{"id":55322,"date":"2019-10-03T18:23:11","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T15:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/?p=55322"},"modified":"2026-01-18T15:32:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T15:32:22","slug":"fairuz-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/2019\/10\/fairuz-secret\/","title":{"rendered":"Fairuz\u2019 Secret\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The Freedom Theatre Production (2019)<\/strong><br><strong>Written by:<\/strong> M\u00e9lanie Dahl<br><strong>Directed by:<\/strong> Ahmed Tobasi<br><strong>Puppets by:<\/strong> Nidal Khateeb<br><strong>Artistic Preparation:<\/strong> Fidaa Zidan<br><strong>Performed by:<\/strong> Arwa Hleihl, Majde Nazzal, Munther Bannourah<br><strong>Scenography:<\/strong> Ahmed Matahen<br><strong>Lighting:<\/strong> Adnan Naghnaghia<br><strong>Sound Engineering:<\/strong> Sami Al-Sadi<br><strong>Poster Design &amp; Photography:<\/strong> Mohammed Moawia<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Producer:<\/strong> Mustafa Sheta<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>About the Play<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Fairuz\u2019 Secret<\/em> is a heartwarming puppet theatre production for children, blending humour, imagination, and emotional storytelling. The play follows <strong>Fairuz<\/strong>, a young girl preparing a special Mother\u2019s Day gift that she insists on keeping secret. But her mischievous neighbour <strong>Karkour<\/strong> is determined to expose her surprise, leading to a lively adventure filled with tension, laughter, and lessons about kindness, perseverance, and trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Through carefully crafted puppets and gentle narrative rhythm, the show explores how children navigate emotions like pride, anxiety, and the fear of having a special moment ruined. It encourages young audiences to value generosity, protect meaningful gestures, and solve problems with creativity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Origins and Development<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The idea for <em>Fairuz\u2019 Secret<\/em> was conceived in <strong>2013 in Norway<\/strong>, after The Freedom Theatre graduate <strong>Ahmed Tobasi<\/strong> and theatre artist <strong>M\u00e9lanie Dahl<\/strong> collected stories from children in Tulkarem.<br>These stories were transformed into a puppet performance first shown in Norway in <strong>2014<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In <strong>2019<\/strong>, after Tobasi returned to The Freedom Theatre, the creative team redeveloped the concept into a full-scale production for Palestinian audiences. The project brought together Palestinian artists from the West Bank and from inside 48, making it a unique cross-community artistic collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Artistic Approach<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Handcrafted puppets<\/strong> by Nida Al-Khatib, designed with warmth and detail to reflect children\u2019s emotional worlds.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Dynamic visual storytelling<\/strong>, ideal for young audiences and family settings.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>A narrative focused on empathy<\/strong>, secrets, friendship, and the power of small acts of love.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>A mobile production<\/strong>, adaptable for schools, theatres, cultural centres, and festivals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Performance History<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since its launch at The Freedom Theatre in <strong>August 2019<\/strong>, the production has toured widely across the West Bank, performing in:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Schools<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Community centres<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Children&#8217;s festivals<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Local cultural institutions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In <strong>December 2019<\/strong>, <em>Fairuz\u2019 Secret<\/em> represented Palestine at the <strong>34th Neapolis International Festival for Kids Theatre<\/strong> in Tunisia \u2014 a major milestone highlighting its artistic and cultural value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Themes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Family bonds and Mother\u2019s Day traditions<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Emotional expression and trust<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Friendship and conflict<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Imagination through puppet theatre<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Moral lessons delivered in a playful, accessible form<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Target Audience<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Children aged 4\u201310, families, schools, and community centres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Duration<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Approx. 35 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"678\" height=\"960\" src=\"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Fairuz-Secret-Poster.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-57314\" style=\"width:840px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Fairuz-Secret-Poster.jpg 678w, https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Fairuz-Secret-Poster-212x300.jpg 212w, https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Fairuz-Secret-Poster-8x12.jpg 8w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\" \/><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Freedom Theatre Production (2019)Written by: M\u00e9lanie DahlDirected by: Ahmed TobasiPuppets by: Nidal KhateebArtistic Preparation: Fidaa ZidanPerformed by: Arwa Hleihl, Majde Nazzal, Munther BannourahScenography: Ahmed MatahenLighting: Adnan NaghnaghiaSound Engineering: Sami Al-SadiPoster Design &amp; Photography: Mohammed Moawia Producer: Mustafa Sheta About the Play Fairuz\u2019 Secret is a heartwarming puppet theatre production for children, blending humour, imagination, [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-theatre-productions","category-theatre-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55322"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57318,"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55322\/revisions\/57318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}