About Walls

WALLS: A Play for Palestine is a play written by Summer Ghasan Awad and directed by David Ratliff. Based on the playwright’s life, WALLS tells the story of a teenager’s complex relationship with her traditional Muslim father and her struggle to reconcile her Palestinian roots with her East Tennessee upbringing. Although Diaspora Child clashes with her father over dating, prom, and clothing, she yearns to connect with her heritage on her own terms. As Diaspora Child reads history textbooks and learns Arabic, Mother Palestine appears to tell the story of her traumatic history. WALLS explores the issues of immigration and diaspora, parent-child relationships, and the often forgotten history of the Palestinian people.

WALLS  premiered with great success at the Clarence Brown LAB Theatre in Knoxville, Tennessee, on January 14-17, 2016. Since the premiere, WALLS  was accepted to The New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC), the largest multi-arts festival in North America.  WALLS had a successful five-show run at the twentieth annual FringeNYC festival from August 12-28, 2016. The FringeNYC production received positive reviews from Theatre Is Easy and CurtainUp, as well as favorable ratings on Show-Score. Since FringeNYC, WALLS has been performed at Saint Joseph’s College in Brooklyn, sponsored by the college’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. The show returned to Knoxville in September 2017 for a well-received production sponsored by Knoxville Area Women in Black. During the quarantine period of the COVID-19 pandemic, the show was revived on Zoom. Most recently, the playwright hosted a staged reading of the play at KHOI studios in Ames, Iowa, to provide a platform for conversation about the ongoing genocide in Palestine since October 7th. 

The playwright is now making this play available for groups across the U.S. that are interested in Palestinian rights. If you are an SJP or other relevant organization looking to host a performance of WALLS, please contact Summer Awad at summergawad@gmail.com.