FOR HUMANIZING THE REFUGEE CRISIS WITH A 12-FOOT-TALL PUPPET
refugee—her challenges, her experiences on this long odyssey,” says Palestinian playwright and director Amir Nizar. Conceived as a moving production by Good Chance Theatre in association with Handspring Puppet Company, the traveling public art festival followed Little Amal, a 10-year-old Syrian refugee girl-who happens to be a 12-foot-tall puppet—on a four-month, nearly 5,000-mile journey to find her mother that started in July 2021 at the Syria-Turkey border and ended in the U.K. , with multiple scheduled events a day in 65 cities across 12 countries, was remarkable in that it shifted focus away from the despair associated with refugees and saluted their hope and perseverance. Zuabi describes transferring the responsibility onto the viewer: “How do you want to welcome her?” Thousands turned out to see her on the beach in Marseilles, France, and for the final events in Manchester, England. The Turkey-to-U.K. portion received funding from such organizations as Comic Relief, Arts Council England, and Backstage Trust, as well as public donations. “This whole thing becomes an exercise in empathy,” Zuabi says. For many in the refugee community, particularly children, Zuabi says that seeing Amal is a moment of pride. In May, Amal traveled to the Polish-Ukrainian border. In September, she will fly to New York.
