
Beginning in 2019
GREY ROCK had its premiere at La MaMa Theater in New York City in January 2019. Starring Khalifa Natour, as Yousef the former TV repairman building a rocket to reach the moon, Grey Rock has profoundly moved audiences worldwide.
"Grey Rock forces its audience to face the big questions and leaves them enamored with the hope of its characters... It changed my world ... run, don't walk, to see it. It might just change your world too."
— Broadway World Minneapolis
“…building a rocket is also a clear allegory for making art, for creating something so extraordinary that the whole world must notice.”
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In 2018, the Remote Theater Project commissioned Amir Nizar Zuabi, one of the leading theater directors and playwrights in the Middle East. Together we reached out to Palestinian actors throughout the West Bank and Israel to create an acting ensemble for the project.
Set in the present day, Grey Rock tells the story of a young Palestinian so enamored with the 1969 American moon landing that he muses, “shouldn’t Palestine, the land of prophets, also have a presence on the moon?” Without money or technology, but with the help of his bemused West Bank neighbors, he sets out to build a space shuttle. Grey Rock explores the relationship between that American and Palestinian cultures.
Actors were invited into the project after workshop/auditions in four cities: Jenin, Ramallah, Haifa and Bethlehem. A select group participated in a series of developmental workshops throughout 2018. The final cast of 5: Khalifa Natour, Ivan Azazian, Fidaa Zidan, Alaa Shehada and Motaz Malhees came in New York and performed at LaMaMa Theatre Jan, 2019. The same cast performed GREY ROCK at the Melbourne International Arts Festival in 2019 and returned to the US for a 5-week tour including The Kennedy Center, The Public Theatre/ Under the Radar, The Guthrie Theatre and the Kimmel Center. After 3 years, GREY ROCK finally comes back with a new cast member, Luca Kamleh Chapman, playing Fadel at the Adelaide Festival.
All performances are in English, and each venue includes post-production discussions with audiences.





