Taking the stage (11th October)

We did it! After a week of daily circus and theatre sessions, today the YPMM participants performed for the local community. This was our chance to give back to the community who have been so giving to us and have made us feel so welcome here. The circus clowns got the show on the road and walked through Azzeh refugee camp, where they created a spectacle and soon had a group of children following them. As the group walked towards the theatre at Aida refugee camp (located directly next to the Separation Wall) they encountered a number of children who were just leaving school and joined in the march. By the time they reached the theatre over 100 children had joined us and were treated to some circus tricks of juggling, diablo and human pyramids by our talented circus group (see pics below and on flickr). The theatre group then took the stage and impressed all with their performance which explored the conflicts, identity and self expression of the performers in a very moving way. Below, one of the theatre performers, Gabriella, shares her reflections of today:

“Working together on the performance gave us all a sensation of community and we found a deeper way to communicate with each other, maybe more direct than the usual conversations. The kids enjoyed the circus performance and asked many questions about the drama and the conflict, so we could be proud of our little job. Some of us were excited at the beginning because of the audience, but yesterday we worked a lot, conquering more confidence one in another. None of us have ever acted or been a clown before, but the thing we cared about mostly was just enjoying the kids and trying to explore the conflict that affects the everyday life of the families in the camp. We must thank our coaches: Mohammed and Mahmoud, who drove us during this week, building up all that we made today starting from scratch.
Today the sun was very hot when we arrived at the Aida camp to practise before the performance. There were some people in the street, the kids were so curious to peek in and were so nice when we started to ask them their name with our minimal Arabic vocabulary. We needed to go to the toilet and a lady opened us the door of her house in a so easy way and started to try to talk with us though we had not a common language. The people are always so kind here and also our Palestinian friends paid so much attention to everything we should need in our time here.
I hope the kids that were today at the Aida camp should take our message for their future and that the conflict could be transformed, making of it just a drama performance”.

A surprise also made her way to the theatre and we were so excited to see Palestinian Action Partner, Manar, who had heard about our performance after bumping into someone from the Holy Land Trust. Lots and lots of hugs and stories were exchanged as we brought up Manar up to date with what we had been doing and caught up on her news.

To say many of us are feeling a tad overwhelmed at the moment would be an understatement. It’s been a big eight days in Bethlehem and the surrounding area that we have shared with the Palestinian participants, and the prospect of saying goodbye to people tomorrow, who are so integral to our group, and with whom we have shared so much, is daunting. We are so grateful to them for welcoming us so warmly to their country, for sharing with us about the context here, and most importantly, for allowing us to get to know each of them individually. We have been touched by each of their stories and hope they have learnt something from ours.


Theatre performance


theatre performance


Clowning around in Aida camp


The clowns warm up the crowd