Community Based Peace Theatre in Lebanon Copy

 

 

 

The activity proposed by War Child Lebanon aims to promote the psychological wellbeing of children and youth. The type of methodology used is especially useful for those who are confronted with difficult circumstances, both chronically and during a specific crisis. The interventions are designed to empower individuals and develop their personal and collective resources. The aim of a psychosocial intervention is to foster the balance between the individual and his/her community, strengthening their respective abilities to cope with life. They also aim to identify persons needing referral and subsequent follow-up by specialists

 

 

Community-oriented participatory theatre was used as a tool for psychosocial support intervention, to achieve therapeutic goals on a micro- and macro-level. Lebanon is a country with a deeply troubled contemporary history. Theatre is a forum open to everybody. It can address sensitive subjects indirectly, heal wounds and bring people together. The activity will be implemented through a local partner, Zoukak Theatre, who has an extensive experience in theater practices and in the use of theater as a tool for psychosocial support and experimental theatre with an approach based on insights from clinical psychology. The objective is to process the trauma of the beneficiaries by offering a free space for dialogue, self-expression and grassroots democracy.

 

 

Due to the horrific Beirut explosion that shook the city on 4 August 2020 and destroyed with it large parts of the city including the local partner, Zoukak Theatre, this activity was postponed several times until it finally took place in 2021.

 

 

 

 

The main focus of the first three sessions was the personal experimentation of theatrical tools and exercises as a mediation technique in psychosocial interventions through a set of 14 diverse exercises given to the participants (body massages, body fragmentation exercises, body-space exploration exercises, mental association exercises, group story building exercises,
personal presentation exercises, group warm-up exercises, writing exercises, group scene building exercises.) This personal experimentation is followed by the
analysis of the frame, objective and instruction of each specific exercise within a specific annotation template.

 

 

Beside the experimentation of the tools, the above-mentioned exercises enhance the facilitations skills of the participants by developing their active listening skills, their relationship with their body in correlation with the space and others bodies, enhancing their presence, exploring their creativity further and working on their non- judgmental expression and perception.