For best experience please turn on javascript and use a modern browser!
You are using a browser that is no longer supported by Microsoft. Please upgrade your browser. The site may not present itself correctly if you continue browsing.
The distinguished Israeli theatre activist, director, and scholar Dr. Chen Alon will be a Visiting Scholar at the Amsterdam Center for Conflict Studies at the University of Amsterdam from August 30 2025 to August 31 2026.
Dr. Chen Alon.

Head of the Community Theatre and Artivism

Dr. Chen Alon is the head of the Community Theatre and Artivism (Art & Activism) Program in the Theatre Arts Department at Tel-Aviv University. Chen is a co-founder of Combatants for Peace, a movement of Palestinian and Israeli combatants who have abandoned the way of violence and struggle together non-violently against the occupation. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize with Suleiman Khatib, co-founder of Combatants for Peace (2017-2018).

Activism in the complicated reality of Israel/Palestine

Activism in the complicated reality of Israel/Palestine led him, as a professional actor and director, to search and create new forms of activist theatre with conflicted groups of Palestinians and Israelis, prisoners, drug addicts, homeless people, refugees, people with disabilities, and more. He co-founded Holot Theatre, a company of African asylum seekers and Israeli citizens.

The Polarized Model of Theatre of the Oppressed

Chen's Artivist journey through 'The Polarized Model of Theatre of the Oppressed' that he has developed over the past two and a half decades is depicted in the documentaries, Disturbing the Peace (Stephen Apkon & Andrew Young, 2015), Between Fences (Avi Mograbi, 2016) and, There is Another Way (Stephen Apkon, 2025).

Pursue research on Theatre, Performance Ethnography

At ACCS, Dr. Alon will pursue research on Theatre, Performance Ethnography and social change. He will further develop his ‘polarised theatre’ concept, which is an articulation of a Polarized Model of the Theatre of the Oppressed (Augusto Boal). He will co-organise several public events together with other ACCS members.