"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