Queens of Syria (the documentary) tells the story of fifty women from Syria, all forced into exile in Jordan,who came together in Autumn 2013 to create and perform their own version of the Trojan Women, Euripides’ timeless Ancient Greek tragedy about the plight of women in war. Not one of them had ever acted before.
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What followed was an extraordinary moment of cross-cultural contact across millennia, in which women born in 20th century Syria found a blazingly vivid mirror of their own experiences in the stories of a queen, princesses and ordinary women like them, uprooted, enslaved,and bereaved by the Trojan War.
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It was a process charged with emotion and fraught with challenges, as long buried issues came to the surface, and at times the project itself hung in the balance.
Yasmin Fedda’s subtly crafted and beautifully shot film explores the difficult choices the women have to make about appearing on stage, and the close relationships they form within the group as they explore with each other their experiences. It shows their bravery and determination that their stories should be told to the world.
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The original production was invited to go on tour in the US and Switzerland, courtesy of Georgetown University in Washington DC, and Columbia University in New York, but sadly the casts visas were denied, so the tour was 'virtual' since unfortunately our original cast were unable to travel to the US as their visas were rejected. Listen here to the story on NPR. After we showed the trailer and some short clips from the documentary footage from 'Queens Of Syria', The inspirational cast of The Trojan Women received a standing ovation from a visibly moved Georgetown audience.Under the expert moderation and translation of Syrian broadcaster Honey Al Sayed, the cast, director and audience were able to have a discussion about the project, sharing experiences of participating in and of watching some of the performance. Despite thousands of miles and visa denials, the team at Georgetown enabled our cast to tell their stories and ask their questions, and gave the Washington audience a flavour of what (we hope!) is to come if visas are granted and a live performance is made possible.
You can discover more about the event in a report by Peter Marks in the Washington Post and also in a Foreign Policy article by Ambassador Cynthia Schneider, co-founder of the Georgetown Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics.
Geneva
The Talberg Institute also hosted nine of the cast members to mount an abridged version of The Trojan Women at CERN in Switzerland.
The original production was invited to go on tour in the US and Switzerland, courtesy of Georgetown University in Washington DC, and Columbia University in New York, but sadly the casts visas were denied, so the tour was 'virtual' since unfortunately our original cast were unable to travel to the US as their visas were rejected. Listen here to the story on NPR. After we showed the trailer and some short clips from the documentary footage from 'Queens Of Syria', The inspirational cast of The Trojan Women received a standing ovation from a visibly moved Georgetown audience.Under the expert moderation and translation of Syrian broadcaster Honey Al Sayed, the cast, director and audience were able to have a discussion about the project, sharing experiences of participating in and of watching some of the performance. Despite thousands of miles and visa denials, the team at Georgetown enabled our cast to tell their stories and ask their questions, and gave the Washington audience a flavour of what (we hope!) is to come if visas are granted and a live performance is made possible.
You can discover more about the event in a report by Peter Marks in the Washington Post and also in a Foreign Policy article by Ambassador Cynthia Schneider, co-founder of the Georgetown Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics.
Geneva
The Talberg Institute also hosted nine of the cast members to mount an abridged version of The Trojan Women at CERN in Switzerland.
The original production was invited to go on tour in the US and Switzerland, courtesy of Georgetown University in Washington DC, and Columbia University in New York, but sadly the casts visas were denied, so the tour was 'virtual' since unfortunately our original cast were unable to travel to the US as their visas were rejected. Listen here to the story on NPR. After we showed the trailer and some short clips from the documentary footage from 'Queens Of Syria', The inspirational cast of The Trojan Women received a standing ovation from a visibly moved Georgetown audience.Under the expert moderation and translation of Syrian broadcaster Honey Al Sayed, the cast, director and audience were able to have a discussion about the project, sharing experiences of participating in and of watching some of the performance. Despite thousands of miles and visa denials, the team at Georgetown enabled our cast to tell their stories and ask their questions, and gave the Washington audience a flavour of what (we hope!) is to come if visas are granted and a live performance is made possible.
You can discover more about the event in a report by Peter Marks in the Washington Post and also in a Foreign Policy article by Ambassador Cynthia Schneider, co-founder of the Georgetown Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics.
Geneva
The Talberg Institute also hosted nine of the cast members to mount an abridged version of The Trojan Women at CERN in Switzerland.
In 2013 Refuge Productions in partnership with Oxfam mounted a new production of Euripides’ great anti war tragedy the Trojan Women in Jordan with a cast of Syrian refugee women displaced by the war in Syria. The production was intended both as a psycho-social support measure for the participants, and as an advocacy tool to highlight the plight of Syrian refugees. The women who participated arrived at the workshops in varying states of suffering from depression, feelings of isolation and PTSD. Without claiming that the production cured these, the Syrian psychologist we employed to monitor the workshops and rehearsals confirmed that the process allowed the women to take back a great measure of self confidence and self respect, as well as finding a new support group through sharing each others’ stories and experiences. In 2013 the refugee crisis engulfing the region as a result of the civil war in Syria was very under-reported internationally. We correctly projected that showing this crisis in a different and dramatically surprising way would have a much wider impact in reporting terms, and as such the play was widely covered by regional and international press both in newsprint and on television.
IF MUSIC BE THE FOOD OF LOVE
Syrian refugee children and underprivileged
Jordanian children write and perform a song
for the World Food Programme
A group of mixed Syrian refugee and vulnerable Jordanian children have written and recorded their own rap song, If Music Be The Food Of Love. The group have been led by TWP’s Jordan team, Bassam and Edwina Issa. Edwina is one of the most distinguished figures for educational music and drama in Jordan.
It’s the culmination of a year-long project, running music and drama bilingual (Arab and English) therapy workshops with the WFP as a part of their visibility campaign.
If Music Be the Food of Love is a collaboration in Jordan between the Trojan Women Project local team and the World Food Programme in Jordan with the combined aim of promoting awareness of WFP’s goals for food security with a music based community building project between Syrian refugee and underprivileged Jordanian children aged between 4- 17 years old.
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The project consists of a series of bi-lingual therapeutic drama and music workshops aimed at freeing the inhibitions and concerns of the participants who are aged from 4-17 years of age that they might freely document their fears, dreams, memories and goals through practical drama in education strategies, creative writing and art work. Simultaneously they undertook vocal training, percussion and music workshops. All of the practical sessions were led by arts specialists in their specific fields whilst WFP officials took part in additional sessions on issues covered by their goal brief.
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Participants
31 Syrian and Jordanian children (18 boys and 13 girls), comprising 19 Syrian refugee children and 12 underprivileged Jordanian children, took part in workshops over 5 weekends, followed by multiple recording sessions at The Studio, in individual, small groups, and larger groups. During the programme, 4 Syrian children left to go to Europe (3 girls and 1 boy). “The children documented through art and in verse their fears, their losses, their scars, their dreams, and hopes,” said Edwina. “For us what shone through in their unfiltered thoughts were the determination and the optimism of youth against all odds.” The children have made several performances around Amman in conjunction with the WFP’s visibility programme.
The finished product
The culmination of the initial practical workshop sessions was a merging of verse, rap and musical forms, evaluated by the artistic professionals on the team and then honed with the participants in terms of dramatic and musical quality as well as an elemental song structure. We focused on amalgamating these differing styles into a finished musical product.The song was then recorded in one of Jordan’ s leading recording studios and is ready for release later this year. TWP is currently raising funds to make a video to go with the song. We have pressed a CD, which will be available for sale for a minimum 5JD to help fund a video to market the song.
What’s in the future?
Second Phase: Once we have made a video we will market the song to raise funds to continue these music and drama workshops in Amman and other parts of Jordan. We have had interest from regional musical personalities to add their voices to those of the participants as ambassadors for the project. Third Phase: The release of the song and video in various media outlets to generate perpetuation of the project and its sustainable goals.
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Who’s making it happen?
Edwina Issa, Team Leader (one of Jordan’s leading experts in Drama, Education, Music and Film).
Bassam Al Khanafseh, Project Administrator
Zeina Barhoum, an established Jordanian Opera Singer and Vocal Coach.
Tamara Ziadat, Drama Coach Assistant.
Nisreen Burhan Dabdoub, Syrian Liaison coordinator
Hayfa Matahen, Jordanian Liaison Coordinator
Ziad Mazzawi, Recording Studio Manager
Charlotte Eagar, Director Trojan Women Project Limited
William Stirling, Director Trojan Women Project Limited
