Backstage in Remote Theatre

‘The Well’ is a powerful piece of Remote theatre about how interaction with the outside world can sometimes feel for the people who live in Gaza. It was written by Remote Theatre specialist in Gaza and very long term Hands Up Project volunteer, Amal Mukhairez and published in our latest book, ‘Doing Remote Theatre’ - (available here ) It was performed live for the first time in front of a large audience at Palestine Solidarity Campaign UK, AGM on the 19th March 2022 by Hala Sarsour, Mais Qudaih, and Layan Aljamal, students at Al Rimal Prep girls school B, Gaza city. You can watch the recording of this performance below.

What the audience for this play didn’t see, and what you won’t see if you watch the video, is everything that goes on backstage to create a piece of remote theatre like this.

The play was performed in Amal’s living room, and in the picture below you can get an idea of the level of dedication, resourcefulness and creativity that was involved. Amal’s two older daughters are standing on chairs to hold up the sky (a blue sheet). The two visible actors (Hala and Mais) are peering over the webcam which has a roll of tape placed over it, propped up by two plugs to give the effect of speaking into a well. Out of shot we see Layan (the person in the well) who is sitting on the floor, close enough to the computer’s microphone to be easily heard. Also out of shot is a table with snacks on it which are going to be passed ‘through the camera’ to the person in the well.

This is great work and like all good theatre it’s made to look to look simple by the skills and experience of the actors and the director. If you’d like to learn more about how to create remote theatre like this you may be interested to know that over the summer we’ll be running a series of workshops for students and teachers on remote theatre techniques. Watch this space!