HAPPY half HOUR in Confinement
At CLOWN ME IN, we got sick of being confined at home. But we didn’t to mix in with people to keep all risks as low as possible. This is why we decided to get together and play VIRTUALLY.
We came up with the HAPPY half HOUR.
It is a virtual gathering on the video chat app ZOOM where the host Sabine Choucair prepared some fun social therapy exercises that can be done from home. The ZOOM meeting was broadcasted LIVE on both Facebook and Instagram and had many participants who shared their camera view with us, and others who joined unseen from behind the screen.
We laughed, cried, jumped up and down, left and right, and turned in circles to get the blood moving again in our body. We shared many fun moments during those calls and it was well received from hundreds of people who joined and watched and participated.
Watch the live broadcasts
Session 1
Session 2
Session 3
Activities in Confinement with KAFA
Are you at home? You’re 1 year old or a 100 years old?
CLOWN ME IN decided to share games you can play alone or with your family at home to keep a good physical and psychological routine.
For these videos, we collaborated with KAFA Association to create 5 videos giving people at home ideas that are safe to do at home with the family.
Now share it and play it. But most importantly, GET OFF THE SCREEN and enjoy your time
🔴
قاعد/ة بالبيت؟ عمرك سنة او ١٠٠ ؟
نحنا بفريق “كلاون مي ان” بلّشنا نسجّل العاب ممكن تلعبوها لحالكن او مع اهلكن / اولادكم بالبيت للحفاظ عالصّحة النفسية والجسدية.
اوّل ٥ العاب كانوا بالتعاون مع جمعية كفى
شيّروها والعبوها واهم شي زيحوا من قدّام الشاشة
Clowning Through the Revolution!
What a time to be a clown! We’ve been trying really hard to keep up with our politicians since October 17th, but they’re really proving to be the ultimate competition.
Photo by Nadim Kamel during the Clown Walk
Photo by Jocelyn Daoud
Photo by Jocelyn Daoud
Photo by Jocelyn Daoud
Due to the circumstances, we took a short break between October and November to be on the streets with everyone else, marching in the protests and performing for people in the streets (it’s what we do best, after all!), as well as helping keep the human chain in line!
We also gave a free workshop, led by Giovanni Fusetti, which was open to any caring citizen wishing to explore the connection between the theatre and political, social and environmental action, both on an intellectual level and in an experimental, playful way. The workshop was a great success, and the number of people wanting to sign up made us realise how much we can do to help, in our own way! We’ll be utilising our new space over the course of the new year to host free, monthly, open workshops and other sessions to help people deal with the stress of the current situation, so keep an eye out on our social media channels to find out when they’ll be happening!
House of Peace: Art of Being Workshop
This year (2019), we had the pleasure of collaborating with House of Peace (Dar el Salam) on a project called Art of Being, in which 20 men and women of different backgrounds and nationalities from around Lebanon went through a year-long arts-based training program relating to children’s rights. The participants got to decide what three mediums or approach they wanted to focus on to receive more in-depth training to create awareness campaigns and initiatives around different themes that interest them.
And that’s where we come in! Those who wanted to learn more about the art of clowning received training with none other than our Clown-In-Chief, Sabine Choucair– with some of our other clowns jumping in too– to learn how to use clowning to communicate important issues.
Nine of the twenty participants began their training to find their inner clowns, as well as proposing the themes they wanted to tackle. They worked to conceptualize and create a half-hour show around the themes of education, hygiene, and bullying. This show toured in five different locations: Padova in Sin El Fil, Madraset Dammeh in Ghazze, Dar el Aytam and in the village of Bodai in Baalbak.
Besides learning to communicate these topics in a new way, our new-found clowns also learned a lot about themselves and how to overcome many of their own personal obstacles. A lot of them expressed how they learned to feel comfortable in their own skin, especially in front of a crowd. Fears or anxieties about speaking in front of an audience, letting loose, and even putting on the red nose slowly melted away as the new clowns came to terms with their insecurities and actually used them to their advantage.
The Art of Being clowns were happy and surprised to learn that it wasn’t just kids who enjoyed their performances. Residents of Bodai told them that they had only ever seen clowns on TV, so they were absolutely thrilled when they found out that they were getting a live performance in their town.
Some of the clowns enjoyed the experience so much that they’re still performing as clowns for children on their own, and even giving beginner workshops for the youth. That’s one of the things we love most about what we do: instilling the same love for this art in people, who in turn pass it on to others! It’s kind of like a virus, really. Symptoms may include uncontrollable laughter and extreme silliness.
Let’s Laugh Workshop FEB 2019
Because we want to spread clown culture as far and wide as possible, we sometimes give short workshops for anyone interested in discovering and bringing their inner clown to life. We had 12 participants sign up for our intensive, five-day Let’s Laugh workshop in February with Sabine Choucair, where they learned how to build their clown characters and personalities through different games and activities.
This is what Monif, one of the participants, had to say about the experience:
Joining the workshop with Clown Me In has opened many doors for me, both perceptually and personally. I have begun exploring a new side of myself, a side which initially resisted the idea of letting out my inner child. That resistance fell away as I confronted myself, and one small clown step at a time, we all began to define our clowns’ characters, and saw the team’s true colors flourish.
We had daily routines as part of the workshop, playing games like Mr. Hit, the impersonated Simon-Says game: “Jacques a dit”, and sometimes just a little of a very loud round of Screaming Tag. These games always helped get us into character so that, day by day, we could build on the previous steps. We were always ecstatic to discover what we would have coming up, as we were not only building our clown-selves for those moments, but are actually using that process until today. I feel like my personality fused with the teachings of the workshop to produce a new version of myself. This has kept me wanting to clown outside of the workshop, so I now look for every opportunity I can get!
Clown&Clown Festival – Monte San Giusto, Italy
Sabine Choucair, Lebanese humanitarian clown and founder of Clown Me In, received the Il Clown nel Cuore 2019 award at the Clown&Clown Festival in Monte San Giusto, Italy, for her work using the art of clowning on the streets and in crisis and conflict zones with refugees, disadvantaged communities, women, and diverse social groups around the world.
More than 10,000 people attended the award ceremony. The Il Clown nel Cuore award recognizes artists who combine comedy and the joy of living with humanitarian missions in solidarity with those in need, thus becoming models for the community.
Over the years, the award has recognized the work of big names, including Andrea Caschetto, Dario Ballantini, and Patch Adams.
Sabine Choucair is the first woman to receive this award.
حازت سابين شقير، المهرجة والناشطة اللبنانية ومؤسسة Clown Me In ، على جائزة Il Clown nel Cuore 2019 في مهرجان Clown & Clown في مونتي سان جيوستو، إيطاليا، عن عملها باستخدام فن التهريج في الشوارع وفي مناطق الأزمات والنزاعات مع اللاجئين والمجتمعات المحرومة والنساء والفئات الاجتماعية المتنوعة في جميع أنحاء العالم
حضر المهرجان وحفل توزيع الجوائز أكثر من 10000 شخص
تعترف جائزة Il Clown nel Cuore بالفنانين الذين يَجمعون بين الكوميديا والفرح والمهام الإنسانية تضامنا مع المحتاجين، وبالتالي يصبحون نموذجا يحتذى به في المجتمع
على مر السنين، أعطيت هذه الجائزة لأسماء كبيرة تم الاحتفاء بأعمالهم، ومنهم Andrea Caschetto و Dario Ballantini و Patch Adams.
سابين شقير هي أول امرأة تحصل على هذه الجائزة
Our New Location
One of our biggest achievements this year is acquiring our own location: CLOWN ME IN THE HOUSE!
In the past year and a half, we changed 3 different locations, each time packing and unpacking and reorganize all our clown gear. Not going through the details of the past 12 years 🙂
Can you imagine how much clown gear we have? All our fun props, hoops, costumes, kazoos and crazy stuff that you might find in a clown’s bag? 😂
But finally, WE MADE IT.
The new space is serving as our Clown Me In rehearsals space used for Clown shows, The Caravan Project, and of course as the very very serious classroom for the students and teachers of IIVVSS
The new location is supported by SintraCo who offered us the space,
and Fondation SESAM and DROSOS who partially funded the furnishing of the interior.
Cleaning and setting up the space in September by the clowns
Job Opportunity: Operations Officer
Operations Officer
with experience in finance/accounting and operations
Clown Me In (Awrad Association) is a clowning and street theatre NGO based in Beirut, which uses clowning to spread laughter and provide relief to disadvantaged communities while exploring human vulnerabilities and helping individuals to accept them. Clown Me In has worked around the world, in Mexican, Lebanese, Palestinian, Indian, Brazilian, Moroccan, Jordanian, Syrian, Greek and British communities.
We are looking for a self-motivated and result-driven operations officer with extensive experience in finance/accounting and operations for NGOs.
Duties will include formulating policies, coordinating and following up with project managers of the different projects, working on general budgets, allocating budget resources, monitoring and motivating staff, managing operational costs, improving administration processes, identifying new opportunities, and monitoring financial activities.
The successful candidate for this role should possess good communication skills, exceptional budgeting and finance skills and strong leadership qualities.
Operations Officer responsibilities:
- Overseeing daily operations
- Developing and implementing growth strategies
- Developing and implementing policies in accordance to international NGOs norms
- Creating and managing budgets
- Evaluating performance and productivity
- Analysing accounting and financial data
- Generating reports
- Managing cash box and bankbook
- Drafting contracts
- Overseeing the legal papers of Awrad Association
- Overseeing the work being done at the new space
Cashbox Management:
- Make all due cash payments in a timely manner in coordination with project managers.
- Make sure that all invoices are in compliance with rules and regulations required by the Lebanese government and donors.
- Make sure there are sufficient funds in cashbox and that cash counting is carried out on a weekly basis.
- Record all payments in cashbox sheet in a timely manner.
- Archive all financial supporting documents of cashbox according to budgets and projects.
Bankbook Management:
- Make all due payments either via check or bank transfers in coordination with project managers and president.
- Record all payments in bankbook in a timely manner.
- Manage online banking.
- Carry out monthly bank reconciliations in coordination with president.
- Archive all financial supporting documents of bankbook according to budgets and projects.
- Make sure that there are sufficient funds in bank account in order to carry out due payments on time upon request of project manager and/or president.
Human Resources:
- Draft new consultancy contracts per budgetary requirements.
- Archive resumes and contracts per projects.
Reporting:
- Deliver financial reports due to donors on time in cooperation with project manager.
- Provide all required financial supporting documents to donor due along with reports.
- Provide all documents required by the auditor for the preparation of end-of-year reports to the government and follow up with auditor and lawyer to guarantee that reports are submitted in due time.
Operations Officer qualifications:
- Degree in business management and/or MBA or similar
- At least 3 years of experience in NGOs
- Strong leadership qualities
- Highly organised
- Computer literate
- Good Arabic and English (French is a plus)
To apply, send an e-mail to clownmein@gmail.com with “Operations Officer” as a subject along with a motivation letter and your CV before April 19th.
Short-listed candidates will be contacted on the 22nd of April.
To know more about Awrad Association please visit : www.clownmein.com
and our fb page: https://www.facebook.com/clownmeinpage/
Job starts on May 1st 2019
Clown Tour 2018
Our Clown Tour for 2018 was a huge success, with 24 clowns reaching over 4,600 people through 25 performances in 10 days all over Lebanon. That’s a fancy way of saying that it was absolutely incredible!
Photo from the last show by Diego Ibarra Sanchez
This tour usually comes after our We Must Clown workshop, a program aimed at giving free workshops to young people from different backgrounds and give them the opportunity to express themselves through clowning, then join the regulars of Clown Me In as part of the yearly tour.
All 24 clowns went on tour from October 24 to November 4, in Choueifat, Tannourine, Akkar, Tripoli, Barr Elias, Tyre, Saida, Aley, Deir El Qamar, suburbs of Beirut, and several areas around Lebanon (check the full schedule for location details). We performed in refugee camps, schools and public spaces, spreading happiness and laughter to kids and adults of all ages.
Since we’re all about getting new people involved, we were happy to have not only new clowns, but also a guest trainer, Stephen Sobal, from the All In Theatre in London. Sabine and Stephan worked together, supervising and training the clowns, building on improvised scenes – bit by bit – to create the performance and link the ideas together, based on themes that are important to the clowns that we wanted to share with the communities we would be visiting. Recycling, hygiene and the environment were the main topics we tackled. Language barriers didn’t stop anyone from laughing and having fun. Clowning is, after all, a universal language of its own.
“Laughter is important because people sometimes forget to be happy”
“الضحك مهم لأنو الإنسان بينسى مرات يكون مبسوط”
Man from Deir el Ahmar after watching the show
The experience was in itself great for everyone involved and they came away having learned something new about themselves and others. This really showed through in the performances, where us clowns were challenged by audience interaction, having to listen and engage with them as well as helping, supporting and communicating with one another, all in the spirit of teamwork.
Everyday on tour was a road trip, with us together in 2 or 3 big cars, singing songs and playing Souk Oqqaz and improv games as we drove all over Lebanon. We even got stuck in mud on the way to some of the refugee camps that were sometimes difficult to reach. Good thing some clowns are professional (not really) off-road drivers, too. The fact that these places are sometimes so difficult to reach remind us that it’s really important to take the time to get there, because the kids are so excited to see us and so happy to watch the show. They also asked us over and over if we could come back more. Some kids we surveyed at the end said they’d want to see a clown show EVERY DAY if they could!
The excitement level from the kids never dropped, even in schools that get regular access to artistic and cultural events (Yes, we do have tools for measuring these things scientifically, in case you were wondering). The kids were always focused and immersed in the experience, even in the places we had already visited before on different tours.
Dahr El Moghr, in Tripoli, is a village built on a hill that can be reached by climbing a whooooole lot of stairs. Our visit wasn’t expected, so we started calling out for people to gather. The kids who saw us coming up the stairs were so excited that they were actually the ones who got everyone gathered in the square within ten minutes, filling up not only the square but also the roads all around it with people watching all around from their balconies! Some of the kids even remembered which of us clowns were there last time, down to the details of what we were wearing!
It’s these moments that mean a lot to us, and that keep us doing what we do. Kids who remember you even if they’ve seen you only once before, who are receptive to stories and messages that you’re trying to communicate, and who are sad to see you go. A lot of them always ask when the clowns are coming back, and the feedback we receive when we ask what they think of the shows is (no joke) overwhelmingly positive. The only kid who was actually unhappy with something was upset because he saw Sabine (the co-founder and clown) sitting on the side with her broken leg and felt bad for her!
“حبيت أصبح في المستقبل مثلهم”
“I’d like to be like them in the future”
Wasayef Muhammad, 10 years old, Arqa camp
The tour may be over (at least for this year 😉 ), but check out some of the highlights in this short video!
We’ll also be sharing a few short videos that were done as part of the We Must Clown workshop soon, so stay tuned!
Clown Me In 