Balalin Theater Troupe

The Balalin Theater Troupe ("The Balloons" in Arabic) originated in the West Bank in 1970 and remained active until 1975. It was co-founded by the Usrat Al-Masrah ("The Family Theater Troupe") based in Ramallah, in collaboration with Francois Abu Salem, an alumnus of Théâtre du Soleil. Balalin is considered one of the West Bank's most influential theatre troupes, widely acknowledged for catalyzing a burgeoning theatrical movement throughout the seventies.

Committed to portraying the Palestinian reality in the local dialect, Balalin departed from the tradition of classical Arabic. Their repertoire mostly remains unpublished, but their production Al-Atmeh ("darkness") is one of the earliest fully realized theatrical experiences in modern Palestine.

Balalin contributed to The Association for Work and Development for the Arts, an organization that spearheaded the inaugural Jerusalem Theatre Festival in 1975.

History

In the West Bank, the East Jerusalem-Ramallah area was becoming a hub for original Palestinian theater, due to efforts by the YMCA to engage the youth in community-building educational activities that included play readings. There, Salem met members of the Family Theater group, including Sameh Abboushey, Nadia Mikhail, and Vera Tamari, who staged Younis and the Almond Tree, and later agreed to collaborate with Salem to stage an original play he had written called A Slice of Life. The play opened in the theatre of Al-Omariyyeh school in Jerusalem’s Old City in 1972.

Legacy

In 1973, Salem, with a faction of Balalin, left the group to form Bali-Lin (Without Leniency), and both ended two years later to make way for Sunduq al-Ajab Troupe. Other troupes that emerged at the time were Dababis (“Pins”) and Sanabil (“Spikes”).