BEIRUT: These days may be bereft in many ways, but physically distanced entertainment continues to emerge. The most recent local addition to the virtual roster is Zoom to the Moon, an online theater festival featuring the works of youngsters in Lebanon and Jordan, playing out on YouTube May 6-7.

The festival and the works its showing have been developed and produced by Seenaryo, an NGO that employs theater and play-based learning to lighten the lives of people in marginalized communities in Lebanon and Jordan.

Since the start of 2021, Seenaryo co-director Victoria Lupton told the paper, 12 Seenaryo facilitators have been developing 10 projects with some 110 children. The dramaturges and thespians are all 8-15 year old kids from Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian, Sudanese and Jordanian families.

Over eight weeks, each of the youngsters has created one video a week to prepare for this festival. In all, they made over 700 videos, nine of which are being shown during Zoom to the Moon.

In the past five months we found a way to innovate and make theater online, Lupton said. The theater productions [are] edited videos that the children filmed themselves and acted in.

The made-in-Lebanon videos feature Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian children from all over the country Beirut, the outskirts of Beirut and the Bekaa.

Over its two days, the festival will present two different programs. On May 6, The Lost Memories, The Enchanted Forest, Chmerdak, and The Gifted Boy are on show. On May 7, Adventures of the City Dwellers, Believe me, I Dont Believe You, The Happy Animals in Times of Corona, The Sad Grandpa, and Nour Al Berrad are up.

In the run-up to the festival, Seenaryo made a Making-Of video, now on its website, documenting the process of developing these little plays via Zoom from planning through creation, writing, performing, video editing and final presentation.

Interested viewers should expect a high volume of cute.

Zoom to the Moon can be seen Thursday-Friday 4 p.m. local time (2 p.m. in the UK) at Seenaryos channel: youtube.com/c/seenaryo

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