Meet the Voice of Hidden Winter

Firas Chihi explores his first performance role and the impact of theatre for sanctuary seekers.

I don't really know where to start…

Hidden Winter was my first experience working in the theatre industry and I never expected to work as a performer in my life!

I was working as a translator for SBC Theatre at the start of this project ,which was something that I really enjoyed doing. Being a member of such an amazing team, creating such an amazing work and meeting all those lovely kids every Saturday was a real pleasure for me.

What I loved the most about Hidden Winter was the fact that I could see the joy in each child’s face every week. They knew they were the important part of this big, fun, ambitious project and that made me feel really proud of the whole team .

I love the idea of using art and theatre to make someone feel welcome and to make them feel part of something ,and that someone out there does really care about them. That’s what Hidden Winter was about.

We had a lot of different activities every week that were offered to the children and their family’s, from drawing ideas for characters to getting their grown up to tell them stories about what they used to do in winter when they were young. I think the workshops gave all the participants a special feeling and made as all feel connected to each other even in such difficult circumstances .

Not being able to mix , see and meet other people was quite a hard thing for all of us this year but especially for those who are new to the country .

So our creative team alongside Ruby and Sam from The Herd where able to find a different and new way to make our daily walks a bit more fun and to help children to better discover and to get to know their local park while listening to a audio story walk narrated by….

ME!

When Rosie offered me the job I was a bit confused! I always thought that I had a terrible voice, and that I would never do anything like this .But at the same time I wanted to contribute more to this project and to give those families, who came to our sessions every week, a story based on everything they told us during the workshop using their creative imagination. I wanted to keep helping them feel part of something important , and mostly to make them feel welcome.

I was really lucky that as a first experience within the theatre industry I had the chance to work with the UK’s first Theatre Company Of Sanctuary, a company who’s main goal is to work with and create opportunities for those seeking sanctuary in the UK to tell their stories in their own way, using their own voice .

Now, I am a permanent member of the SBC team , which makes me feel really proud and excited to work on more projects in the future and to consider trying more things within theatre, because I really enjoyed my first experience as a performer. I even got to hear myself on BBC radio! This whole experience has encouraged me and given me more confidence in myself and made me believe that I’m capable of achieving more things within the theatre industry. And that is something VERY unexpected!