Meet Amir Abu Alrob, third-year student at The Freedom Theatre School. Amir is from the town Qabatia close to Jenin. He came to The Freedom Theatre in 2013 at the age of 15 as an actor in a production, Lost Land. He had dropped out of high school and decided to audition for the Theatre School. In 2014 he joined the new class of acting students.
Amir says that during the three years in the Theatre School he has broken many barriers and “learned how to be a human with a clear goal in life”. He was part of creating theatre plays that touched upon the reality of his own life and that of his community.
To Amir, theatre is a platform that gives room to different characters that may look like him but from different angles. “While I play a character I am at the same time connecting it to myself. Each character has some of my emotions and thoughts. Thereby acting is not only about presenting a character; it’s about presenting myself to the audience. Through theatre I can release all my troubles on stage, without any judgment.”
Amir sees The Freedom Theatre as a place of freedom of thought, innovation and creativity. “This theatre is not only for some people: it’s for everyone. It’s like a special planet where you can find all kinds of people with different thoughts, religions, backgrounds, working side by side.”
During his studies Amir participated twice in The Freedom Theatre’s annual Freedom Ride, as well as in the plays Atuwani and Return to Palestine that were based on accounts by community members and toured around the West Bank. He also went on international tours in Portugal and India. “The tour in India was the first time of my life that got out of Palestine. For me the most important aspect of touring abroad was to be able to represent Palestine to the world. I started to see how people outside view Palestine, and I realised how many people don’t know what is happening here. When they saw our plays they started to cry because they saw the reality in Palestine.”
Amir is currently working on his final project in the Theatre School and then he will graduate. Next year he aims to go to Portugal to specialise in costume design. But before leaving, Amir is going to complete his high school education. “I will take the exams in June and after the summer I will travel to Portugal. Then I want to return to The Freedom Theatre as its first in-house costume designer.”
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