By Robert Hurwitt, The San Francisco Chronicle

Founding members of the Awassa Children's Project, a gutsy Ethiopian street-orphan theater company, will give a presentation of their street theater techniques 6:30 p.m. Sunday at Project Artaud Theater. Tesfaye Biche, Migbar Kassa and Antenah Hameso, now adults, were street orphans in the war-torn, AIDS-ravaged city of Awassa in southern Ethiopia – near the Sudan border – when they formed their own street theater company, creating shows such as "The AIDS Education Circus" and "The Female Mutilation Show." Years later, their company has grown to include an orphanage and an art school, among other projects.

Biche and former Bay Area actor Kris LeFan have also formed the Sherkole Refugee Theatre Company in the Sherkole Refugee Camp, touring border refugee camps with "The Landmine Awareness Show."

Donations will be requested to help support the companies' work.

More information is available at awassachildrensproject.org, and a short film of the Awassa group can be seen below:

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