The headlong rush of political change in Palestine since the "Peace Treaty", has affected primary domains in our society. And, although many changes have had negative ramifications others such as Ministry of Culture and the attitude toward theatre in education, have been positive.

During our first six years, we have been concentrating our efforts on teaching drama directly to the high school students as an extra-curricular activity. Our efforts have been highly rewarded. We have succeeded in building a strong reputation for our work. For this reason we feel that the time has come to take the next step. To offer people the chance to devote themselves to a full- time course of study:

This will be the first attempt of its kind in Palestine, we hope it will become one of the pillars of theatre training in our country, based on international standards, yet keeping its national essence. To design the program we need to discuss the new methods, the successes ( and the failures !) that you, and we, have experienced.

The Composition of our Seminar:
Our Four Main Aims

A. To draw benefit from the educational and practical experiences of the participants.
B. To get exposure to what is new or developed in the world of teaching acting.
C. To research various peculiarities vis-à-vis the generalities in teaching theatre.
D. To find ways of future cooperation between ASHTAR and the participants.

Each day of the seminar we will focus our discussions on one of the following points.

A. In order to draw benefit from the experiences of the participants, we need to discuss and share the original ideas and perspectives of those who built their programs. Taking into consideration the social, political and cultural background to each program, we will focus on how this affected their design and content.

B. We wish to learn about and share ideas on the curricula and methods followed by the participants, whether within a school or individually. We will focus on the theoretical / practical ideas used in the development of each program - We will find out how each program was constructed and implemented. Then through analysis we will examine the reasons for its successes or failures.

C. We are interested in discussing and comparing the established canon of techniques and practices in Theatre (such as the methods of Brecht or Stanislavsky). And, to compare these with new techniques that the participants have tried or developed.

We want to learn more about the peculiarities and idiosyncrasies of theatre school courses around the world. By examining the reasons for these differences, we hope to be able to fit our program to the particular needs of our learners, and at the same time provide them with skills and knowledge that translate universally.

We invite participants to prepare something on one, or more of these subjects.

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