"Tota Tota… and the story begins" will start the tour in Lebanon

"Ettijahat- Independent Culture" in cooperation with "Shams Association" and "Collectif Kahraba" invites you to join our performance "Tota Tota... and the story begins".

The performance will premiere at Nehna wel Amar wel Jiran Festival and will tour to several cities in Lebanon in collaboration with the Action For Hope organisation, Al Jana Association and Najda Now.

Wednesday 26th of August – 8.30pm, Sunflower Theater, Tayyouneh.
Friday 28th  & Saturday 29th of August - 8pm, Gemmayzeh: Nehna wel Amar wel Jiran festival.
Sunday 30th of August- 6pm,
Bekaa: Al Delhamiyyeh Camp.
Tuesday 1st of September- 5pm,
Bekaa: Ghazzeh Municipality
Wednesday 2nd of September- 5pm,
Bekaa: Wavel Camp
Thursday 3rd of September- 5pm,
Sour: Istanbouli Teatro
Open to the general public

About the performance 

The story begins in Damascus in 2010 and doesn’t end in Beirut in 2013.
Hadi loses his memory in Damascus under mysterious circumstances and finds himself in Beirut.
At present, all Hadi possesses are a few distant memories of his childhood and an incomplete theatrical text that he found among his personal belongings.
Accompanied by his psychologist, Hadi embarks on a journey in which he starts acting out the scenes, hoping that they might help recover his lost memories.
Najla, the heroine of the play, dreams of studying acting and rehearses the role of Juliet from Shakespeare's great masterpiece in a private artistic institute, without the knowledge of her family.
What will Najla and Hadi do? Will Najla realize her dream despite the obstacles that threaten her?
How will Hadi continue writing the missing scenes? Did he even write them in the first place?
The script is based upon texts written by the participants themselves.

About the project

This nine-month project aims to develop the artistic skills and expressive capabilities of a group of talented, young Palestinian and Syrian refugees by creating a framework that brings them together with a group of students from the Institute of Fine Arts at the Lebanese University. The participants are aged between 16 and 26 years old, and reside in various refugee camps in Lebanon (Shatila, Burj el-Barajneh , Al Rahmeh, Ain El-Helweh and Al Beddawi).
 
The main purpose of this project is to provide participants with enriching artistic experiences that provoke them to ask deeper questions about their reality and their future, thus encouraging them to develop their artistic talents and enhancing their relationships with their surroundings in Lebanon. This reinforces positive attitudes and social awareness when dealing with everyday challenges and helps to create a profound dialogue with various sectors of the public, attempting to defy conventional stereotypes. 
The project consists of an artistic training program over several months, led by a group of Syrian, Lebanese, and foreign professional artists focusing on various forms of artistic expression, and ends with a theatrical performance that will be tour all over Lebanon.
This project falls within Ettijahat- Independent Culture’s “New Artists” initiative, developing projects which support skilled and talented young Syrian refugees. The main goal is to help young refugees shift from being passive victims of circumstance into governors of their own lives, and relating this attitude to their counterparts.

The project team

Project Concept and supervision:

Hanane Hajj Ali and Abdullah Alkafri

Instructors / Workshops:

Aurélien Zouki: Dance and body expression

Ekaterina Demidova Dakroub: Stage Fighting

Hanane Hajj Ali: Acting

Marielise Aad: Clowning

Nicolas Haddad (Cirquenciel): Circus

Rafat Alzakout: Mime

Tom Harris and Jade Balaben (Walkabout Drum Circle): Drumming

Participants:

Abd El Rahman Hamoud

Abdullah Birakdar

Abir Mouftah

Ahmad Swaidan

Amer Mekdadi

Chadi Abdullah

Joumana Zgheib

Sally Assaad

Wisam Kraiem

Actors:

Ahmad Khattab

Aisha El Saleous

Anas Msouti

Ayman Al Sayed

Hanadi Al-Shabta

Joumana Kamal

Mohammad Nesser

Samer Zaher

Ziad Naser

Musician: Youmna Mroue

Stage Fighting Trainer: Ekaterina Demidova Dakroub

Director: Rafat Alzakout

Dramaturge: Wael Qadour

Scenographer:  Eric Deniaud

Assistant scenographer:  Tamara Badreddine

Project Coordinator: Marielise Aad

Assistants:

Ahmad Hijazi

Freddie Thomson

Lama Al Amine

Sarah Atallah

Trailer and Photography: Antoine Entabi, Houssam Abdel Kader

Thank you Khalaf Al Dabo, Chiara Khatounian