SPEAK SYRIA
Theatre Workshops at the Turkish-Syrian Border
With the aim of providing meaningful and fun activities for children, but also to get to know the people and their stories, we offered a series of workshops in the Turkish-Syrian border town of Reyhanli from October 2013 to February 2014.
Our groups were often mixed, girls and boys aged 12 and younger. We worked in different locations: on weekends and vacations we offered activities in gardens and on soccer fields, while on weekdays we worked in schools with the help of teachers, using classrooms and playgrounds. The workshops were mainly oriented to activities and games of biographical theater, „theater of the oppressed“ and method acting.
Our theater workshops took place over several months in Reyhanlı, right on the border with Syria and just a few kilometers from the huge Atme refugee camp.
In recent years, the population of Reyhanli has more than tripled as more and more Syrians reach Turkey. Some Syrian families live in tents, garages, former stables. Nevertheless, in Reyhanli there are also Syrian restaurants and cafes, hospitals and informal schools where we could organize our workshops.
Some participants of the workshops later became the actors of the film Land of Light. Results, stories and experiences from the workshops became part of the script for this feature film. The workshops were financed partly by crowdfunding, partly by the diploma budget at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. Pictures and information about the workshops can be found on the Facebook page.
Team
Project Management: David Ruf
Workshops: Carl Gerber, David Steffen, Maria del Mar Marais, David Ruf
Translation: Louay Aljerf, Ziad Alkhatoum, Karam Skaf
Crowdfunding: Jürgen Morasch
Curator: Maria del Mar Marais
Theater workshops on the Turkish-Syrian border over the period of 5 months.
