“I was at the mosque practicing Arabic when the bombs started.”
This statement is delivered by a local ninth grade student, newly arrived in Thunder Bay from Syria. What stays with me after speaking to him is not only the content of his story, but the straightforward manner in which he conveys it.  There is no hint of exaggeration in what he says – it is simply what happened, what he experienced in his childhood.
Thunder Bay has welcomed several Syrian refugee families to our city over the past two years. Magnus Theatre, in partnership with Thunder Bay Multicultural Association, facilitated The Newcomer Project for the 2017/2018 Collective Creation Project, in which local high school students collaborate with professional theatre staff to research and develop a script to perform. This year’s production, titled MIGRATION PATHS, is currently being rehearsed and will be performed on our Mainstage from June 4th – 6th.
This year, students learned about documentary theatre, which is a departure from the techniques used in past Collective Creation Projects. “Documentary theatre means telling someone else’s story,” explains project participant and Superior CVI grade 12 student Phoebe Kine, age 17.  “It’s an eye-opening experience for both the actors and the audience.”
“It’s telling their story in a respectful and accurate way,” adds grade 9 student Brook Malone. The objective of documentary theatre is to use pre-existing material as source material for the script, keeping the wording as close to the way that it was documented as possible. For MIGRATION PATHS, Magnus Theatre in Education staff members met with and interviewed Syrian youth to document their stories before and after arrival in Canada.
Through research and transcripts of the interviews, Canadian-born students learned about the experiences of Syrians.  “I’ve learned that it’s really difficult to get across borders in a war zone. It’s not as simple as everyone thinks. Their journeys are not as easy as ours,” says Malone, age 14. 
“Yeah, a lot of people have to struggle through difficult situations to get to a better one,” replies 17 year old Kyara Cameron.
The students hope that audiences will gain insight into the experiences of refugees after seeing the play, and that the production will lead to open discourse in our community. “I think they’ll have more respect for where we come from and be able to see the newcomers’ stories from their perspective,” declares Cameron.
“People might be more open to helping others, more understanding,” adds Kine.
Performances of MIGRATION PATHS will be held on Monday June 4th and Tuesday June 5th at 7:30 pm, with a matinee performance on Wednesday June 6th at 10:30 am. Tickets are $8 and can be purchased by calling 345-5552 or visiting www.magnustheatre.com