Support Our Puppet Theatre Creation "Rabāb"
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Help Bring "Rabāb" to Life: Support Our Puppet Theatre Creation!
Puppet / Theatre / Music
CIE OUEST OF CENTER — Creation 2023 - 2025
We’re So Close to the Finish Line!
Over the past two years, we’ve poured our hearts into “Rabāb”, a multidisciplinary production that blends puppetry, theatre, and music. We’ve built every element of the work ourselves—from crafting the puppets to designing the set and composing original soundscapes—and we have continued to make progress in the face of very limited resources.
Now, we’re in the final stretch, but we need your help to cross the finish line and to bring this project to life in its full form.
The remaining steps are crucial— holding our last residency, final touches on the puppets, costumes and props, purchasing some technical equipment, finalizing the set design and ensuring a fair compensation for our team of artists.
We’ve come so far, but we need a final push to make this production a reality.
Your support will give us the resources we need to wrap up the final stages and will allow us to present Rabāb in the best way possible. We’re incredibly excited to share it with you, but we can’t do it without your help.
About "Rabāb"
Produced by Cie Ouest of Center and directed by Mahtab Mokhber, Rabāb is a collective creation, centered around a human-sized puppet of an elderly woman, manipulated by two actresses.
The story follows Mina, a young Iranian puppeteer, as she tries to remember her grandmother’s life, Rabāb. Inside her atelier, Mina pieces together the fragments of Rabāb’s life, materially and imaginatively. Her workspace becomes a sanctuary, where she dreams of Rabāb and breathes life into her grandmother’s memory through the puppet. Together, they undertake a transformative journey of reinventing the past. Rabāb explores themes of remembrance, heritage, and female resilience.
At its core, the narrative is deeply personal. But beyond the personal, Rabāb speaks to all of us— It’s about the stories we inherit and carry, the ones we lose, and the ones we fight to preserve and keep alive.
Watch fragments of our journey
Video 1 :
Video 2 :
Why We Need Your Support
Creating Rabāb has been a labor of love. Despite self-financing much of the process, the reality of arts funding has made it challenging to cover the last essential costs.
Your donation will help cover :
Fund our final 10-day creative residency – This final intensive work period is essential for concluding our work, rehearsing with the full team, and polishing every element before the premiere.
- Transport : Getting the team and materials to the residency location. (Cost: €1,000)
- Housing & Food : Ensuring the team has a place to stay and meals during this intensive period. (Cost: €1,000)
- Salaries : The project involves a team of talented actors, puppeteers, musicians and technicians, who have been working passionately to bring Rabāb to life. Supporting them ensures fair wages for their time and expertise. (Cost: €6,000)
Finalize the set, costumes, and props – We need to finalize all handcrafted elements, ensure costume and props durability for performances, and complete the set design. (Cost: €1,000)
Purchase technical equipment – This includes black lights for key visual effects, additional projectors, additional sound card and speakers (Cost: €1,000)
Document the production – Hiring a professional for High-quality photography and video will allow us to share Rabāb beyond the stage, reaching festivals, producers, and future audiences. (Cost: €1,000)
Total Fundraising Goal: €11,000
Every single euro will go directly towards the making of Rabāb. Your support means the world to us! Just a reminder that we are not offering any perks or rewards in return for donations.
How You Can Help
- Donate : Every contribution, big or small, brings us closer to our goal. No amount is too little! Your support directly funds the final stage of our production and makes a real impact.
- Share : Even if you can't contribute financially, sharing this campaign with your network means the world to us. Help us spread the word! Share our campaign on your social media, tell your friends, and your community!
- Follow Us : Stay updated on our journey by following our social media pages and website.
- Get Involved : Are you a costume or set designer, puppet maker, puppeteer, videographer, or photographer interested in contributing your skills? If you’re willing to help us in any of these areas on a voluntary basis, we’d love to hear from you! Your expertise could help us.
Contact Us – If you'd like to contribute your time, skills, or resources, reach out to us via the company's email
Why This Matters
Bring an independent, artist-led production to life – Rabāb is produced by Ouest of Center, a small nonprofit cultural association, dedicated to artistic expression without compromise. The project is the result of artists coming together with passion and dedication and with the belief that stories like Rabāb are vital and must be told.
Support diverse and underrepresented voices in theatre – Women's stories, especially those of past generations, have too often been overlooked or erased from mainstream storytelling. Rabāb is an effort to preserve one of these stories, remembered by a new generation of women who refuse to let it fade. With your support, such stories will continue to resonate and inspire, making sure they are not lost but carried forward.
Use art as a tool for change – Puppet theatre has a unique power to tell stories that transcend language and borders. It has the power to communicate profound human experiences, to move, and to create conversations. By bringing Rabāb to audiences, we hope to share the struggles and resilience of women across different times and places.
Meet the Team
A creation is never the work of just a few. It carries the traces of many hands, ideas, and voices. Rabāb is created by an international group of passionate artists. While the full list is extensive, here are the core artists :
Mahtab Mokhber (Director & Puppet Creator - Iran)
Ulima Ortiz (Actress & Puppeteer - France/Colombia)
Julia Free (Actress & Puppeteer - Co-Founder of Ouest of Center - United States)
Babak Lessan (Musician and Sound Designer - Iran)
Victor Barrère (Directing assistant, Scenography & Stage manager - Co-Founder of Ouest of Center - France)
Hanic Soleimani (Singer - Iran)
Victor Munoz (Light Designer - France)
About Ouest of Center
Ouest of Center is an independent theatre company co-founded by Julia Free and Victor Barrère, both graduates of the Jacques Lecoq International Theatre School. Dedicated to multidisciplinary artistic expression, the company explores movement, spatiality, and storytelling through theatre, music, circus, and visual arts. Their creations defy traditional categorization, blending genres and artistic disciplines to develop unique, immersive performances that resonate across cultures. Ouest of Center is not just a production company; it is a creative platform that fosters experimental performances, exhibitions, concerts, and collaborations, all in the service of multidisciplinarity.
Our Supporters & Partners
A great part of this production has been self-produced, but we could have never done it alone. The creation of Rabāb so far has been made possible thanks to the generosity, belief, and collaboration of multiple individuals and institutions who have supported us along the way. We are grateful for the partnerships and residencies provided by Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnettes (Charleville-Mézières), Théâtre 71 (MARTO Festival and Malakoff Theatre), La Nef-Manufacture d’Utopies (Pantin), CIRCa (Auch), Odradek Center (Toulouse) and La Brique Rouge (Toulouse). In addition, Rabāb has received funding from On Va Vers le Beau and the Gers Departmental Council.
Join Us in Bringing "Rabāb" to Life!
Thank you for believing in this project and for supporting independent theatre! We can’t do this without you.
With much love and gratitude,
Rabāb’s Team
Follow Our Journey & Contact Us:
Instagram: @OuestofCenter
Contact: Email
Organizer
Mahtab Mokhber
Organizer
Toulouse, B3