We have officially kicked off the VAN12 tour, performing in 24 different Lebanese villages, from north to south, east to west. We are reaching far away villages in the north by the borders with Syria, and all the way in the south by the borders with Palestine
We are thrilled to be meeting new faces as well as seeing those we performed to before. It brings us a major thrill to see their excited face to see us again, especially when they still remember our performances.
“The Caravan; Hemland” puts refugee and immigrant ( Syrian, Palestinian, Iraqi, German, Danish and Swedish) voices living in Sweden and the US at the heart of a street theatre performance, through the use of recorded storytelling audio.
The performance is built collaboratively by professional theatre makers, semi and non-professionals refugee artists incorporating recorded interviews conducted with different communities based in Hemland, Sweden.
The Caravan; Hemland project is part of the ”Gatuteater Festivallen” Sweden supported by Kulturförvaltningen i Halmstad, HFAB, Region Halland, Ljungbergska stiftelsen, Kommunstyrelsen, Halmstad, Medborgarservice, Andersberg
The Caravan project is an initiative of Clown Me In – Lebanon that started in 2016. So far there has been 3 productions that toured Lebanon and Tunisia with more than 150 performances. Hemland is the 4th one and touring Sweden in summer 2018.
Shows start on the 3rd of August as part of the Gatuteater Festival in Halmstad and end at the Malmo festival on the 13th of August.
الكرفانة هيملاند: تجمع حكايا اللاجئين/ات والمهاجرين/ات القادمين/ات من سوريا، فلسطين، العراق، ألمانيا، الدنمارك، والسويد والقاطنين في السويد والولايات المتحدة الأمريكية لتكون أصواتهم نابضة في قلب الشارع من خلال عرض مسرحي يعتمد على التسجيل الصوتي لتلك الحكايا.
تم بناء العرض بالتشارك ما بين محترفين/ات من المسرح و مجموعة من الهواة والفنانين/ات من اللاجئين/ات وبني المحتوى بالاعتماد على المقابلات المسجلة مع العديد من الأفراد القاطنين/ات في تجمعات سكانية مختلفة في مدينة هلمستاد، السويد
:الكرفانة هيملاند: هو جزء من مهرجان هلمستاد العالمي لمسرح الشارع ومدعوم من الممولين التالية اسماؤهم Kommunstyrelsen och Kulturförvaltningen i Halmstad, HFAB, Region Halland, Ljungbergska stiftelsen and Medborgarservice Andersberg
الكرفانة هيملاند هو مبادرة من Clown me in- لبنان التي بدأت في عام 2016 وانتجت مشاريع مماثلة جالت في لبنان وتونس متضمنة أكثر من 150 عرض.
Clown me in كرفانة هيملاند هو المشروع الرابع الذي أنتجته
الذي سيبدأ تجواله في السويد- صيف 2018
Andersberg العروض الأولى للمشروع ستكون في الثالث من آب في
ضمن فعاليات مهرجان هلمستاد العالمي لمسرح الشارع
Beirut DC is proud to announce the launch of its new project “Van 12”
Photo by Ali Dalloul
“Van 12” is a project that puts children’s voices at the heart of a street theatre performance through the use of recorded storytelling audio. Stories have been gathered through workshops and discussions with Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian children who have had their rights neglected or violated. The children have anonymously shared their experiences about how they are coping with violence, bullying, poverty, forced labor, and other violations of their legal rights. The stories will be presented alongside a performance by a team of professional actors in public spaces around Lebanon on a fantastical, movable, drivable set. The overall goal is to use theater and storytelling to raise awareness among people living in both cities and remote areas in Lebanon of the importance of child rights, to teach children what their rights are, and to know where and how to find help. “Van 12” derives its name from the idea of a travelling troupe who present stories which teach 12 of the most fundamental protections from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Van 12 is implemented by Beirut DC and Clown Me In in partnership with UNICEF and supported by Australian Aid.
For the first two phases of the project, two of our artists from Clown Me In and Beirut DC, Sabine Choucair & Farah Kassem, spent 40 days working with young people throughout Lebanon. Groups they have worked with include street children, child workers, schoolchildren, and mothers living in Beirut, Bekaa, Akkar, The North, and South Lebanon. They conducted storytelling workshops and created an open space in which young people spoke about their needs, thoughts and experiences related to their human and child rights.
The pair selected five of the many stories to record, and these have been edited to form the basis of the production. The stories are about the daily struggles as well as the future hopes and dreams of the young participants. While the young people themselves have brought us much joy through this process, their stories are often difficult to hear…and this is precisely why it is so urgent that we share them, to raise awareness and create a safer future for our young people.
An exciting team of professional performers will be presenting a highly physical and playful production based on the recorded stories. The show will highlight 12 of the most fundamental child rights, and teach these rights to the audience as the piece unfolds. We are currently in rehearsals and will premiere the piece on the 5th of October 2017 in Chebaa-Marjeyoun, touring for 22 performances throughout Lebanon through the 16th of October 2017.
We have just been awarded a grant by the European Cultural Foundation to help us launch The Caravan Europe. This grant will fund the research we need to carry out to find partners in France, Germany and Sweden to help us bring this project to life.
The grant was awarded to us after Sabine Choucair, Creator of The Caravan, attended the IDEA CAMP in Madrid earlier this year hosted by ECF, the Connected Action for the Commons network and the City of Madrid. Fifty change makers were gathered for a period of 3 days where they met each other and worked on their ideas, 25 of which were awarded a research and development grant.
The Caravan Europe will involve us travelling around France, Germany and Sweden collecting and recording stories from refugees around the three countries. We will collate these audio stories and design a physical performance staged on a van to accompany them. We will then tour the three countries with our performance van sharing these stories with as many communities as possible.
The Caravan Europe is an opportunity to bridge the gap between host communities and refugee communities in Europe who suffer from both a language and cultural barrier. By telling these individual stories we can humanize the ongoing refugee crisis and create a space to open a dialogue between both communities. This is such an important step as we witnessed with the performances of The Caravan in Lebanon.
We received a remarkable response from people when we took the performance to Tunisia in 2016. Therefore, we are very excited to share these wonderful stories with audiences in Europe!
Beirut DC Breaks the Silence Around the Discrimination Faced by Syrian Refugee Artists in Lebanon.
Beirut DC documented the shrinking cultural space facing Syrians in Lebanon. Syrian artists and communities are being segregated from their Lebanese counterparts in the name of security through policies as curfews. Such discriminatory policies risk good relations between the two groups, as well as offending both Lebanese and international human rights law.
بيروت دي سي تكسر حاجز الصمت بخصوص التمييز ضد الفنانين السوريين اللاجئين في لبنان.
وثقت جمعية بيروت دي سي المساحات الثقافية المتقلصة بالنسبة للسوريين في لبنان. يتم فصل الفنانين السوريين والمجتمعات السورية عن تلك اللبنانية بذريعة الحفاظ على الأمن من خلال فرض سياسات حظر التجول. تلك السياسات التمييزية تؤثر سلباً على العلاقات الجيدة بين الفريقين، كما أنها مخالفة للقوانين اللبنانية والقانون الدولي لحقوق الإنسان.
BEIRUT, Lebanon – When the Caravan arrives, the children come running. For 40 minutes, they and their parents are entertained by a Lebanese and Syrian cast of clowns, musicians, actors and puppeteers who perform true stories about the importance of education.
The project, “The Caravan Goes to School,” is an innovative street theater initiative to fight one of the greatest threats to young people in Lebanon. As the new school year begins, 180,000 Syrian and 50,000 Lebanese children are not enrolled in school, severely limiting their potential, according to UNICEF.
“The Caravan Goes to School” uses a creative, entertaining format to teach parents and children about the importance of education and to provide them with information on how to enrol their children this year.
The show is based on six true stories that address a range of topics, including early marriage and how it interferes with girls’ education, the challenges facing the Lebanese school system, the costs of not getting an education, and the success stories of those who persevered and how it has changed their lives.
The performance includes audios, clowning, puppetry and music and is being performed in public spaces around Lebanon every Friday and Saturday from Oct. 7 to Nov. 4, 2016, with the aim of reaching communities where children less likely to be enrolled in school. This project is part of the UNICEF Back to School Campaign #Ana_7ader.
“The Caravan Goes to School” is the second performance produced by The Caravan and follows “The Caravan: The World Is Listening”, which focused on personal stories about the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon and was performed around Lebanon during June and July 2016.
If you are interested in covering the project, attending a performance and interviewing project organizers and cast members, please contact Zeina Sfeir at zeinasfeir@gmail.com or +961 3 971 579
بيروت، لبنان – عندما تصل الكرفانة، يركض الأولاد بإتجاهها. يستمتع الأولاد مع أهلهم بمشاهدة عرض مدته 40 دقيقة يقدمه فريق من المهرجين، الموسيقيّين، الممثلين ومحركي الدمى – لبنانيّين وسوريّين يسردون قصص حقيقيّة عن أهمية التعليم.
مشروع “الكرفانة – لنرجع عالمدرسة” هو مبادرة مبتكرة تتضمن عرض مسرحي في الشارع تهدف لمحاربة إحدى المخاطر التي يواجهها الشباب في لبنان. مع بداية العام الدراسي وبحسب يونيسف، هناك 180 ألف طفل سوري و50 ألف طفل لبناني خارج المدارس، مما يحد كثيراً من قدراتهم.
يستخدم مشروع “الكرفانة – لنرجع عالمدرسة” صيغة خلّاقة ومسلية لتوعية الأهل والأولاد عن أهمية التعليم ولتزويدهم بمعلومات عن تسجيل أولادهم في المدرسة لهذا العام.
هذا العرض مبني على ستة قصص حقيقيّة تطرح عدد من المواضيع، بما في ذلك الزواج المبكر وتأثيره على تعليم الفتيات، التحديات التي يواجهها النظام التعليمي اللبناني، عواقب عدم الحصول على التعليم، وقصص نجاح لأشخاص ثابروا على التعليم وتأثير هذا الأمر على حياتهم.
يتضمّن العرض تسجيلات صوتية، هريج، دمى وموسيقى ويُقدم في مساحات عامة في لبنان كل نهار جمعة وسبت من 7 تشرين الأول حتى 4 تشرين الثاني 2016، بهدف الوصول للمجتمات التي تضم أولاد لا يرتادون المدرسة. هذا المشروع هو جزء من حملة يونيسف “للعودة إلى المدرسة” #أنا_حاضر.
الكرفانة “لنرجع عالمدرسة” هو ثاني عرض من إنتاج الكرفانة ويلي “الكرفانة: والعالم يسمع”، الذي ركّز على قصص شخصية عن أزمة اللاجئيّين السوريّين في لبنان وتمّ عرضه في لبنان خلال حزيران وتموز 2016.
إذا كنتم ترغبون بتغطية المشروع أو مشاهدة عرض أو مقابلة منظمي المشروع والممثلين، الرجاء التواصل مع زينة صفير zeinasfeir@gmail.com أو على +961 3 971 579.
The Caravan Goes Back to School puts the voices of Lebanese and Syrians on the stage of the street. Through a combination of audio autobiographical storytelling and physical theater on a- you guessed it- caravan- a magical 40 min street performance is woven together with the purpose to get Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian kids back to School.
Six actors with a stage not much larger than a front door use buffoons, puppets, plastic, mime and a whole lot of imagination to explore 6 stories in 6 different dynamic styles to talk with Kids and Parents alike.
In 2016, there were 180.000 Syrian refugees and 50.000 Lebanese children out of school.
This project is part of the UNICEF Back to School Campaign #Ana_7ader and is the second in a series of Caravan shows which will tour 20 different villages in Lebanon during October 2016
مشروع الكرفانة – لنرجع عالمدرسة – ينقل أصوات اللبنانيّين والسوريّين على مسرح الشارع. من خلال الجمع ما بين القصص الحقيقيّة المسجلة والمسرح الجسماني الذي سيقدّم على سطح الكرفانة. عرض شارع حالم مدته 40 دقيقة يهدف إلى تشجيع الأولاد اللبنانيين، السوريين والفلسطينيين للعودة إلى المدرسة
ستة ممثلون على مسرح حجمه لا يتعدى حجم الباب الرئيسي، يستخدمون التهريج، الدمى، الإيماء والكثير من الخيال للبحث في 6 قصص و6 أساليب مختلفة للتواصل مع الأولاد والأهل
في العام 2016، هناك 180 ألف لاجىء سوري و50 ألف طفل لبناني خارج المدرسة
هذا المشروع هو جزء من حملة يونيسف للعودة إلى المدرسة أنا_حاضر وهو الجزء الثاني من عروضات الكرفانة التي ستجول في 20 منطقة لبنانية مختلفة خلال شهر تشرين الأول 2016