The Campfire Project

Conceived of by actress/ teacher Jessica Hecht, The Campfire Project provides a forum for residents of refugees camps to collaborate and share their voices through the transformative power of theater. In  2017 as the crisis was raging, Jessica and producer Jenny Gersten, along with Mary Mitchell Campbell and Arin Arbus, made their maiden trip to the Ritsona Camp to strategize their first full production.

Within refugee camps,  NGOs on-site meet only essential physical needs, and provide basic language skills, but they are under-resourced given the tremendous demands.   I AM YOU ( the  NGO responsible for education and wellness) expects that by the end of this summer, Ritsona will change from a population of 1,000 residents who are primarily Syrian to a 2,500 resident population of  African, Syrian and Middle Eastern asylum seekers.. This swell is happening at camps around the world. 

For our first offering last summer, our 20 volunteer artists developed an Arabic-language adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest . For over three weeks, camp residents and volunteers adapted, rehearsed,,  composed and ultimately performed for a community audience of over 200!  Please view here, a short video which shares that story.   

The success of The Campfire Project 2018 was immense - residents, volunteers and members of I AM YOU have urged us to return.  Our plan is to dispatch smaller modules, more often!   Between June and December, The Campfire Project will make four two-week trips. On every trip, five volunteer artists, two translators ( French and Arabic)  and a psychological specialist will work at Ritsona. They will launch a performing arts intensive to support the work of I AM YOU. 

Our team will rotate. The first journey will send actresses Maura Tierney and Katie Flahive, clown/ teacher Orlando Pabatoy, actor/teacher Dave Hugo, Actor/translators Rasha Zamimiri, and  Adham Murched and director of NYU's Drama therapy program, Dr. Nisha Sajnani.

 Teams work for 14 days to provide structured classes in stilt walking, drama games, dance, music and story telling. We  begin and end our "camp within the camp" with therapeutic wellness practices   We believe we can spark habits in residents that make way for positive ideas about community and build rituals that inspire hope and creativity. 

Support of The Campfire Project goes directly to fund these module camps over the next six months.  We have no overhead.  We cannot do this without you.

With deep gratitude.
Jenny and Jess