Creating "Laughter Under the Bombs"

Following the war between Israel and Hizbollah and the vicious assault on Lebanon and its people and infrastructure, American University of Beirut lecturers are using humor to help the trauma and grief. Marilyn

Maingate Magazine
Fall 2006 Vol. V, No. 1
by Nada Al-Awar

Does life really imitate art? Sharif Abdunnur, lecturer in drama at AUB’s Fine Arts and Art History Department, has found a way to use his art to help hundreds of Lebanese children learn to cope with the painful experience of the July 2006 war.

Sharif Abdunnur’s theater production, “Laughter Under the Bombs,” not only brought joy to the hearts of dozens of children displaced by Israel’s vicious war on Lebanon, but more importantly it also helped them deal with the trauma of losing their homes and sometimes even a close family member in the destruction and violence. Abdunnur wrote and directed an interactive theatrical piece performed at Beirut’s Masrah Al Madina (The city theater) in early August. The production featured adult professional actors as well as children whose families had fled the bombing in the south to seek refuge in the relative safety of Ras Beirut. “It was a good opportunity to watch people from different communities sit together and laugh together despite all the terrible things that were going on at the time,” says Abdunnur. (read more.....) Laughter

http://wwwlb.aub.edu.lb/~webmgate/article7.htm