Jewish Actor Theodore Bikel is participating in the boycott. Photo: Bev Sykes.

More than 50 artists, actors, directors and playwrights signed a petition last week in response to a report in Haaretz that said some of Israel’s leading theatrical groups planned to participate in the opening of a new cultural center in the West Bank city of Ariel in November.

In the petition, the artists said they oppose performing in Israeli settlements located in the West Bank.

At Sunday’s cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said the last thing the country needs is a boycott from within Israel.

American actors/actresses who have refused to perform at Ariel’s concert are:

Ed Asner
Actor
8-Time Emmy Award winner; Former President Screen Actors Guild,

Roseanne Barr
Actor, Comedienne, Writer, Television Producer
Roseanne, Emmy, Golden Globe, 6 People’s Choice Awards, 3 American Comedy Awards,  TV Land Innovator Award

Theodore Bikel
Actor, Singer, Musician
Co-founder of the Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv; President of the Associated Actors and Artistes of America; Academy Award nominee; Tony Award nominee; Actor in Theatre, Film and Television

Eve Ensler
Playwright, Performer
The Vagina Monologues; Obie Award; Guggenheim Fellowship

Mary Rodgers Guettel
Composer, Author
Once Upon A Mattress; Freaky Friday; Free to Be You and Me; The Hot Spot; From A to Z; The Mad Show; Working; The Madwoman of Central Park West; Director of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization

Sheldon Harnick
Lyricist
Pulitzer Prize winner; Tony Award winner; Fiorello!; Fiddler on the Roof

Bill Irwin
Actor, Mime, Choreographer
Winner two Tony Awards; Winner of the National Endowment for the Arts Choreographer’s Fellowship; Guggenheim, Fulbright and MacArthur Fellowships

Tony Kushner
Playwright, Screenwriter
Pulitzer Prize for Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia; Caroline or Change; Tony, Emmy, Drama Desk Award winner; Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominee; Co-author of Munich

Miriam Margolyes
Actor
BAFTA winner; Wicked; Little Dorrit; James and the Giant Peace; Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Julianne Moore
Actor
Boogie Nights; Magnolia; Far From Heaven; The Hours; The Big Lebowski; A Single Man; The Kids Are All Right

Mira Nair
Director
Monsoon Wedding, The Namesake, Mississippi Masala, Salaam Bombay!

Cynthia Nixon
Actress
Sex and the City; The Heidi Chronicles; Angels in America; Emmy, Tony and Grammy Award-winning actress

Lynn Nottage
Playwright
Pulitzer Prize winner for Ruined; MacArthur Fellowship; Guggenheim Fellowship

Mandy Patinkin
Actor, Vocalist 
Evita; Sunday in the Park with George; Tony and Emmy Award winner; The Princess Bride, Yentl; Mamaloshen (Vocalist)

Harold Prince
Director, Producer
Pajama Game, Cabaret, West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Sweeney Todd, Evita, Phantom of the Opera, Company, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Zorba; Follies (a short list of an impossibly long list); multiple Tony Award Winner National Medal of the Arts recipient

Vanessa Redgrave
ActressOscar, Emmy, Tony, Golden Globe, Cannes Film Festival and the Screen Actors Guild awards; BAFTA Fellowship; The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie; Julia; The Trojan Women; Blowup; Isadora; Mary Queen of Scots; Atonement

James Schamus
Producer, Screenwriter, Film Historian
BAFTA Award Winner; producer of Brokeback Mountain; co-writer and producer of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; The Ice Storm, Eat Drink Man Woman, Academy Award nominee, CEO Focus Features

Wallace Shawn
Actor, Playwright, Translator 
My Dinner With Andre; The Princess Bride; Vanya on 42nd St; playwright of The Fever, The Designated Mourner, Aunt Dan and Lemon; translator of The Three Penny Opera

Stephen Sondheim
Composer, Lyricist
Pulitzer Prize, Academy Award, Multiple Tony, Grammy, Drama Desk, Obie Award winner; Kennedy Center Honors Lifetime Achievement Award; West Side Story; Gypsy; A Funny Thing Happenend on the Way to the Forum; Company; A Little NIght Music; Sweeney Todd; Sunday in the Park with George; Into the Woods (a short list of a remarkably long list)

Jennifer Tilly
Actress
Bullets Over Broadway, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Liar Liar, Bound; Academy Award Nominee

David Adjmi
Playwright
Stunning; Steinberg Playwright Award, the Bush Artists Fellowship, and the Kesselring Fellowship for Drama

Bruce Allardice
Managing Director
Ping Chong & Co.

Philip Arnoult
Director, Center for International Theatre Development (CITD)

Anthony Arnove
Author and Editor
Co-Directed (with Howard Zinn and Chris Moore) and Executive Produced “The People Speak.”

Caron Atlas
Cultural Organizer and Consultant, Project Director, Arts and Democracy Project

Arthur Aviles
Artistic Director, The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Arthur Aviles Typical Theatre

Sheila Balter
Actor, Director
Word for Word Performing Arts Company

David Barlow
Actor, Writer, Performance Artist

Laura Barnett
Theater Educator, Performance Artist, Director

George Bartenieff
Actor, Obie Award Winner

Bruce Barthol
Composer, Lyricist
San Francisco Mime Troupe

Mark Barthol
Composer, Lyricist

Mark Barton
Lighting Designer

John Bell
Director, Puppeteer
Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, Great Small Works.

Melia Bensussen
Director
Obie Award Winning Director; Chair of Emerson College Department of Performing Arts

Eric Bentley
Theatre scholar, critic, author, playwright, editor and translator

Jonathan Berger
Artist, Curator

Theodore S. Berger
Executive Director of the New York Foundation for the Arts for thirty years

Susan Bernfield
Artistic Director, New Georges

Philip Bither
Senior Curator, Walker Arts Center

Paul Boesing
Actor, Composer

Abigail Browde
Writer, Actor, Director

James Bundy
Dean, Yale School of Drama;  Artistic Director, Yale Repertory Theatre

Kathleen Chalfant
Actor
Obie Award winner (2x), Drama Desk winner, Tony Award Nominee; Angels in America:  Millenium Approaches; Wit

Linda Chapman
Director, Playwright, Performer
Associate Artistic Director, New York Theatre Workshop

Rachel Chavkin
Director
Founder and Artistic director of the TEAM (the Theater of the Emerging American Moment); Obie Award winner

Trudi Cohen
Puppeteer, Theater Artist
Great Small Works

Kia Corthron
Playwright

Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas
Playwright

Clare Coss
Playwright

Alex Courtney
Stage, Film and Television Actor

Tim Cusack
Artistic Director
Theatre Askew

Savitri D.
Director
The Church of Life After Shopping

Matthew Dellapina
Actor

Ivor Dembina
Comedian

David J. Diamond
Producer, Theater Consultant

Elin Diamond
Critic, Scholar

Liz Diamond
Director
Chair, Directing Deptartment – Yale School of Drama

Sally Eberhardt
Producer, Actor
Theatres Against War (THAW)

Edward Einhorn
Director, Playwright, Novelist
Artistic Director of Untitled Theater Company #61 and of the Festival of Jewish Theater and Ideas

Deborah Eisenberg
Playwright, Author, Actor
MacArthur Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, O. Henry Awards

John Clinton Eisner
Artistic Director, Lark Play Development Center

Oskar Eustis
Artistic Director, The Public Theater

Phyllis Ewen
Artist

Bertie Ferdman, Ph.D.
Director, Theatre Artist, Curator, Producer, Educator
Artistic Director – ExPgirl

Corey Fischer
Actor, Playwright
Playwright of See Under: Love; co-founder of the Traveling Jewish Theater (now the Jewish Theater San Francisco)

Elinor Fuchs
Critic; Scholar
Yale School of Drama

Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros
Playwright
2004 finalist, Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Adam Greenfield
Director of New Play Development, Playwright Horizons

David Greenspan
Actor, Award-Winning Playwright

Andre Gregory
Actor, Director
My Dinner With Andre

Kathryn Grody
Actor, Writer
Obie Award Winner

Jason Grote
Playwright, Screenwriter

Anne Hallinan
Actor
Woman’s Will

Del Hamilton
Co-Founder and Artistic Director
7 Stages

Josh Hamilton
Actor

Hali Hammer
Musician

Karen Hartman
Playwright

Suzanne Hayes
Actor, Producer, Director
Word for Word Performing Arts Company

David Herskovits
Founder and Artistic Director
Target Margin Theater

Ian W. Hill
Director
Gemini CollisionWorks

Joan Holden
Playwright

Jeffrey Horowitz
Director
Founder and Artistic Director, Theater for a New Audience
Advisory Board of The Shakespeare Society and Artistic Directorate of London’s Globe Theatre, Artistic Advisor to the Shakespeare Globe Centre (USA)

Holly Hughes
Performance Artist
Guggenheim Fellow; one of the “NEA 4”, whose proposed grants were vetoed for gay content

Birgit Huppuch
Actor

Julia Jarcho
Playwright, Director, Performer

Morgan Jenness
Dramaturg

John Jesurun
Writer, Director, Multi-Media Artist

Jeffrey M. Jones
Playwright, Curator
Little Theatre @ Dixon Place, Pataphysics @ The Flea

Melanie Joseph
Artistic Producer, The Foundry Theatre

Chris Kam
Independent Producer

Stephen Kaplin
Puppeteer, Theater Designer/Performer
Great Small Works and Chinese Theatre Works

Melissa Kievman
Director

Maxine Klein
Director

Zachary Klein
Writer

Josh Kornbluth
Monologist

Gail Kreigel
Playright, Composer

Aaron Landsman
Independent Artist

Paul Lazar
Co-Artistic Director Big Dance Theater

Herbert Leibowitz
Writer and Editor

Maxinne Rhea Leighton
Author

Robert H. Leonard
Director
Professor, Department of Theatre Arts – Virginia Tech

Gideon Lester
Dramaturg and Curator
Former associate artistic director, American Repertory Theatre; former Acting Artistic Director, American Repertory Theatre

Roberta Levitow
Co-Founder, Theatre Without Borders

Sheila Lewandowski
Executive Director, The Chocolate Factory Theater

Irene Lewis
Artistic Director, Center Stage, Baltimore, Maryland

Ethan Lipton
Playwright

Casey Llewellyn
Theater Artist

Jason Loewith
Executive Director, National New Play Network

Quincy Long
Playwright

John Carroll Lynch
Actor

Kirk Lynn
Co-Producing Artistic Director – Rude Mechs, Austin, TX

Matthew Maguire
Co-Artistic Director, Creation Production Company

Matthew Maher
Actor

Judith Malina
Actor, Director
Founder and Artistic Director, The Living Theatre

Karen Malpede
Playwright, Theater Three Collaborative

Bezalel Manekin
Teacher
Encore! Educational Theater Company (Israel)

Nina Mankin
Dramaturg, Writer

Emily Mann
Artistic Director/Playwright
McCarter Theatre Center, Princeton, NJ

Deborah Margolin
Playwright, Actor, Educator

Vijay Mathew
Co-Director, American Voices New Play Institute

Marin Mazzie
Actress, Singer

Ellen McLaughlin
Playwright; Actor

Erin Mee
Director, Educator
Swarthmore theater arts professor

Greg Mehrten
Actor, Director, Writer

David Michalek
Artist, Photographer
Visiting Faculty Member – Yale Divinity School

Tyler Micoleau
Lighting Designer

Tim Miller
Performance Artist
One of the “NEA 4”, whose proposed grants were vetoed for gay content

Jennifer Miller
Performance Artist, Founder and Artistic Director of Circus Amok

Jennifer Monson
Dancer, Choreographer, iLand
Guggenheim Fellowship

Steve Moore
Artistic Director, Physical Plant Theater

Susan Mosakowski
Playwright,Co-Artistic Director Creation Production Company

David Moscow
Actor

Erika Munk
Critic, Writer, Educator, formerly at the Yale School of Drama

Tom Nelis
Actor

Jim Nicola
Artistic Director, New York Theatre Workshop

Alicia Ostriker
Poet

Carol Ostrow
Producing Director, The Flea Theater

Annie-B Parson
Co-Founder, Artistic Director Big Dance Theater, NYFA and Guggenheim Fellow

Sally Ann Parsons
Costumer, Craftsman, Designer

Shailja Patel
Sundance Theatre Fellow 2010

Katie Pearl
Director

Sybille Pearson
Playwright
Rockefeller Playwrights Fellowship; founding member of The Playwrights Circle at The New York Theatre Workshop;  Artistic Resident at the Vineyard Theater

Ralph Pena
Artistic Director, Ma Yi Theater

Carla Peterson
Artistic Director, Dance Theater Workshop

Brian Pickett
Theater Artist and Educator, Member Steering Committee – Theaters Against War (THAW)

Catherine Porter
Director
Co-Artistic Director Peculiar Works Project, Obie Award Winner

Ruth Reichl
Writer and Editor
Former Editor-in-Chief – Gourmet magazine, Memoirist, 6-time James Beard Award winner

Reno
Comedian

Gordon Rogoff
Theater Critic; Director; Professor of Theater
Yale School of Drama; Obie Award Winner

Jenny Romaine
Puppeteer, Theater Artist
Great Small Works

Avital Ronell
Writer, Academic, Literary Critic

Najla Said
Actor, Playwright

Richard Schechner
Director
Professor of Performance Studies at the Tisch School of Performance Arets, NYU; Editor of the Drama Review; Artistic Director of East Coast Artists

Ken Rus Schmoll
Director

Sarah Schulman
Playwright, Novelist, Historian

Brian H. Scott
Theatrical Designer

Regine Anna Seckinger, Ph.D.
Advisory Board Member, Rude Mechanicals, Austin, TX

Jamil Shamasdin
Actor

Peggy Shaw
Performance Artist, Actor, Playwright

Sloane Shelton
Actor, Writer, Producer

Christopher Shinn
Playwright
Obie Award winner, Guggenheim Fellowship, Pulitzer Prize finalist

Misha Shulman
Playwright

Jeanmarie Simpson
Theatre/Film Artist

Blair Singer
Television Writer
NBC Universal

Michael Singer
Television News Producer
Former producer, CBS News

Alisa Solomon
Theater Critic, Dramaturg
Director of Arts Concentration, Columbia School of Journalism

Bonnie Stein
Performing Arts Administrator; Manager; Project Producer and Coordinator; Executive Director – GOH Productions

Kris Stone
Stage Designer

Mark Sussman
Scholar, Puppeteer, Director
Great Small Works; Concordia University

Caridad Svich
Playwright, Songwriter, Translator, Editor

Bill Talen
Director
The Church of Life After Shopping

Astra Taylor
Director
Zizek!; Examined Life

Zohar Tirosh-Polk
Playwright

Kathleen Tolan
Playwright, Actor

Basil Twist
Puppeteer
Obie Award Winner

Rob Urbinati
Director, Playwirght, Screenwriter
Director of New Play Development at Queens Theatre in the Park

Charlie Varon
Playwright, Performer

Paula Vogel
Playwright, Scholar
Pulitzer Prize Winner, Eugene O’Neill Chair, Playwriting Department -Yale School of Drama

Naomi Wallace
Playwright, Screenwriter

Anne Wangh
Choreographer, Lecturer on Dance
Founder, Dance Library of Israel

Stephen Wangh
Playwright, Director, Acting Teacher
Naropa University

Anne Washburn
Playwright
Guggenheim Fellow

Donya K. Washington
Director

Stephen Webber
Actor

Brenda Wehle
Actor

Evan Weissman
Actor, Playwright
Buntport Theater Company

Mac Wellman
Playwright, Author, Poet, Scholar
Donald I. Fine Professor of Play Writing at Brooklyn College

Anabelle Winograd
Writer, Critic, Educator
Eunice Wong
Actor
Kristina Wong
Award-Wnning Solo Performer and Writer

Robert Woodruff
Director

Susan Yankowitz
Award-Winning Playwright and Librettist

David Zellnik
Playwright, Screenwriter, Lyricist