“I have been waiting for the opportunity because I love acting and I would love to become an actor, I love the stage and I want to know more, I want to improve myself” – Participant in The Freedom Theatre club
We’re excited to be starting new theatre clubs for youth in Zebabde and Yaabad, and a theatre club for children at The Freedom Theatre in Jenin refugee camp!
In cooperation with the association Ta’ayoush, The Freedom Theatre’s Raneen Odeh and Ameer Abu Alrob, graduates of The Freedom Theatre School, will lead a theatre club with 12 young women and men in Zebabde village. The club has held their first training session with group-building exercises and focus games. The session was filled with positive energy and enthusiasm, encouraging the participants to use their imagination, having fun by dancing and discovering the body, as well as discovering the space and how to move within it.
The theatre clubs are a way for The Freedom Theatre to expand our reach beyond Jenin refugee camp and town to give the opportunity to more young people in the northern West Bank to participate in theatre workshops and plays, developing talents and abilities in this area. Through the clubs, we also engage young artists as facilitators and offer them opportunities of capacity-building through training by specialists in drama and theatre.
The theatre clubs will run until the end of the next term and culminate in a small presentation that will be performed to family members and friends in the local community.
“This is the first step that I have taken in order to move from being a student in the Theatre School to a facilitator, passing on what I learned in the school to others”, says Raneen Odeh. “It is a beautiful experience to deal with young people in my community. The theatre clubs help a lot in spreading and strengthening the culture of theatre, and the role of the actor in society.”