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BRIEF PROJECT DESCRIPTION
This project is the fruit of partnership among different organizations in Syria (UNV Programme, UNDP Syria, UN Resident Coordinator, UNFPA, FIRDOS, and British Council). It aims at raising the awareness of people in rural areas on the Millennium Development Goals, and promoting the concept of Volunteerism through presenting theatrical sketches in the villages focussing on 4 goals of the MDGs:
Goal 1, “Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger”; Goal 2, “Achieve universal primary education”; Goal 3, “Promote gender equality and empower women”; Goal 5, “Improve maternal health”.
The “Interactive Theatre” has been launched by FIRDOS in rural areas in Syria since 2003, under the “Population Advocacy through Interactive Theatre” project. Given that FIRDOS has built a credible relationship with people in the villages, a group of Syrian professional artists/animators were trained and sent to the villages to undertake this type of activity.
Definition and History of Interactive Theatre
What is interactive theatre?
Interactive Theatre (also knows as motivational theatre) is a committed theatre inside the community. This dramatic form emerged and developed due to many factors.
The most important factor that had a direct impact to the appearance of, was the emergence of civic societies, which lead the search for a prospect or parallel means to fight world problems, and to deal with the issues created by globalization.
Before defining, it is necessary to mention the works of Brazilian dramatist Augusto Boal, who initiated the form of theatre known as “Theatre of the Oppressed”. This form of dramatic experience initiated in, and then expanded to the rest of the Latin American countries in the 1970's. He presented a theoretical perspective of his experience in several books, including Theatre of the Oppressed, Stop! It is a Magician, The Rainbow of Desire, and Games for Actors and Non-Actors.
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Vision and Goals
A group of drama specialists formed an aggregation under the supervision of Dr. Mari Elias. This aggregation later became a project that worked under the umbrella of Fund for Integrated Rural Development of Syria (FIRDOS). They received training in interactive theatre and implemented several projects, particularly in rural Syria.
The core of the group was composed of (Yasser Ayyoubi, Rana Yazeji, Rafif Sajer, Mai Qoutrash, Omar Abu Saadah, Rim Mohammad, Georgette Salim, and Wael Ali).
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