Mafraq Youth Theatre

Our youth theatre development programme with Seenaryo in Jordan is underway.

We have 13 participants on the programme aged between 15 and 17 years old, living in Mafraq, 70 km from Amman. Mafraq hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees in Jordan outside Amman. Isolated from the economic opportunities the capital city offers, Mafraq has high unemployment rates and low household incomes – many of the participants have to work outside school to support their families. Mafraq is also a conservative society. Few women work and the average age of marriage is young so we are delighted that of the 13 participants, 6 are young women.

All participants are connected with Seenaryo’s local, partner organisation ‘Sama Al Badea’ which has been working in the community for several years. 6 of the participants have been doing the teamArchie Childrens’ Theatre projects with Seenaryo. The others (7) are brand new to theatre but also went through a workshop/audition style process to select those with the most potential. More than 50 young people had wanted to be involved.

The young people have created a play about technology turning against humans (Technophobia). Below are some of the participants views on the project and their experiences:

Bashir (15 years old, Jordanian) & Fatima (16 years old, Syrian)

Bashir & Fatima met each other at teamArchie’s Childrens’ Theatre projects with Seenaryo where they became good friends. Both Bashir and Fatima expressed different reasons they struggle in school and with ‘society’ around them, but both have found friendship, acceptance, confidence and a place to develop their talents, inside the rehearsal room.

“When I started with Seenaryo I still has this fear of not being accepted but I felt that in the theatre space we are equal. The way we started doing the rehearsals made things easier because we do group games and exercises which bring us together. When I heard about the Studio chance there was no doubt I wanted to participate. I’ve got friends now and I feel now that I’m good at acting, I can perform, and I can give ideas and I feel that I have a special skill in this.” (Bashir)