Iara Mantinan Bua, a freelance writer from Spain and Tahseen Yaqeen, a Palestinian writer from Ramallah recently lead a Creative Writing workshop at the theatre (3 June – 10 June 2012). The second year Acting School students who participated in the workshop were given the tools necessary to explore their identity as Palestinians living under occupation. Iara explains that “one cannot be an actor until they truly know themselves in such a way that they are aware of the things that make them who they are.” This writing workshop was meant to help them develop the skills necessary to become increasingly introspective.
In Iara’s own writing she describes her sense of independence and how important travel has been for her. She describes herself as a “lioness of god”, and as an “independent woman” who enjoys the small things in life (i.e. watching sunsets in South Africa and drinking Arabic coffee in Jenin). Ala, a second year Acting School student at The Freedom Theatre says he could feel her independence in her poem, through her words. Iara explained to the students that the goal of their writing should be to get readers to feel who they are.
In addition to exploring their identity through words the students also sketched ideas for photographs while discussing their writing. Saber, another second year Acting School student described a photograph of a woman standing in the middle of the street bringing traffic to a halt, an example of how to visually convey an unstoppable woman. During the workshop the students delivered monologues of their stories as a way to better express themselves.
Check out some photos from last week’s workshop below.
