SHADOW theater EasterN ROots Uniting people Toward Europe

2026-07-22

SHADOW-EN-ROUTE is a cultural and social action exploring the roots of shadow theatre in Turkiye and the Middle East in its migration through Greece and finally to the rest of Europe. The project draws a parallel from themes of cultural encounters and diverse ethnicities typical of traditional shadow theatre to the current migration experiences. It does this by the organisation of capacity building activities and workshops involving children and youth from migrant backgrounds in participation with host community members in the storytelling, animating and sharing their different migration and encounter path in Turkiye (involving Syrian refugees in border areas), in Greece (where refugees are blocked half-way) and in Italy (where migrants have completed their journey). The project involves both a significant research aspect exploring Turkish Shadow Theatre and its evolution in the Arab World and in Europe, but also techniques, languages, storytelling aspects. This part will lead to a series of scientific publications. The project links the preservation of the intangible cultural heritage of shadow theatre to the opportunity of giving expression to refugee and migrant children, youth and the host community and representing the richness of diversity in Europe. The project involves researchers, artists, trainers (20) and children and youth from or in Italy, Greece, Spain and Turkiye (with a total of 270 involved in performances and 27 in storytelling). The project will develop three specific scenarios of travel-migration, cultural encounter and language mixing representing their country. The nine shared scenarios will be enacted and performed in Italy, Greece and Turkey in public performances. The expected outcomes include a video recording of the 27 performances (nine in each language/country), a project book, a website and a final event in Sapienza in Rome.

Italy

2025-10-15