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The goal of this project is to re-activate the workshops with the children, training local theater artists to conduct the workshops in the training schools. The initial project is centered in Yangon. There is a desire to expand the project both in outreach capacities and in duration, however given the uncertainty of the future situation in Myanmar, the choice is to start small and expand if possible.

Initial Year

In March, Moshe Cohen, with German artist Doris Dörrie, will travel to Burma and spend two weeks there working with the local theater group Thukhuma Khayathe.  During this time he will:

Week 1
Conduct workshops for Thukhuma Khayathe actors focusing on acting/clowning skills
Create a show with them, and perform it in each of the 4 training schools

Week 2
Conduct workshops for Thukhuma Khayathe actors focusing on training actors to teach workshops in the schools.
Offer workshops to the children in each of the 4 training schools

Ongoing workshops in the Training Schools
The Thukhuma Khayathe actors will continue the workshop activities in the training schools bringing workshops to each school once a month over the course of the year.

Ongoing Training for Thukhuma Khayathe Artists
In coordination with the international artist’s tours, ongoing training will be scheduled for the Burmese actors.  Ideally this will be a one-week workshop period with one or several international artists focusing on the workshop activities, evaluating current progress, and offering ongoing training to enhance the workshops in the training schools.

Evaluation and Expansion
After the first year of workshops in the training schools there will be an evaluation of the work being done, about the successes and weaknesses of the workshop program in the training schools.  Adjustments will be made In accordance with this evaluation, and will include the possible expansion of the program to reach out to more of the training schools in Burma.

History

Children’s Training Schools in Myanmar are state run institutions that house children whom have been arrested by the state and placed in detention. These children are orphans, street kids, children ‘in conflict’ with the law ranging in age from 7 to 18. These children, for the most part, do not have freedom of movement, access to normal schooling or artistic activities.  They have been removed from society and completely marginalized.  Until 2010, EMDH (Enfants Refugiés du Monde, Droits de l’Homme) a French NGO (now demised) operated a program to bring activity facilitators in contact with the children in the 14 training schools throughout Myanmar.

In 2009, Moshe Cohen, of CWB-USA, stayed in Myanmar after the Nargis cyclone project, to perform in the children training schools in the Yangon area. He also offered workshops to the local EMDH activity facilitators, and together they taught workshops in the schools emphasizing fun and personal expression through theater, clown, mime and circus techniques. The activity facilitators continued to use techniques from the workshops after Moshe’s departure. Moshe returned to Myanmar in 2010 to offer more training to the facilitators as well as again performing in many training schools and similar facilities. He traveled to Mandalay to bring similar activities to that area.

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