Husam Abed (Dafa Puppet Theatre)

How cultural resistance functions within an ongoing oppression and occupation? How the Freedom Theatre uses creativity to reclaim identity, challenge oppression, stereotypes and envisions a better future? The artistic director and co-founder of Czech-based theatre company, Dafa Puppet Theatre, will be sharing how the Freedom Theatre serves as a platform for artistic expression and resistance against occupation.

“We are freedomfighters.”

Husam Abed is a Prague-based multi awarded Palestinian Jordanian theater director, puppeteer, producer and musician, specializing in alternative and puppet theater and devised multidisciplinary theater. He is currently undertaking a Ph.D. at Bath Spa University in the UK, researching refugee visibility through puppetry and object theater. He holds a Master of directing for alternative and puppet theater from the Academy of Performing Arts (DAMU), Czech Republic. Husam is a co-founder of Dafa Puppet Theatre, where he sees theater as a public practice. He leads theater projects for children, youth, and adults worldwide, and focuses his work with refugee communities. He has directed performances in Czech, Jordan, Bahrain, Austria and Hong Kong. His shows are invited on a regular basis to international festivals. He is a co-founder of LIV’in Festival in Prague and Ya khayyal Theatre Lab. for refugees and local youth, a curator for IDEA festival (International Dance Encounter Amman) and an active member of Karama Film Festival for human rights in Jordan.