by mustafasCongratulations to our students on completing their first year at The Freedom Theatre’s School of Performing Arts!
This year’s class presentation, The Warehouse, continues a long-standing tradition within The Freedom Theatre of using educational performances as milestones in the students’ artistic journey. The production was directed by Khawla Ibrahim, an award-winning director from the Golan Heights who has collaborated with The Freedom Theatre on several occasions, including the original 2019 educational staging of The Warehouse by the School of Performing Arts.
Developed over the second semester, the piece reflects the students’ progression through the first phase of their training — from applied theatre and scene construction to comedic improvisation, pantomime, Commedia dell’Arte, creative writing, movement exploration, stand-up comedy techniques, playback theatre, and finally, theatre history.
The Warehouse is built around the story of a group of young actors working part-time in a storage space, using the world of the warehouse as a frame to explore classic theatrical texts. The students incorporated monologues from a wide range of global theatre traditions — from the tragedies of Sophocles and the works of William Shakespeare to pieces by 19th-century playwrights such as Anton Chekhov and Henrik Ibsen. As with the 2019 cohort, performing these monologues in Classical Arabic posed a significant artistic and linguistic challenge, demanding precision, discipline, and a deep grasp of the text in order to communicate its emotional resonance to the audience.
The original educational production of The Warehouse was presented on The Freedom Theatre stage in December 2019, marking a key moment in the School’s development. This year’s staging builds on that legacy, reaffirming the School of Performing Arts’ commitment to rigorous, holistic actor training grounded in discipline, creativity, and cultural depth.
We are proud of our students’ dedication, their artistic courage, and the clear growth they have demonstrated throughout the year — and we look forward to accompanying them as they continue their journey.
