Meet Lilit Madatyan, 15, from Sarnaghbyur. She hardly knew anything about theatrical art before joining the COAF project My Theater in Sarnaghbyur. “I, technically, knew nothing about that area,” she admits. “Theater is very similar to cinematography. However, there are lots of differences as well. It’s a totally unique world for me, much more serious than the cinema.”

When theater director Marine Asatryan started the project in Sarnaghbyur, about 70 children enrolled. Lilit was one of them. “Then about 20 kids were selected”, Lilit says. “When it turned out I had been selected, I was shocked. At first, I thought we would immediately get specific parts to play. However, Marine and our instructor Armine told that we should write our scripts first. I was scared I would not manage to write anything. However, our instructor said that my script was OK.”

Lilit’s story was about the dreams of a mother and a daughter. The daughter makes bracelets to sell and to help her mother who is ill. “We read and discussed our stories,” Lilit tells. “At first, we staged a play based on Tumanyan’s short poems. Then we staged a fairy tale by Andersen. We chose the fabrics, and our parents helped to make the costumes”.

The theater-loving girl is an avid reader, “I like historical novels or adventures, such as the Treasure Island. I would love to become a historian or a journalist, to travel a lot and to help people. I would like to have a time machine to get into the past and see how people used to live.

Lilit has other interests, too. She has been involved in COAF debate club and English lessons. She has got lots of friends at the theater club. “I got to know lots of children from our school. Actually, lots of positive things happened to me, thanks to COAF. I became more outgoing. There were lots of students at our school that I considered to be arrogant. However, later I found out they were very supportive and kind. We help out each other constantly. And I am thankful to COAF for people surrounding me.”