Theater artist Hasan Bayam adds a new one to the creative drama workshops for children he has been running for a long time. Bayam said that they have started working on the play “Honey Bee and Teddy Bear”, which will be the first play of the creative drama workshop he opened for Syrian children.
Theater artist Hasan Bayam announced that they have established a creative drama workshop that will consist of Syrian children. Bayam says that they have been setting up creative drama workshops with children for a long time in Van, and as a result of these workshops, they had a pleasant and productive time for both the children and themselves. Providing information about the workshop they have established with Syrian children, Bayam emphasizes that the children from Van will also take part in the workshop and that the main aim is to integrate them. We had a pleasant conversation with Bayam about the workshop they set up and the children’s play “Honey Bee and the Bear”, which will be staged.
‘I continue the mock theater business’
After graduating from the literature department, Bayam has been busy with amateur theater for many years, and later on, she received theater training from private theater teams in Istanbul and from the Istanbul Communication Institute. Bayram said, “Now, even after these trainings in Van, I continue the mock theater work that I love and really want to do. At the same time, I opened my creative drama workshop with children as part of the education I received,” he says. Saying that they give their creative drama training in both Turkish and Kurdish, Bayram notes that they are making an announcement for the new season this year. Expressing that they have opened two new creative drama workshops for children, he states that these workshops are bilingual workshops. The workshops in the new season will also provide training in both Kurdish and Turkish.
‘I held workshops with disadvantaged children’
Stating that they do creative drama workshops for a fee, Bayram plans to organize a free workshop with children in need with the lifting of the bans after the pandemic and creates a group for this. He says that this workshop was very useful and good, with a smile. And he adds: “Then, after enjoying some spiritual pleasure from this, I decided to do it with the children in the love houses last year. We also held a creative drama workshop with the children in the homes of love, and I made them play a children’s play I wrote.” After the workshop with the children in the love houses, they stage the children’s play on the stage of the Van State Theatre. Bayam said, “This gave me incredible happiness. Because it contributed a lot to the development of children. When the children first arrived, they had some problems in opening up, expressing themselves, connecting, contacting, communicating. But at the end of the theater workshop and the play, these problems were greatly reduced,” he says.
‘I will do a workshop with Syrian children’
Bayam said, “This year I thought, with whom I can do it. I decided to do it with Syrian children. I thought of teaching Syrian children among refugee children. Because the first thing that comes to my mind may not be an interpreter and I can have a Kurdish dialogue with Syrian children. That’s why I chose Syrian children,” he writes. In previous periods; Bayram, who has some problems in terms of both the play, the supply of costumes, props, rent and some expenses, is looking for a fund to make the workshops free of charge. He also talks about the fundraising process as follows: “As far as I researched on the internet, heard from the environment and saw the banners of some events, the European Union Think Civic Program organization came to my mind. I applied to the European Union Think Civic Programme. To make a play with Syrian children, both at the end of the creative drama workshop and at the end of the workshop, to play them on the stage for free. Think civic agreed to this. Our project will be implemented next week.”
Stating that they are trying to complete the official procedures with the families of Syrian children, Bayram said, “As soon as the official proceedings are over, our project will come to life and at the end of the thirty-day workshop and forty-five-day play period, this play will be performed free of charge, open to all refugees and the people of Van, at the Van State Theater. ,” says.
‘Honey Bee and Teddy Bear’
He says that the play that will be staged at the end of the project is a children’s play that he wrote the text of. “A children’s game called Honey Bee and Teddy Bear. The play has not been used on the State Theater stage or other workshops before,” says Bayam. Noting that he wrote the play “Honey Bee and Teddy Bear” three years ago, he begins to talk about the content of the play: “The game; Sharing and love themed. It is an allegory based on animals in the forest, but created to give a message to people. As a matter of fact, it is the same in all children’s games. The fact that the bear, the bee, the witch and the rabbits in the forest cannot share the food in the forest with each other at first explains that if each of them actually eats some, they can share. After realizing that they can all get enough of it, they can share it among themselves and finally make peace with the witch. It is a game based on convincing even the witch to love and eventually loving each other.”
‘Meeting the children participating in the workshop with the Syrian children’
Bayam emphasizes that their main aim is to integrate the children who will attend the workshop from outside with the Syrian children. Bayam said, “Because, as it is known, it is not easily accepted from outside. There are examples in our lives such as those who come to the village later on, build their house outside the village, and those who come to the classroom later sit in the back row. But of course, there will be children from Van in this workshop, there will also be refugee children. They will fuse with each other,” he says.
Bayam says, “After playing this game with the theme of love, I think that at the end of the project, these children will have the idea that everything they can share, that everything belongs to all, that the world belongs to everyone, that the forest in the game belongs to all animals, and to all people in the world.” .
He says she believes that children will understand that the earth actually belongs to all living things by sharing during the workshops and at the end of the game. Stating that after the play is over, the children can attend the workshop free of charge, Bayam finally says: “As long as the workshop is open and they want, they can come here.”
Serhat News
Translator: Akif Coşkun
