Preparations before the show on Aug. 7, 2024. (Credit: Abbas Hamza)
When resistance in culture has been silenced, the voice of the actors on the socio-cultural scene refused to give up, especially when their work involves children and young people who live in territories that are frequently hard hit.
These actors work under the umbrella of Seenaryo, an organization whose name includes the past participle of the English verb “to see,” which could refer to the unfortunate déjà-vu of uncertainty and conflict hovering permanently over the Lebanese skies.
Young apprentice actors at the performance in south Lebanon on Aug. 7, 2024. (Credit: Abbas Hamza)
Seenaryo operates in Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine, using theater and play to help people heal, lead and learn. The NGO co-creates shows with underserved communities, aims to train future leaders and transform classrooms into play spaces.
It came into being in 2015 thanks to the initiative of Briton Victoria Lupton, who holds a degree in philosophy, politics and economics and a diploma in acting, and has been working in Lebanon since 2011. Initially working in the field of contemporary art, then as director of the American non-profit organization SEAL (Social and Economic Action for Lebanon), she has created artistic projects, including the audio walk "Another Place," which has been presented in five countries on three continents, and has co-translated two plays for the Royal Court Theatre.
She began her career as an actress, before realizing that her strength was in acting behind the scenes for social purposes and setting up Seenaryo, which later included four other British and one Lebanese founding members.
Seenaryo plans a play in five days
One of Seenaryo's aims is to create a show in five days, with some 25 children aged 10 to 15 choosing the theme, staging, music and title of the play, the latest of which is entitled "I Dream of a Different World." All, of course, reflect their aspirations, dreams and the means they have to express them.
The starting point of the work is this disturbing noise they perceive, death lurking around and how their imaginations will lead them to transcend their fears, culminating in the adage “We have to keep fighting to get to the end, and hope is always there."
“What makes this project interesting is that on day three, we invite an artist to join the children in sketching their concept on paper. The children then color it in, which can give rise to new characters,” explained Rayan Hibta, artistic director of the program. “On the fifth day, so on the date of the show, we hang the canvas, which is usually 6 meters long and serves as a backdrop for the children on stage,” she added.
In Zrarieh, young participants in the theater workshop organized by the NGO Seenaryo. (Credit: Abbas Hamza)
An inclusive platform
Seenaryo aims to be an inclusive platform, both in terms of artistic disciplines and communities, and has extended its activities to the educational field and the causes dedicated to women. Today, Seenaryo offers a new, more playful and interactive approach to education, based on theater. The theater, which is not a therapeutic method for the NGO, ends up acting as such, given the children's experience of the situation.
Its latest creation was a play staged over seven days in Zrarieh, in the south of the country, with the Said and Saada Foundation of the South, which opened on July 22.
But this was without taking into account the escalating situation in the region, which makes the task of on-site coordinators particularly complicated. The performance scheduled for July 29 in Zrarieh had to be postponed because of the bombardments nearby, and still took place on Aug. 7 for those on site and by videoconference for those absent. Other, more spared regions cancelled scheduled events, making the undertaking all the more deserving. “Presenting the play was essential for the children, and enabled them to express their fears, their expectations, their hopes, their vision of war, a war they had forgotten all about during the time they were on stage,” Hibta said.
The organization is funded by numerous contributors, including the Linbury Trust, a British grant-making foundation set up by Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover KG and his wife Anya, Lady Sainsbury CBE, former ballerina Anya Linden, and the U.N. The NGO's many partners also select the candidates who join the project, which covers a very broad spectrum of disadvantaged communities of all nationalities. Seenaryo is hard at work and hopes to be able to organize a new show in the south of Lebanon under the impetus of various partners, who are total strangers to the field in this part of the country.
In Seenaryo's plays, immersion in the characters is total. (Credit: Abbas Hamza)
Seenaryo is currently working on a project in partnership with UNDEF, a wing of the U.N. in Lebanon that aims to empower Syrian refugee women and SEEDS, a non-profit organization that aims to support the economy by creating social enterprises and encouraging the Lebanese community to participate by volunteering in various activities. Its aim is to inform a group of young people from different backgrounds, nationalities and faiths about their rights and duties as citizens, and about good governance, and to get them to give shape to this knowledge on stage, in order to communicate it to other youth and make it more comprehensible.
This time, the show takes place on a larger scale. It uses a professional director, Issam Bou Khaled, who is assisted by Yara Zakhour. The work is entirely collaborative. The play, entitled "Mish Aam Kazzib" ("I'm Not Lying"), will tour all of Lebanon.
The play will take place at the Théâtre Tournesol on Aug. 28. Admission is free.
This article was originally published in L'Orient-Le Jour.
