The third edition of the festival of children’s theater “Fener”, organized by Buden Teatar took place from 16 till 18 October, in Skopje
This year’s edition was dedicated to the children whose childhood was affected by war. The festival’s motto “Share the light”, aimed to call for social integration of the refugees living in Macedonia. In Macedonia, since the country officially closed its borders in February 2016, hundreds of children live in the transit camps, without leaving the camp zone area, which to their childhoods ruptured by war, adds the new trauma of being isolated and stigmatized.
Buden Teatar took a step towards surpassing the isolation in which the refugee children live, by founding a creative way to connect them with the Macedonian children. Namely for two months Buden Teatar led creative workshops based on Toon Tellegen’s book “Letters to anyone and everyone“, simultaneously with the refugee children, and with the children from one primary school in Skopje. The workshops were filmed and then exchanged between the two groups of children as sort of “video letters” helping them to build connections and develop friendship despite the impossibility for direct meetings. On the following link, you can view a video taken during some of the workshops Buden Teatar conducted with the children.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRI7Km7uqms
The video materials from the workshops will be used in the new performance of Buden Teatar, based on the same book by Tellegen.
The performance was shown as “work in progress” during the third edition of the festival “Fener”, and the official premiere is planned for February in Skopje. The festival also presented the performances: “The loneliest whale of the world” by Martin Mutter Theatre, Sweden, “Viduli” by the Austrian Theater Nuu, and “Henzel and Gretel” by the Bulgarian DP Theater ”Konstantin Velichkov”. Besides the main venue which was at Kino Kultura in Skopje, the performances were presented at the two refugee camps, followed by creative workshops, bringing tremendous joy to the refugee children.
