Story-telling & Theater Training and Production

WANAS

Wanas: a series of music appreciation sessions that were launched on our social media platform, and each episode was followed by an online competition for our audiences.

Episode 1

Episode 2

SYRIA MUSIC MAP

Syria Music Map is a website that includes 100 traditional Syrian songs and music pieces from many parts of Syria.  Part of the content was collected by researchers and musicians inside Syria, and many pieces were recorded by the Action for Hope Music Schools graduates in Lebanon and Jordan.

Syria Music Map is in collaboration with Ettijahat – Independent Culture

Website: www.syriamusicmap.org

YA SHOUG

Ya Shoug: The first album of Action for Hope Music Schools graduates in Lebanon and Jordan. The album was launched in April 2020 and includes 14 songs and music pieces of the traditional music repertory of Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Turkey. 

Links For the album:
YouTubeSoundCloud.

THEATER

Action for Hope Theater Group was founded in 2013 and worked for two years under the supervision of Ettijahat – Independent Culture, producing and presenting two plays: “Our Tent” and “A Thousandand One Tents”. In 2015 the group continued their training with the Egyptian director Laila Soliman,then with the Lebanese director Chrystelle Khodr who directed two plays for the group: “Angie & Yallanji” and “The Elephant, Your Majesty”. The group currently consists of 17 Syrian, Palestinian
and Lebanese young women and men who work as volunteer amateurs, but also seek to achieve a high artistic standard in their work.

CREATIVE WRITING AND STORYTELLING

In 2016 and 2017, 12 women from refugee communities in Lebanon took part in a training on creative writing that led to publishing the short story collection “A Balcony of Roses”. In parallel, the same group of women participated in storytelling and acting training and presented the performance “Rouge” on 14 and 15 December 2017, as part of Action For Hope’s Awan Festival. The performance will be touring in Lebanon throughout 2018. These women had all previously participated in literacy training organised by Action for Hope in 2015 and 2016.

In December 2017, Action for Hope organized the first edition of “Awan” festival in Beirut to showcase the artwork resulting from our different arts training programs. The 9-day festival included a photography installation, a panel discussion, a storytelling performance, and several concerts and was attended by over 700 people.

The Storytelling performance “Silk” took place In 21 December 2019. “Harir” (Silk) is a storytelling performance by a group of Syrian women refugees in Lebanon who participated with Action for Hope in creative writing training to build the story and work on its basic elements. Afterwards, they engaged in exercises on imagination and building the anecdote, until they were able to stand on stage and go on a fictional journey that questions their adaptation, the land they live on, and the stability they desire in this world. Just like women patiently weave silk, they knit their world and plot their stories in this show.