The high school produced an original play in 2017 entitled, Sisters in Spirit, which dealt with the subject of missing and murdered Indigenous women. The play, for which students collaborated with Indigenous teachers in forming, received top honours at the Sears Drama Festival.

Ingrao explained Escape From Syria is a “very complex story” that relied heavily on the audience’s imagination.

“We wanted to tell it in a way that allowed the actors to really tell the story through their bodies, emotions and music. We knew it was a complicated story and we knew we wanted to use raw materials to tell it,” he said.

De Freitas said the cast was heavily involved in brainstorming ideas to bring the story to life.

“I remember in rehearsals, we would pitch ideas and we were given things like sticks, bed sheets, and crates,” the actress explained.

“There’s one scene where we tried to make a boat. At first we used bed sheets and crates but that didn’t work.”

In the end, the performers decided to just use sticks and held them up on stage to represent a boat.

“Other actors moved their hands in flowy motions to represent water.”

The students also worked closely with a Syrian family who resettled in Welland in 2016, to help portray the story accurately.

Escape From Syria runs Friday, June 7 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, June 8 at 4 p.m. at Robertson Theatre at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in. St. Catharines.

For ticket information visit in the inthesoil.on.ca.