Training in the Street

28/05/2011

BACKGROUND

After the January Revolution in Egypt, artists wanted to go down the street. But most of them didn’t have perceptions of what’s right for the arts on the street. They were also confused in the choices of topics to be raised. Not knowing what was allowed and what was forbidden in street’s culture. That’s why we proposed a new strategy to get art into the street, it’s known as TRAINING IN THE STREET

What Training in The Street is about?

Training in The Street fostered the idea of creating art in the low-income areas which have no cultural facilities. Thus, allowing the residents to become partners in the artistic industry. Starting from choosing the topic to be tackled in the performance, encouraging the residents to participate in the training. In addition to advocating for the performance itself and the technical and logistical support for the its location, and they even take a part in performing.

People, particularly youth in low-income areas saw how artists work, how they train, and how they plan for the artwork. This has completely changed their view of art and culture. They never thought how much it takes to produce an artwork. They couldn’t imagine how difficult it was for artists to work. At the same time artists understood that art and culture aren’t only made by experts, but that ordinary people can participate in the production of art and culture in some way. They also learned how to apply this in their lives to strive for the best.

OUTCOME

Years

Workshops

Performances

Trainee

From Egypt, North Africa, Europe and the United States all participated in the activities.

Editions

Young Artists

Men & Women

From the population of low income areas that we worked within. Training in the street has become an important practice of cultural and artistic work with society.

Selected performances and activities from the three editions

The Knight Goes Down The Field

Date 2012

People’s Tales and Pictures on the Street

Date 2011

three editions Gallery

First Edition

2011-06 - 02 - Theater of Participation (1)

2011-06 - 02 - Theater of Participation (3)

2011-06 - 02 - Theater of Participation (7)

2011-06 - 02 - Theater of Participation (8)

2011-06 - 02 - Theater of Participation (9)

Workshop Multimedia Kom EL Deka Alexandrie Egypte

2012-02 (alfarsynzlalmydanKnightdownthefield) (6)

2012-02 (alfarsynzlalmydanKnightdownthefield) (5)

2012-02 (alfarsynzlalmydanKnightdownthefield) (4)

2012-02 (alfarsynzlalmydanKnightdownthefield) (3)

2012-02 (alfarsynzlalmydanKnightdownthefield) (2)

2012-02 (alfarsynzlalmydanKnightdownthefield) (1)

Second Edition

Third Edition

Testimonials

COMMENTS FROM THE RESIDENTS’ AND PARTICIPANTS

Mohamed Abd El Wahed

The concern of some artists about working on the street, particularly in local low-income areas, has been dissipated.

/Trainer

Abd El Haleem Nabawy

These workshops must be made continuously, and specialized workshops of this kind must be set up for children.

/Trainee

Shadwa Essam

The project emphasizes teamwork and is always producing impressive results, as we have seen.

/Trainee

Mostafa Fatooh

People’s thoughts and trainees changed towards art’s nature on the street and people’s reception of art.

/Trainer

Elder Resident

The region and its people needed something like this, particularly the youth. I’ve seen everyone happy away from life’s stressing issues. What happened really helps reducing violence in our region. It makes everyone in ease with themselves and tolerant of others. He also said that he saw for the very… Read more “Elder Resident”

Hassan Gaber

The project in Karmoz has been impressive and it still echoes in the streets.

/Head of the Community Association in Karmoz

Mohab Saber

Training in The Street project is not only concerned with setting up artistic activities in a popular area, it is also concerned with the stage of building the event with people within the area before any events begin. This is done through the selection of partners from the region as… Read more “Mohab Saber”

/Executive Director

Mahmoud Badr

Training in the Street is a quite important experience because as artists we must never lose touch with the street. We introduce people on the street to what art is.

/Trainer

Helen Van Gig

Training in The Street is an opportunity not only to use art in free space, but also to express ourselves and our art in different and vital ways, and also to use the space around us to express and present a new vision that remains, because the place after what… Read more “Helen Van Gig”

Ali El Masry

If we talked about working on the street first, the theatre on the street as I’ve worked on before is not like this experience, as interacting with the people in this experience was the main, and most important feature, I couldn’t imagine doing this, especially, during the performance and interacting… Read more “Ali El Masry”

/Trainee in Reportage Theatre Workshop

Eric Kayl

Training in The Street in one sentence is – ‘free your soul, and let your body tell the story.

/Trainer (Dancing and Parkour)

Mohamed Hosni

Training in the street is important … This experience made me love every single thing in the district we worked within- to love the people with their problems, dreams and homes, everything.

/Trainee

Nelly Shokry

I simply don’t have a theater experience at all when I was told about this- I filled out the application, and I thought it was annoying, and when I got accepted into the workshop, I saw new people and a new experience – I didn’t expect that I was going… Read more “Nelly Shokry”

/Trainee