"Jennifer Jajeh has an interesting story to tell. Sometimes-humorous, sometimes-disturbing... her discoveries of what life in Ramallah is like for Palestinians may be revelatory for most Americans." —Kerry Reid, Chicago Tribune

Jennifer Jajeh in her one-woman showJennifer Jajeh's tragicomic solo show has already been a hit in the San Francisco Bay Area, where it ran for 12 weeks in the fall of '09, and in Minneapolis and Chicago for six weeks in the spring of last year. Audiences are overwhelmingly receptive to Jennifer's performance, and critics have been enthusiastic. Read reviews.

The Levantine Cultural Center is pleased to cosponsor the play's Los Angeles debut, February 11-March 5 at the Theater Asylum in Hollywood. Advance tickets here.

With the current ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, the threat of global terrorism, and the never-ending negotiations and hostilities between Israelis and Palestinians, it's hard not to feel overwhelmed by all of the bad international news. That's exactly how Jennifer Jajeh feels. And to make matters worse, Jennifer is Palestinian. Well, Palestinian American. Or more precisely: a single, Christian, first generation, Palestinian American woman who chooses to return to her parents' hometown of Ramallah at the start of the Second Intifada.

Join her on American and Palestinian soil on auditions, bad dates, and across military checkpoints as she navigates the thorny terrain around Palestinian identity. Weaving together humor, slides, pop culture references and live theatre, Jajeh explores how she becomes Palestinian-ized, then politicized and eventually radicalized in a fresh, often funny, searingly honest way.

I Heart Hamas: And Other Things I'm Afraid To Tell You, recognized by NYTheatre.com as "a fascinating look into a world we don't often see or hear about," made its world premiere in August 2008 as a part of New York's International Fringe Festival.

WHY THIS PLAY, WHY NOW?

The Levantine Cultural Center believes that great theatre must be provocative and fearless. Moreover, no theatre company exists to show Los Angeles that Middle Easterners, from Morocco to Afghanistan, can take pride in their ethnicity while addressing racism, war, and fanaticism. Confusion about the Middle East and its people continues to dominate the American landscape. Questions raised by the Middle Eastern subject—both philosophical and political—represent some of the greatest challenges and most worthwhile issues that contemporary theatre can attempt to address. The pressing relevance of Middle Eastern-American relations creates a vital energy, ready to be harnessed by theatre artists and translated into creative power. Middle Eastern-American theatre is charged with passion, conflict, romance, and yes, even humor. This year, with its support for I Heart Hamas...And Other Things I'm Afraid to Tell You, and last year's Salam-Shalom, the Levantine Cultural Center is positioning itself to become the primary engine for producing and supporting Middle Eastern/American theatre in Southern California.