Staff Spotlight: Cinderella Adel Elbatatoni and A Message From Far Away Event
What do you say to a nine year old refugee walking unaccompanied from Turkey to the United Kingdom?
Our very own Play Assistant, Cinderella Adel Elbatatoni will be answering this question at A Message From Far Away. This local event is split into three parts and will happen August 4th and 5th. A Message From Far Away is a local virtual interaction with the global art and culture festival, The Walk. The Walk is happening over four months, following the journey of Little Amal, a 12 foot puppet walking from Turkey to the UK in support of refugees and asylum seekers everywhere.
Cinderella has been involved with organizing A Message From Far Away since November 2020, when Remote Theatre Project began coordination. The event is presented by Creative Portland, Mayo Street Arts, The Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center, Portland Ovations, Portland Symphony Orchestra, Kinan Azmeh’s CityBand and the Pihcintu Girls Choir. Cinderella will help to lead the event, present a letter and sing a song in Arabic. We are so honored to have such a talented staff member! At the Children’s Museum & Theatre, Cinderella has been using her talents to spark imagination and learning in our young visitors. She is a recent graduate of Portland High School and also works as an Arabic translator at Hannaford Supermarket.
A Message From Far Away will take place through three local events. On Wednesday, August 4th, at 6 pm, renowned clarinetist and composer Kinan Azmeh will be performing with his CityBand at the Bandstand at Fort Allen Park on the Eastern Prom. On Thursday, August 5th, at 1 pm, Mayo Street Arts & Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center will be parading from Monument Square to Ocean Gateway. At 2 pm at Ocean Gateway, presenters will interact virtually with Little Amal via live video, including Pihcintu Girls Chorus, Kinan Azmeh’s CityBand, and musicians of the Portland Symphony Orchestra. Little Amal will unfortunately not be in person here in Portland, but presenters will be sending messages to her virtually and via a message in a bottle. All three events are family friendly, free, and open to the public.
During the virtual interaction with Little Amal, teenage refugees and asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa will be sharing stories and letters. The presentation will culminate with sending off a message in a bottle, which Amal will receive and read when she arrives in London in October. Currently, the teenagers are participating in a two week writing workshop with Mudar Alhaggi, an incredible syrian playwright based in Germany, writing stories and letters.
More About Little Amal
Who is this 12 foot puppet, Little Amal? Little Amal represents the millions of unaccompanied children who leave their homes due to desperate situations. She is the center of the global art and culture festival, The Walk, happening over four months in Turkey, Greece, Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom. She will begin her journey on July 27th in Gaziantep, Turkey, walking across Europe and arriving in Manchester, England on November 3rd. She is walking to find her mother, to get back to school, and to start a new life. She expresses herself nonverbally through macro movements and interpreters as she travels through countries she does not know with languages she does not speak. All along her route she will be welcomed with events answering the question, What does it mean to welcome people who have left their homes?
The festival is organized by Good Chance, an organization working to shine a light on the refugee crisis and start a global conversation around immigration. Good Chance started in 2015 in the Calais Refugee Camp with the “Theatre of Hope”. The puppet Little Amal was created by Handspring Puppet Company, known for their puppets in the theatre play “War Horse”.
Support this Event!
To learn more about A Message From Far Away, visit www.amessagefromfaraway.com/. Please support this event and artists at www.remotetheaterproject.com/support
Learn more about The Walk festival, visit www.walkwithamal.org/.
Cinderella Adel Elbatatoni has helped to organize “A Message From Far Away”.
Little Amal is a 12 foot tall rode puppet, operated by three puppeteers. Photo by Nick Wall.