Misha Shulman's Desert Sunrise Returns to Off-Bway in May

Israeli Army veteran Misha Shulman's controversial new play about a female suicide bomber and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Desert Sunrise, will continue at Theater for the New City. After a successful run in April, the play will take a short hiatus and then return on Friday, May 5th and run through Sunday, May 21st .

Desert Sunrise "tells a story about a chance encounter between an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian man. Taking refuge in a desert wadi, the two men are initially antagonistic, but each is surprisingly open to the other's views. Just when they seem to have overcome their distrust for each other, they are joined by the Palestinian man's beloved, who embodies an odd, impermeable shell of ideology and radical zeal that neither of the men can penetrate. Over the course of one memorable night the process of mutual understanding and forgiveness begins, halts, gets rejected, but is ultimately embraced by the pained characters," according to production notes.

The play uses English, Hebrew and Arabic dialogue between the three characters and is interspersed with choral odes, performed by onstage musicians and adapted by Shulman from various translations of Aeschylus' Agamemnon. At times, the characters quote Osama Bin Laden, an Israeli mother who lost her son to the conflict, Ariel Sharon, Hamas leaders, Israeli and Palestinian politicians, peace activists, and Palestinian cave dwellers. It also employs Indonesian shadow techniques that are shared with Egyptian puppetry.

Author and director Shulman was Commander in Charge of Education in the Communications Unit of Lebanon while serving in the Israeli Defense Forces from 1996 to 1999. He is now a member of the The Living Theatre and DADA New York, as well as founding director of the Free Theatre Collective. His memoir of service in Lebanon, "Memories of a Forgotten People,"was published in the September-October 2005 issue of Tikkun magazine.

Because of the success of the play, there will be a tour of college campuses across the United States beginning in May. Desert Sunrise also received the 2005 Andrew and Eleanor Mcglinchee Prize from Hunter College.

The cast for the play will include Alice Borman, Jared Miller, Haythem Noor, Yifat Sharabi and Morteza Tavakoli. Dalia Carella, a leading figure in the field of Middle Eastern dance in America, will choreograph and perform dances through the play. The original music is by former Israeli Paratroopers Lieutenant, internationally acclaimed Oud (Middle Eastern lute) and percussion player Yoel Ben Simhon. Design duties will be handled by Celia Owens (sets) and Itai Erdal (lighting).

Desert Sunrise will return on Friday, May 5th and run through Sunday, May 21st. Performances will be Thursdays through Saturdays at 8PM and Sundays at 3PM. Tickets are $15.00 for all seats and may be purchased by calling (212) 254-1109 or online at www.theaterforthenewcity.net.

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