Supplicants Youth Exchange
5th-12th August 2018, Athens, Greece
Supplicants was an Eramus+ funded youth exchange involving members from Kildare Youth Theatre, On&Off Teatro of Spain, and Knitiras of Greece, the latter being the host of this project. Supplicants aimed to tackle and explore the stigma surrounding migrants and immigration. Why are people suspicious of migrants, and what can we do to change this? These questions were explored through group work involving all three countries. Topics and questions were raised in discussions, and these ideas were then translated into pieces of dance and theatre. All the young people in each country were motivated by a need to understand more about the reality facing refugees in Europe, and therefore worked, devised and performed alongside refugees from various Middle Eastern countries.
A short documentary of the project can be watched in full below:
"Within seconds of talking to them, I completely forgot they were refugees and I just thought of them as a friend. It’s heartbreaking to think of everything they went through, and they are only my age" - Female, 18.
"Not only did the medium of acting help the refugees express their stories, but it also acted as a tool of communication between the different nationalities" - Male, 19