World Refugee Day 2020 - "Quarantine Monologues"
Day/Time: Wednesday June 24, 2020, 19:00
Location: Marina theater, Mytilene, Lesbos island
In the context of the World Refugee Day, which is celebrated every year on June 20, we met with the aim to share our experiences and our thoughts from the quarantine and to connect them with the texts written by the teenager refugees during the creative writing workshops of the "Quarantine Monologues" project not just thematically but contextually and in a primarily personal way.
We invited the educators, parents and partners of "it could be me - it could be you" project in Lesbos on Wednesday June 24, 2020 at 19:00, to participate in the cooperative action. We read the texts and we shared our personal experiences from this period.
Our "I" and the "here" of the texts were conversing without reprise for around an hour and a half, interrupting the flow of one another, interchanging personal experiences of the present "I"s with the "here"s of the teenagers and their texts. Each time, on the basis of the contextual involvement of the participants, the "here" was intervening with the "I" and vice versa, in a process that vividly showcased the transcendental dimension of chance encounters in common "loci" of vicinity and familiarity. With evident emotion, twenty (20) educators and artists conveyed worries, shared thoughts and feelings as well as excerpts from the "Quarantine Monologues".
"Quarantine Monologues" project took place in April and May 2020 with the participation of twenty four (24) teenager refugees (boys and girls) with different backgrounds and origins such as Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Pakistani Balochistan, citizens of Syria, Cameroon and Benin, Kurds from Syria and Somalians. The project aimed at voicing the emotions and views of teenage refugee residents of a series of accomodation facilities across Greece, during the temporary, general lockdown that was induced by the COVID19 pandemic in the period between March and May 2020.
“It could be me – it could be you” is an awareness raising project, targeting the educational community at large, on refugees and human rights using experiential learning, theatre and educational drama techniques. The project is organised and implemented in Greece since 2015 by the Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network (TENet-Gr) in association with and the support of UNHCR Greece (UN Agency for Refugees)
Following the recommendations of the specialists/ the instructions of the Ministry of Health and the National Public Health Organization, we kept safe distances for the health and security of all participants.
Organization: Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network (TENet-Gr) in cooperation with the UNHCR Greece, (the UN Refugee Agency) as part of the “it could be me – it could be you” project.
Information: Nikoletta Dimopoulou, Regional Coordinator of “It could be me – it could be you” project for Southern Greece and Aegean Islands.
Dionysis Pavlou, Local Coordinator of “It could be me – it could be you” project in Lesbos island
Secretary/Info. +302106541600 / humanrights@theatroedu.gr / www.TheatroEdu.gr