Our impact
Seenaryo in 2024
“There’s a lot of chaos in my life, but in theatre there’s freedom and stability.” – 2024 THEATRE PARTICIPANT
As Seenaryo’s Founder & CEO Victoria Lupton says in the foreword to our 2024 Impact Report: “Rarely have our communities longed for comfort and safety more than in this year of war, destruction and displacement.”
Last year saw Seenaryo nearly triple our reach, despite facing unprecedented challenges across our countries of Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Syria. Learn more in our 2024 Impact Report.
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k
175
people to date
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k
90
children reached through the Seenaryo Playkit
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3649
teachers trained to use play in the classroom
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223
original theatre productions created to date
Meet our theatre participants
Seenaryo co-creates collaborative, powerful and imaginative theatre in partnership with organisations deeply rooted in the communities they serve. We also train and fund our adult participants to become theatre facilitators themselves.
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MUHYI
Iraqi participant in Jordan“When I first arrived in Jordan at 16, I had difficulties communicating because of my Iraqi dialect. I felt really isolated and expressing myself freely became a challenge. Theatre and art have breathed new life into my capacity for self-expression – through movement, speech and writing.”
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WAFAA
Syrian participant in Lebanon“Participatory theatre springs from us – our stories and experiences. All our performances are crafted around women’s experiences. We do not memorise and perform scripts; we write and own them. Everything originates from our words, feelings and experiences. We are not just performers but the creators and owners of our own play.”
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SADEEL
Sudanese participant in Jordan“This experience is so different from other experiences. It’s almost surreal. Almost fictional. We are trying to transform imagination into reality. It was a lovely experience to deal with new people, all from different nationalities. We really created our own society here in this experience with Seenaryo.”
Quotes from the audience
Impact of the Playkit
The Seenaryo Playkit is a mobile phone app and training for teachers of 3 – 8 year olds, supporting them to deliver their curriculum through music, story and play. The app contains how-to videos, music tracks and flashcards, and is usually accompanied by a 3-day training.
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RAZAN
Teacher in Jordan“I’ve moved to a new school and am now using the Playkit. Even though I have 38 children in my class, I no longer face many challenges or issues. The behaviour and classroom management techniques help me greatly in the classroom.”
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GHAYTH
Child in Lebanon“Miss Nimri has become so much better with us since the Seenaryo training. Maths used to be really hard and we couldn’t focus in her class, it wasn’t fun at all. Now things are so different – she teaches us with songs and games. Everyone is interacting and we’re focussing and loving maths so much more than before.”
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SOHA
Headteacher in Lebanon“[The Playkit training] really adds value to the rigid curriculum we have to follow. We work with children who have mental health issues and we’re now seeing them smiling, playing and interacting with others, which makes us feel so happy. We can see they are expressing their needs and feelings.”
“The session felt just like being at home”
FARHAN
Farhan is Lebanese and has grown up in Dar Al Aytam, an orphanage in Beirut. He participated in the show An Orphanage of Dreams, which was a Seenaryo Cycle co-created with children from Dar Al Aytam.
Seenaryo has been creating theatre with children in care since 2015. There is no state system of foster care in Lebanon, with 40,000 children living in 300 privately run children’s homes.
After the performance, Farhan said: “Being in the play was seriously cool! Last week, the session felt just like being at home. Usually I hate leaving home, but this time I had so much fun that I didn’t even mind being away. I often feel lonely at the orphanage, but with my friends around during the play I didn’t feel like that. It was like a big family.”