“By no means in Studio’s historical past has politics prevented us from sharing the work of an artist we imagine in.”
—Creative Director David Muse.
In a letter to supporters on Friday, Studio Theatre Creative Director David Muse outlined the circumstances that led to Studio’s cancellation of its deliberate manufacturing of Palestinian playwright Alaa Shehada’s The Horse of Jenin.
The solo present was scheduled to run at Studio in late February 2026 as an addition to Studio’s beforehand introduced 2025/26 season. Studio was producing the present in partnership with Georgetown College’s Laboratory for World Politics and Efficiency. The DC cease was the primary in a four-stop American tour of the play.
Based on Muse’s letter, in November 2025, Shehada was “detained on his method into the US, held for over 24 hours, denied entry, and despatched again to his residence in Amsterdam.” Since then, the USA has banned entry to anybody holding a Palestinian passport, forcing Studio to cancel plans to supply the present, which Shehada wrote and performs.
Studio and The Lab now plan to host three screenings of a filmed model of The Horse of Jenin April 7, 8, and 9. Particulars on the screenings could be discovered right here.
The Horse of Jenin is a coming-of-age story instructed by Palestinian comic Alaa Shehada by way of a mixture of stand-up, storytelling, and masks work. The present was a sold-out hit on the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe Pageant.
Right here is David Muse’s full assertion on the cancellation and subsequent screening:
“Worldwide programming has been a defining function of my tenure at Studio. Roughly a 3rd of the productions we’ve produced throughout my time right here had been written by worldwide writers. Throughout these 16 years, Studio has introduced in 10 full productions from overseas, and has hosted artists from the UK, Norway, South Africa, Australia, Canada, Brazil, New Zealand, and Iran.
“Washington, DC is a dynamic hub of worldwide change — a every day assembly level for representatives from almost each nation on the earth, and a metropolis whose neighborhoods replicate waves of immigration and international affect. I really feel strongly that Studio’s work ought to replicate our metropolis’s international character. The private tales instructed on our levels deepen cross-border ties and remind us that we’re extra alike than totally different.
“Earlier this season, we put plans in place to host our subsequent worldwide manufacturing. A success on the Edinburgh Fringe Pageant, the place I noticed it, The Horse of Jenin is Palestinian actor and comic Alaa Shehada’s story of rising up and discovering the theatre in a refugee camp within the West Financial institution. It’s humorous. It’s transferring. And it’s powerfully human. Studio was set to be the primary cease on its North American tour. Dates had been reserved, contracts had been negotiated, and the Laboratory for World Politics and Efficiency was set to co-present.
“However in November, regardless of having a legitimate O-1B visa granted to people acknowledged for his or her extraordinary capacity within the arts, Alaa was detained on his method into the US, held for over 24 hours, denied entry, and despatched again to his residence in Amsterdam. Since then, the USA has banned entry for any particular person touring with Palestinian Authority documentation, shutting down any remaining hope that we might host Alaa’s manufacturing. By no means in Studio’s historical past has politics prevented us from sharing the work of an artist we imagine in.
“Whereas we will’t host the dwell manufacturing for a full run, we have now simply introduced that we’ll display a filmed model of the present. (It was initially a one-night solely affair, however we simply added a second night time — April 9 — after the primary bought out virtually instantly.) It’s a small however significant gesture, a method of sharing Alaa’s story and refusing to take no for a solution.
“We couldn’t do any of this — scout productions from around the globe, host worldwide artists, share international views with native audiences — with out the assist of individuals such as you. Thanks for believing in us and serving to us use theatre to convey the world a bit of bit nearer collectively.”
Screenings of playwright Alaa Shehada’s The Horse of Jenin will happen on April 7, 8, and 9, 2026, in partnership with Georgetown College’s Laboratory for World Politics and Efficiency. Tickets to the screening at Studio Theatre on April 7 are bought out, however tickets to the April 9 screening could be bought right here. Tickets for The Lab screening (April 8) could be bought right here. (Tickets: $15.)
