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October 2010 marked the ten-year anniversary of "Black October." As the second Intifada erupted in the West Bank and Gaza, demonstrations also began in Arab villages and towns inside Israel. In October 2000, twelve Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed in these demonstrations by Israeli security forces.

One of those killed was a seventeen-year old boy named Aseel Asleh. Aseel was shot point blank in the neck by Israeli police at a demonstration outside his village. No eyewitnesses, including the Israeli policemen at the scene, claimed that Aseel had been violent in anyway. He was dead before reaching the hospital. Aseel had been a leading participant in a peace program called Seeds of Peace. He was wearing his Seeds of Peace t-shirt at the time of his killing and was buried in it.

There is a Field is a play about Aseel’s life and his death, through the perspective of his older sister, Nardeen. The playwright, Jen Marlowe, knew Aseel personally, and became close to his family following his killing. Jen worked with Aseel’s older sister, Nardeen, and other members of the Asleh family on There is a Field for seven years. The play is entirely culled from interviews with Nardeen and other members of Aseel’s family, emails written between Aseel and Nardeen, emails between Aseel and his friends from Seeds of Peace, and transcripts from the Israeli government commission of inquiry established to investigate the killing of twelve Palestinian citizens during October 2000.

There is a Field also addresses the larger struggles facing Palestinians inside Israel. The ten-year anniversary of Black October, coupled with There is a Field, offered an important opportunity to inject these issues into the wider Israel/Palestine discourse.

October’s Global Call To Theatrical Action

In October 2010, we called on theatre companies, theatre artists, and activists worldwide to remember the ten-year anniversary of Black October with There is a Field. Throughout October 2010, there were performances, staged readings and "living room readings" of the play worldwide.