Samer spent his first rehearsal with Seenaryo embodying a cockroach: how it moves, how it thinks, how it feels. He was part of an ensemble that came together to co-create The Metamorphosis After Franz Kafka. 

Now a dancer, performer and facilitator in Beirut, Samer was only just emerging as an artist back in the autumn of 2018. During that first year making theatre with Seenaryo, he remembers “chaos, joy and playfulness.”

The Metamorphosis After Franz Kafka asked participants to share their own stories and when it came to stepping on stage, Samer found the experience to be transformative. “When the spotlight hit me, I felt completely exposed – almost naked – yet fully present.” He adds, “There was a profound sense of freedom: the freedom to be myself, without concealing my background or sexual orientation.”

He has noticed his fellow participants’ attitude to gender and sexuality changing over the years, as they’ve continued making theatre together. “Some participants were uncomfortable simply because I was [expressing] differences that were unfamiliar to them. But over the years, I’ve seen a shift. They’ve become more open and accepting.” 

Since that first project, he has gone on to become a facilitator and has led theatre in Tripoli, Beirut and the Bekaa. His role took on deeper urgency during the Israeli war in 2024, when he facilitated theatre projects with displaced communities. “It was a real challenge to get people to enter a space where they could enjoy themselves and forget the negativity.”

In shelters and makeshift classrooms, Samer created that safe space from scratch — with music, movement and theatre.

We created a sense of togetherness that helped us get through that difficult period.

Samer sees a generational difference in how people deal with trauma in Lebanon. “Our grandfathers carried burdens they never had space to process.” But he believes that theatre and movement is helping the next generation to process experiences in a different way, as “this kind of work helps us confront those traumas together. It gives us tools to feel, to heal, and to grow – collectively.”