into rehearsal, he was in a very serious car accident, which they did the show, they rehearsed the show. And then in the theater that day, one day before the shows begins, there's someone like sit at the back, like he didn't say like it's from the government, but we believe that the government actually warned him not to perform that show because it's something that is critical to the corruption in Cambodia. And then on that day, like up to the main actor left the theater, he got hit by the car. Like we don't believe this is an accident, but still two hour before the show start, people came to the theater, like it was full house and everything. And the doctor said, no, you cannot go to perform. But the main actor still, he said, no, I need to perform. This is important to my country, it's important to my team. So they allow him and then the show still happened, but he was on the wheelchair for the whole time. With the doctors in the waiting stage. This has happened in 2017. So here's the main actor who performed on stage in the wheelchair for one hour. And this happened in 2017. Yes, my actor, they're not happy. And then they suggest me to do it again. They want to freedom, walk and play on stage. They don't like on the chair, yes, not freedom. So they let me do it again, yeah. And this theater, the government not allow me to do, and then I go to find the other place, other theater, but not easy. But I have one theater, it's small, yeah, I do it. Yeah, and my actor, they freedom for four men, yeah. So it's very moving to hear this opaque, because a couple of days ago, we were talking about Brasov Havel, who performed in apartments. Also, of course, not able to perform in theaters, and eventually became president of the Free Czech Republic. I don't know if that's gonna happen quite so quickly in Cambodia, but much more seriously, seeing these stories performed live in front of people, so that they can actually see them and see your courage in writing them. That is really, really important for people. So, and I know, yeah. Do we wanna, can you explain what it is, or punam, can you explain it to me? Yeah, I think it's. Yeah, I think it's. Oh yeah, yeah. Also, for all the art, just want to throw a hand in, make it all the way there so it's more fun. So, this is the last performance of the Driver Hum from last year. From last year. And just so you know, that is a really large theater in Penangpan, full of people, and unlike England or so many other countries, what I was hearing from Irina about Russia, theater in Cambodia, spoken word theater, basically happens when you put something on, as I understand it, there's really not anyone else doing it. And really no support for his work, but you can see when he does do it, people come out in large. A lot of young people. Yeah, why don't you explain something about this? A lot of them are young people, but it's just amazing to see young people in Cambodia come in support and learn about what happened in our country. Even though he got called from the police or from the government people, like don't do that. They chat him, they said what he did, it's not true, it's not happened in Cambodia, like he sees a liar and everything, but we still have people who believe in his work and they come to see the show, which is really amazing. I think I'm gonna have to, would you like to just add one more thing so I'm ready to move on? One more thing, yeah. Well, I don't think we have time for one more video. I'm so sorry. Because we have, I have to talk to the other people. Okay, okay, yeah. You have a job, but I don't have a job. What? You know what, we'll have a little conversation and maybe come back to you, okay? Great, thank you, thank you so much, Sobek. And we're very lucky at the lab to have supporters, supporters in all different ways, people who support us by housing our artists, people who support us by helping us bring our artists here and we're lucky to have with us one of those, two of those supporters, Christy Platt and Al Monser, so thank you so much. Al Monser who helped us bring Sopek here and see what a difference it makes. Christy, who will be housing Mr. Al Haija. No. Soon. I got it, Haija, Haija. Abu. Oh, I know, Abu Al Haija, I know that. I know, I was just trying to get the last part right. It's only the last part of the problem, yes. And we appreciated very much another one of our supporters, Samia Faroukhi was not able to be here because she's ill, but she made it possible for you to get a visa and all those lawyers, which was hugely, hugely important. I want to turn since we're on Palestine, we have two people from Palestine here with us and I'm gonna turn to, you're ready to take over. I'm gonna turn to Iman first and just to give us a sense, we've seen here the challenges, but also the impact of theater in Cambodia, taking up subjects that no one else is touching. Can you give us a sense of how you feel about the impact of your theater, who it touches and how and what are some the most severe challenges that you're facing? Well, thank you. Ashdair theater that was established in 1991, we started as the first and only theater school in Palestine at that time. We didn't have any theater school regular or for young people to study theater, so the impact of the work that was done over the years had left many groups that were able to create either similar programs of training young people in different cities and establishing a very thorough theater movement at the moment in Palestine, especially in the West Bank and Jerusalem and Gaza. So this kind of continuous building, continuous spreading of the theater movement in our community is an important matter, especially because when we speak about theater in Palestine for those of you who know and those who do not know, we do not really have theater, we do have theater buildings, of course, in different cities, but we do not have the rhythm of the audience to come regularly to see performances because it only happens in Jerusalem and in Ramallah, the rest of the places we had and we still have to really work hard in order to build the audience because the people are not in a position that they feel that theater is important for them, they are not also in a position where they feel that, oh, life is easy, so I want to go for entertainment. Therefore, that had given the space for many of the theater makers to think differently, to think of how to go to the community, wherever the community is. And this is how in 97, Ashdair Theater introduced the Theater of the Oppressed into Palestine and started to really create different groups and stimulate different community people to use that form in order also to go out and perform to the people where they are. So saying that there is another problem that is also connected to the fact that the West Bank is completely broken. And people cannot really move. Sometimes they cannot really travel from one city to another, from a village to another because there are checkpoints and the wall and all of that. And there is no feeling that, or there is no urge for the audience to really go out to seek culture. But they do go to see a performance when a performance comes to their community. And that is why we go into unconventional places. Sometimes we perform under the trees, sometimes in a courtyard, sometimes in a place for weddings in a hall for weddings, but also saying this that doesn't mean that there are no theater buildings. So all the theater groups that are working and they are really surmounting at the moment, they do have their own spaces. Like in Geneva there's the Freedom Theater in Ramallah there's Ashtar and Al Qasaba and in Bethlehem, in Hebron, in Jerusalem, the National Theater, there are theater spaces but every single theater company, they know that if they do not take their work to the people, the people will not come to see their work especially if they're not living in the city. What is your favorite or most moving meaningful moment in your life with Ashtar Theater? There's many, but yesterday or the first day we were, the panelists were talking about hope. For me, for us at Ashtar, hope really becomes an empty goal if it is only the end of something, if it becomes what you aspire because for us, hope alone does not stand. Hope is only a pathway. You need it as your lutsy, you know, in Comedie Dalarte. You need to really take a little bit of hope in order to do something. You need an urgency. You need an action to arrive to. You need a target to reach to and hope could help you. We cultivate with our young people and with the communities that we work with this kind of hope and urgency and action. One of the moments and one of the projects that have resonated really deep in our history of Ashtar Theater is the Gaza monologues. The Gaza monologues, maybe some of you have heard of it. That was and that still is performed around the world until the moment more than 2,000 young people from around the world is still doing the Gaza monologues in universities. So the idea of that kind of performance was to really stimulate solidarity around the world towards the Gaza young people who are besieged and who are until the moment attacked. So 13 years ago, the siege have started in Gaza. Two million people today are still imprisoned in Gaza. Two million people. It's the biggest prison on earth and nothing has been done with and without theater. So, but whether there is still hope, whether we're taking this hope out of the Latsi and use it, we have to. Otherwise we stop doing what we're doing. Otherwise we see just the wall in front of our face. So, yes. Thank you, thank you very much. Faisal, you grew up in the Freedom Theater in Janine and can you relate to what Iman said? Is it somewhat different? What was that like and what did it give you? I think Palestinian, we're all the same somehow. Like the same, there is no new story about what is like going on in Palestine. But for me now these days I would like to speak about now what is the theater doing now. Of course, especially Freedom Theater done very interesting, powerful journey, all of these from 2006 till now. And this month we are in Ramadan and the Freedom Theater there is every Thursday there is a Ramadan event with the stand up committee, hip hop, plays, poetry, which is that's mean. And that's a big thing to do this in Ramadan in our conservative community. So I'm sending this chance, I'm sure everybody now in the Freedom Theater waiting for me. So I'm sending them a hug and big kiss and yeah, let's be funny. What is, I wanna talk about the theater now when I meant like the Palestinian theater in my opinion, we are a bit of a stuck, is stuck in because all the theater around it's an NGO theater. And we cannot hide this and this is effect our shows and effect how we tell the story. Which is that's very important for me to share because what is happening like when you went to tell a story you are convinced like you tell your story but then you find out you tell the story that the western want to hear. And that's a bit tricky because we are jumping between these two lines. That's why I'm big fan of comedy, of a clowning. I'm big fan of a great work of these metaphoric poetry written because when we, Palestinian we have tags and like Palestine, Palestinian there is two expectation from you. First are you a refugee or no, that's for later. First it's are you a victim? Second or a terrorist? And your story is done and everybody want to feel good by hearing your, you know, how much it's, and this is a language funding which exists now very much which is make me afraid, really afraid. But I have hope in the new generation who's coming who's more connected to the field, who's trying to break the stereotype of what is Palestinian theater and how, in which way we want to tell our story? Do we want to tell it in a funny story way? Do we want to tell it in a more tragedy? What we want to do? And I'm hoping with these people, with my friends, my colleagues who are asking this question, what is the best way to tell the story as we want to tell it? And that's a challenge and Freedom Theater, one of these places who are battling this because we have a hugely meetings and conversation about do I tell my story or do I tell the story that Western world want to hear? Which is about, you know, being victim and that makes the audience feel a bit relief of their guilt. Yeah, it's funny, it's funny. I'm glad you laugh, really. It's funny because it's never ending circle and that's why I'm obsessed with comedy because I found, not for that, I was when I grew up in gene refugee camp and I always obsessed with the idea, we are as a human. Do we laugh first or we speak first? And was really always like, what, how many humanity start? How we find laughter? Because laughter, it's an international language, no doubt about it. If somebody laugh, you laugh. And sometimes they fake laugh, of course, but there is a, I found it a way, it's more connection between me and the audience and more not knowing because now I believe like, Palestinian story is not a secret anymore. Like everybody going, the occupation, the siege, the bad lady, the tough situation. But what is missing is the understanding. And comedy, it's a way of like, it's make you understand things. And in my opinion, I think, I don't know, there's a lot of analysis and a lot of ideas about why it's comedy, but from my small experience as a stand-up comedy and as a doctor clown in hospitals. Ah, thank you. Comedy make things personal. Like it's become muttering to me. Instead of like having sympathy, like people will go to empathy. And that is one of my heroes I would like to share. It was big inspiration to me, Bassem Yusuf, the Egyptian comedian, which is like the joining steward of the Middle East. Like, you know, Bassem Yusuf was his program and during, you know, the revolution in Egypt, everything, it's upside down. In Genine, like Genine, it's a town in nowhere, you know. But when Bassem Yusuf come to the TV every Friday, nobody in the street, everybody in the cafe is waiting. And it was really shocking, why Bassem Yusuf doing that? How he succeed to hold this community. And we are, you know, we're related with Egypt by TV and by the cinema because we love how they speak, they speak beautifully. And I found, yeah, Bassem Yusuf succeed to make it personal. So we have to work on something, make it personal. And comedy, it's a way. Maybe there's another way, inshallah, in 10 years. But for now, and it's hard to approve that, you know, because you are surrounded by NGOs theater everywhere. And to talk about this, and you know, people want to, you know, 60 language for the fund. You need a bit of, that's, that's, even if you are aware of it, but living in Palestine, it's become unconscious. You do it naturally, you know, because it's been years and years and years and years. So it's not easy, guys, to have this conversation. So my hope, which is happening this year, which is our new play, London Genine. It's a independent production, me, Alaa and Khawlaa. That was our challenge because both of us agreed. We want to do a comedy show related to us and it's a personal story about our tour in the UK as a comedian, because we had a tour last year with a British comedian, Mark Thomas, was a huge thing for us. And to discuss it with people, it's hard. How this play will get fun? Because, you know, how this play will work? How this play will work? And we had, like, we tried to make, like, a test shows people, when people love it, they laugh, when they laugh, oh my God. I said, ah, it's working, it's working. People related to us instead of blah, blah, blah, crying and all of this story about Palestine, it's okay, if you want to see that, you can see it in the news, you can follow what's going on, but we are artists. And there is different for me, if you are an artist, or activist. And that's a big conversation, but it's good to define that and to make it clear, like, what is this connection and because seriously, I don't know what the activists mean. I tried to, but maybe I still didn't get it yet. So, when London Genine being selected by Sundance, it was a big hit, of course, because Sundance is a big deal. But what is the other thing happened to us? We are proof to our friend and to our colleagues there is other way we can make theater and not being victim all the time. And inshallah it will come here maybe in two years. That's my plan. Are you sure? Are you sure? You know, absolutely. Are you sure? Yes, I am sure. Okay, yeah, you've heard it. London Genine will come here when it's ready. Yeah, world premiere, world premiere, absolutely. Yeah. Thank you, thank you guys. And yeah, I hope capture many, like because, you know, I'm aware it's a, this panel, it's two in one, you know, like two panels and one panels, which is sometimes I try to push my thoughts to make it so precise. And I'm sorry if I took more time from you guys, but yeah, let's be funny and put the red nose and let's, you know, express the story as it is without trying to be in a court of white people, always. You know, I traveled a lot around the world, I was lucky with it in my life, but then every show you are in a court, you know? Like everybody went to solve the Middle East thing through you. Hey guys, come on, I'm just telling jokes, huh? Like I'm not that person. And yeah, so. World premiere, coming up, world premiere coming up. And, you know, it's not that different. I think that evolution has already started in film. You know, I mean, 10 years ago, people told me they couldn't get any films in the Middle East funded unless it was involving violence and terrorism. And now you have many more human stories. So you're the tip of the spear there. Yeah, yeah. And just laughing from the Syrian experience, I just, it's come to my mind now because you remind me of it. I meet many Syrians friends who's actors and festival and things. And this is something really interesting, like look how this system work. They say, you know Faisal, it's every play talk about ISIS and about Islamic extremes, it's easy to fund. And they want to bring it to Europe or to the United States. But every play talks about the Assad regime, like how what is going on, nobody care about it. Because, you know, maybe I told them in my opinion, I don't know, but I think, you know, when you talk about ISIS, it's more sexy on the stage for white people. So you have to play with this, which is sad for me. I don't know, it's very sad. Like you decide how you wanna see the people. You put like, okay, I wanna see this guys, please. So I hope it will finish. And I believe in the new energy, which is growing now in Palestine through many theaters around. Still tough, not everything fine. But, you know, we trying. And I, yeah, I'm here now. Got the visa finally after, you know. So there is, there is still kind of hope, I hope. There's, I think there's a lot of it. I'm gonna ask you one more quick question and turn to other panelists. But give us just a little glimpse of what you're gonna be working on with Derek in the next week or so. Very, very, very good. That's a tricky question, by the way. That's tricky because we decided we'll not talk about it. But, you know, now it's not a secret. No, no. Yes, Derek. Like, till now, I don't know what we will work about. It's just, there is random ideas, random thoughts. And we had like a couple of brainstorming meetings. I'm staying here for our extra week. Lucky me. So for, for this production. I don't know if I will share the idea with you or not, but still, because it's still not the clear. We wanna do, shall I say, Derek or no? Where's Derek? Up to me? Oh my God, yes. I'm sorry if I wasn't supposed to say, but you gotta say something now. I say what I want to say since, yeah. Give it away. No. The ideas came like, we were in South End with the lab fellows in, in the UK, doing a workshop being theater. Everybody shared his experience with his friends. And suddenly we, I was smoking outside. You know, I'm always love smoking and coffee, of course, as Palestinian, that's our sport. Suddenly Derek, Derek came to me, you know, he didn't smoke, he just came for company. And we were sharing, what is the theater? And I mentioned, we mentioned together, like the discussion lead us to Merchant of Venice, which is at Ashik Spear play. But I said, okay, we are not going to do Merchant of Venice, like, it's a classic, but maybe, like, then we decide to do maybe something about Merchant of Venice, not the play itself, but inspired by the play, some stories, and we wanna do it as a comedy. You know, Merchant of Venice, the comedy, that's, I hope it will work. We still don't know how, but, and we have a working title called, I hope I can say it, Insooth, that's our working title. And we still, we hope it will be more clear in the coming weeks, what it will look like, what is the play, maybe we'll change it, maybe we'll, you know, give everything, you know. So yeah, that's what I'm looking for. Well, but something you told me, which I found so intriguing, was that growing up, that was the first Shakespeare you knew, and the Shakespeare you knew the most, Merchant of Venice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true. You're bringing, you're bringing. Yeah, yeah, just an interesting thing. Yeah, yeah, it's very interesting, yeah, because. Stay tuned, but first the world premiere, maybe. When? Well, first, we're focused on the world premiere, and also Insooth. Okay. London Genine. Okay, London Genine first, because it's almost Sundance, got it. Yeah, so totally. You have to do something for Insooth, so we can be, keep going. It's definitely gonna keep going. Otherwise, you know. But how, isn't it so fantastic that he is gonna be back in Sundance this summer working on this, and you just told me that Basim Youssef is also gonna be working on a play there this summer. Yeah, which is like, that was, that was for me more interesting than getting the news of Sundance, that Basim Youssef, it's in the same time there, for 10 days. I love Basim Youssef so much, I always, he's always inspiring. And so he will work on something called one man show called United, I think, but he has to do it as an American production. And so I'm happy to hang out with him, looking forward to see who's funnier, Palestinian accent or Egyptian. It's gonna be a comedy contest, it's gonna be great. I hope so. Now, Shahid, you and your work in Pakistan, you use, I think equally well, equally effectively, history and humor. That's not so common to have someone who has both of those in their repertoire. And I'd love to you to talk about the impact of both of them, some of your historical plays. And then also humor, I'd love to have you talk a little bit about Burkha Vaganza and any other humor you wanna talk about. Thank you. Well, in Pakistan, theater movement is also, although it's a big country, but theater movement is small. And especially socially meaningful theater, activist theater, and I think artists are all activists. So you can't define them, this is an activist and this is an artist. So that is small. And we started exactly 35 years ago, Ajoka, when we had a military rule, which was also very strongly fundamentalist. And they had full backing of American and Western powers because of the Soviet anti-Soviet struggle in Afghanistan. So that was the time when we started. And there were three or four challenges. One is the narrative, the state narrative, which is given to us that Pakistan is made for the glory of Islam and it is totally different from India and art and culture or music have no room in Islam. Then there was this state security narrative that you should not talk about peace or anything in common with India. Then there were extremists who were given a lot of encouragement by the establishment. And then there was this global factors like television and DVDs and later on social media. And then it was a conservative society, especially for women to appear on theater. So we had all these challenges. And there have been ups and downs. There have been governments which have been less hostile and governments which have been more hostile. The religious extremists sometimes, they are really breathing down your neck, very close to you and threatening you. And sometimes they are like occupied in a struggle with the authorities. So what we have learned, how we have survived these 35 years is firstly, it's personal commitment that there has to be a strong personal commitment of the people, core people who are involved. Secondly, you have to be flexible. You should not depend on resources, state resources, international funding or any patterns you have because if you are doing a provocative and socially critical theater, then anytime they can withdraw their support and you will not know what to do. And thirdly, we do not focus on individual dictators. We focus on changing the mindset, changing the system so that if one dictator or one authoritarian ruler is replaced by another one, then we are not at a loss that why things are not changing. So in these circumstances, we have like, in terms of venues, if we get the halls, the censorship authorities give us, we use it and we use it to the fullest possible extent. If they don't give it, we find an alternative venue. If the venues are not available, we find a courtyard, street or even house long. So that is one way of survival. Secondly, which you have mentioned history and humor, that sometimes hitting straight on the face can have consequences and you can achieve the same objective by going back to history and bringing stories which are as relevant and very obviously relevant to today. Like there is a story about two Mughal princes in the 17th century India. My play Dara, which was later on presented in an adaptation formed by National Theater in London. So it's a story between the fundamentalist and the Machiavellian and narrow-minded prince, Muslim, of course, and a Sufi poet and scholar and all embracing kind of a character. So their struggle, when we present it today, people immediately relate it to two varying interpretations, Islam today. So that is one way. Adaptation is another way. And Bresht is a- I'm just gonna stop for one second on Dara just so they understand, because I think it's such an interesting story and has such direct relevance. Are you moving on from Dara? Are you still talking about Dara? No, I'm now moving on to humor. I'm going back, I love the Dara story, sorry. We're going back to Dara. Because the struggle is between Dara Shiko and his brother, Oran Zabe. And Oran Zabe was a fairly difficult person, wanted to be in charge of things, and did put his brother, Dara, the Sufi on trial and have his head chopped off and delivered to his father, Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal. And so when Shahid tells, and Oran Zabe was chosen by the military dictator as to be the kind of father of the country. So these are very real live people in people's lives. So there's a portrait of Oran Zabe in every government office. And so Shahid does this play that shows that Oran Zabe actually had his brother and other siblings too killed. And so then you were questioned by the parliament, you know, can you really put that on? But that was another play. But before I quickly mentioned breast phenomenon that sometimes we adapt plays which are on very similar situations, maybe pre-war Germany or Spain or some other Indian context. And sometimes we get away with it. And we say it's foreign play, it's a German play, it's a Spanish play. And after a while, maybe after several performances somehow they realize that this has so direct relevance. So sometimes they ban it and they say that this is an original play and you are just using breast as a cover. Although this is not true, but this is one strategy by which we can get away with things. And the third of course is humor because humor is something which softens even the rigid minds. And if there are all kind of humors and all kind of comedy shows and some are very of a very low standard, very kind of derogatory to women or minorities or people from lower classes. But if the humor has some cultural substance and some social substance, then it can have tremendous impact. I'll give you one example. Sometimes very dry and very dark, like Burka Vaganza is a play in which everyone wears a Burka, all actors, male, female. So there is lovers who are in colorful designer Burkas and there is a terrorist leader who's called Burka bin Batin. And then there's an American astronaut wearing Ku Klux or the astronaut cover. So all kind of covers are presented there. So, and we have no comment whether Burka is mandatory in Islam or not, which is a debate which goes on in Muslim societies. But while this is going on, it's all song and dance and parody of film or Bollywood songs. On two sides of the stage, we have two religious scholars who are replying to answers on television or radio about some issues of today. And their answers are taken exactly from some very sacred religious texts. And they seem so outlandish and so irrelevant to the problems of today, the way they are formulated. So that people laugh. And so we were asked by a government advisor who came to see a play, unfortunately, a daughter brought him to see the play. And he said that you, this was quite derogatory and blasphemous and why did you do it? I said, well, we just were quoting texts and we didn't add a single word from or single full stop. He said, but everyone was laughing at it. So I said, blame the audience, not blame the theater people. So the play was banned and then it was brought, the matter was brought to the Senate Culture Committee and then we kept on performing. Instead of Burkha Vaganza, we gave it a different name. So we again performed. So it was one play which was banned again. So it was banned twice. And I mean, but the fun was that even women audience who were wearing Burkha's, they came and they enjoyed the play because the play was not provoking or derogatory. It was just making people giving an image how it would be if everyone was wearing a Burkha. So that's how sometimes we get away with, there is third thing which maybe somewhere fits in is use of music. So music also, because we don't have separate categories. So music also sometimes we can say things which we can't say in prose or in dialogues and people enjoy the music and they get involved and they sometimes don't realize the content is different. If it's a parody of a popular song, they enjoy the theme but the text is completely different from what it was intended to be. So these are tactics by which we sometimes get away with things and that's why we have addressed every sensitive issue in Pakistan which people are not willing to discuss even in private. But we have addressed it in public like the issue of blasphemy laws where if you just are mildly critical of a blasphemy law then you are considered a blasphemer and the convicted blasphemer has only one penalty which is death penalty, it is mandatory. But for the last two decades we have been doing a play which is based on cases of misuse of blasphemy law and we have been presenting it everywhere to general audience, not any selected audience and we didn't have any serious problem because the way we are presenting the story with some dark humor, with some funny scenes and then in between without identifying that this is about a certain law or a certain mindset. You just create the humanitarian crisis which it is creating so you can get away with it. Family planning is another issue and no one wants to talk about it. They think that this is against our religion, against our culture. But we did play on not only family planning but also vasectomy and this is very precisely the case for vasectomy or family planning is discussed. But in such a way that women, children, old people, conservative they all are having a great time because there is no way, whatever the message is, you cannot see it, you just feel it or you receive it but you can get away with it. Well, it's an amazing body of work. I really recommend to all of you to look up at its place. I don't know anyone who vacillates so easily from really deep history right into these hilarious and Joanna, you work also with, particularly with women but with populations all over the world. Let's focus on your work in Afghanistan where you engage people sometimes relating directly to challenges they are facing in their lives and you also weave a little humor in there. I think if you hold it up. Okay, yes, humor is definitely very important and we started working in Afghanistan right after 9-11 and our idea was to help revive theater because under the Taliban of course there was no arts. I mean it's hard to imagine now but like no music. No, can you imagine? No music, no art, no theater, no nothing. So we lived at Kabul University on the floor and just that was one of the non-bombed out buildings and they said, well we're gonna have a theater festival. We said, how can you have a theater festival? There's no theater. And you know they had 50 applicants and they came from just all over Afghanistan, these little theater companies immediately cropped up out of nowhere and it just restored my faith that theater and storytelling is intrinsic to human nature. You can't have people not tell stories and the storytellers of Kabul, of Afghanistan are famous before the Taliban came in and they are hysterical because we went to visit some of the storytellers out in the villages and very scatological and crazy and they'll take a story like being captured by the Russians and falling into a little treene and what that was like. I just glossed over that. But the theater festival, we noticed that there were no women. Yeah, 50 theater groups and there were absolutely no women and the theater was on a very low level also. It was about like third grade level where people are standing in front of each other and it was kind of chaotic. But we were determined to get women on the stage and similar to Pakistan, it's very difficult but we said, well look if women are just performing for women then it should be okay, right? And we went and talked to the Mullahs and they said, yes if the women are just performing for women and we invited them to come see what we were doing. So we started to have the women start to tell their own stories and talk about that but like NGO theater, we were sometimes given a task like when the elections came up, we have these women's theater groups, wouldn't it be nice if they informed women that they had the right to vote? So we did in fact create shows about the elections and we did take them into women's homes from house to house to do these stories about how to vote. I mean it was theater about how you vote. What is it like? You walk in a door and the bus is gonna pick you up and don't worry there's not gonna be any men and you have to sign your name or you put your thumb print. I mean really just theater to inform the public, the women that they have the right to vote and at the same time the men's theater companies did shows for the men about women having the right to vote. So we have to keep all bases covered. It's very important for the plays, all the plays for the men or for the women to include comedy because you want people to watch them and comedy is entertaining. So I'll talk about both the men and the women. The women's shows that we created with the women and they had never done theater, they never saw theater so we've gotten very good at working with people that have never done theater in their life. It's very important to include just a couple of comic characters. Maybe it's the funny uncle or it's the gossipy neighbor and very often we use the structure of having a narrator or two narrators and they're kind of the go between the audience and the action on the stage. So if you're talking about something very depressing like one of the stories about a 13 year old girl who's being sold to an older man to be the second wife and she's really an energetic 13 year old who's really involved in school and she loves it and her neighbor is also a girl who's just going off to college, she's gonna be a doctor and she just wants to be a doctor just like her neighbor friend and suddenly she finds out she's gonna be married. So it's really this tragic story and the gossipy neighbors, they're the ones that are the narrators and they come out onto this and they ask the audience their point of view. So this is kind of a dialogue with the audience throughout the show about whether that's the right thing to do or not and of course one is kind of the naysayer and one is the one who's like no girl should be able to go to school and the other one is like no girl should just you know the next thing you know she'll be wearing lipstick and high heels or whatever. So the gossipy neighbors were very funny and at the same time elicited responses from the audience throughout the whole show. For the man, they are performing in marketplaces because there were no theaters. I mean there's still not really many theaters in Afghanistan. So they're pulling up to a marketplace how are they gonna get a crowd by doing these funny bits? So they'll do like a whole pre-show kind of funny business and then they'll do the show and of course the show has comedy in it as well. And this is the only way you're gonna have people in a marketplace stick around to get your great message about women's rights or anything basically and like you were saying that artists are activists. You know they invented most of their own shows both the women's groups and the men's groups. We you know help them to create a show about what it is that they wanna talk about whatever issues on their mind. So that could be a wide rate. We've worked in Afghanistan since 2001 so we've covered a lot of territory, worked with a lot of different groups and a lot of different topics. But the essential thing is that they're writing it themselves and now they're great. And you know now these groups are on their own. We created a women's theater group at Kandahar, Nangahar, Kabul and Herat. And they're still existing and then also one in Mazar is also doing very well. And incredible legacy. I'm sorry to interrupt you but we're not only running out of time but we have run out of time. But I want and I wanna save just a minute to turn to Nick so I'm sorry but I am really gonna encourage everyone check out the Bonsari Theater website and you can see examples of this incredible work taking on so many different issues. Now Nick you are not from the world of theater. I am. Oh you are. I'm from Iran. Iran is a big theater. Okay I was gonna say. We haven't even talked about Iran at all. So in like five minutes or less tell us everything we need to know about Iran and please make it funny. Sure, sure actually these are original I just wrote them down here. In Iran people are always acting. The majority hates actually many religious values that have been imposed on them. They don't many don't like to fast during Ramadan. Honestly, honestly. And then they pretend to be observing Ramadan but then they go to their bathrooms or anywhere in the office and eat. And they are so, they're very good actors in a way that they believe in what they're doing. They hate, I told them they go and vote for them and keep them in power. That's beautiful. They're always acting. And when I heard the word Gaza monologue I thought oh it's, I thought it was about the Hamas monologue because they just, they don't believe in dialogue. So it's like that in Iran as well. The Ayatollahs love only the monologue. They don't like a dialogue. But what I have learned as an Iranian who has traveled all around the world is that we are always learning from each other basically through humor. Because humor is a tool, is a way of communication. I learned from Shahid's play about the things that are happening in Pakistan and how people are dealing with the government over there. I learned from other plays that I've seen. And many people can actually learn from the theatrics of Iranian politics if they pay more attention. Trump wants them to call. They say that oh, we'll give our phone number if Trump wants to call us. So it's something funny happening. In Iran we usually play with wards. And that actually put me in trouble, a lot of trouble. I drew a cartoon related to an Ayatollah who's name rhymed with crocodile. His last name is Mesbah. I, Temsa in Persian means crocodile. So I mixed them up. I created a national security crisis. 4,000 clergy students and clerics actually went on a four day protest. They called for my death all around the country for a cartoon that most of them hadn't even seen. So the thing is I just played with a ward. And then if you pay attention to wards and how you can make fun of wards and how you can use them if you've just entered the United States and it's hard for you to pronounce three syllable wards like you say philosopher but the guy says piss all over. So for like when you said I'm Faisal Abul Hijak, I said oh Faisal Abul Hijak because we have been hijacked by regime. So if I want to say yes, Iranian politics is like a theater, a comic theater, a dark humor comic theater. And as somebody who went to prison and faced different type of charges from actually pissing off and I told law two insulting the religion and I could have possibly gotten a death penalty. It wasn't optional as well, it's mandatory. It's like a form, you want to get killed or it's mandatory you have to fill it up. Yeah, they would have killed me for that. But I got a death threat because I continued my work not only as a cartoonist but as somebody who was working on water issues and my work was pissing off the revolutionary guards who are building so many dams that have destroyed Iran's water resources. So yes, I escaped from that great theater. I ended up here, I'm very happy to be here on this stage. So I moved from Jerktown to Georgetown. So I'm so happy about that. And I always in some meetings I wear this shirt because I want some people to feel bad. Of course I'm not you. I think you have to read your shirt. Maybe everyone can't read it. I'm sorry I hurt your feelings when I called you stupid. I really thought you already knew. This is what I always tell the Iranian politicians. Thank you very much. Bravo Nick, what a wonderful way to wrap up. Did you want to have a final thanks? I think we're out of time. But if you want a final thanks. No, because when my friend mentioned the words, I remember the first time I applied for a visa. You know there is what is your last occupation? I write Israel. Yeah, for an Iranian when they write sex male or female said, no, I don't have time for that. They have a bad understanding. Okay, next time you guys are doing the late night comedy show for sure. Thank you everyone. You were all super patient. I'm sorry it wasn't even. Everyone to get the same amount. And please seek these people out. So thank you for making the long journey was fantastic to get a glimpse of your work. Thank you so much. Thank you everyone for doing this. Are we going straight to you Derek? And then come back for the performing one another.