Belarus – Theatre Without Borders

Beralus Free Theatre 2014

Current Work

GLOBAL RESEARCH EXPEDITION
MOROCCO – BRAZIL – INDIA – BANGLADESH – NIGERIA

“I feel privileged to be here, to begin to understand by seeing, meeting and listening.” Bridget Fiske

Red Fores t is devised from material gathered on a global research expedition. Our researchers delved into the relationship between climate change and forced migration to raise awareness on the plight of climate refugees around the world.

Natalia Kaliada, Nicolai Khalezin, Bridget Fiske and Andrew Crofts travelled to Morocco, Brazil, India, Bangladesh and Nigeria, where they met with locals and members of NGOs. Throughout their journey Andrew Crofts and Bridget Fiske documented their experiences in a blog, which you can read on our website.

Buy Your Tickets For Red Forest Here

House an Actor

Do you have a spare room? Do you live in London? If so you could help us!

Giving one actor accommodation for a week is the equivalent of a £500 donation. In return we would offer you two tickets to the show as well as thanks in the programme.

We need accommodation from:

7- 11 of June, to perform Red Forest at The Young Vic.

13-21 September, to perform Price of Money at The Albany

News from Belarus

We lost our home in Belarus

In 2013 the authorities forced us out of the space where we performed for almost six years. In the face of threats, blackmail and harassment from the KGB we still managed to conduct a hugely successful underground tour, and have been performing every week in the woods, peoples living rooms and secret venues. However, not having a permanent home for our theatre has caused a tremendous strain on the company, finding rehearsal space is difficult and expensive.

The KGB are still threatening our company. Our General Manager, Svetlana Sugako, may face a jail sentence, Kirill Konstantinov and Sergey Kvachonok are wanted for investigation by the police for a controversial art project. The KGB also shut down our adaptation of Chekhov's 'The Seagull' by Maria Saznova, on the grounds that anti—governmental theatre is prohibited.

Despite prohibitions against our company we are able to work with our actors, across borders, on Skype. Nicolai and Natalia worked with students in Belarus via Skype, on a new urban art project called "Colour Gait Over the Gray" , and Vladimir Shcherban directed "Elizabeth Bath at Ivanov’s Christmas Tree" on Skype.

The Belarusian authorities need to realise the more they take away our freedom to perform, the more we will fight and continue to use our theatre as a tool to incite change.

Supporting Undiscovered Artists

ICCD

The International Contest of Contemporary Theatre (ICCD) was created by BFT to encourage new writing and promote Belarusian cultural identity on an international stage. In previous years it has been held underground in Belarus. 2014 will be the first time the ICCD will be held in a free country.The prizes were presented by Laura Wade at The Young Vic on the 3rd of March. The winning plays are now available to buy from Oberon Books,

Crossing the Borders

We have chosen four talented theatre makers to take part in our participatory programme, and learn the unique methodology behind Belarus Free Theatre. We will work with these participants over one year to help them become Universal Artists. For more information on our artistic method and the Universal Artist click HERE.

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Congratulations to Patricia Ariza who has been honoured by The League of Professional Theater Women with the Gilder/Coigney International
Theatre Award. Congratulations also to Jill Greenhalgh, who was one of the 21 nominees from around the world.

INFO ALERTS ARCHIVE

Belarusian Dream Theater – Call for Submissions

http://www.ensemblefreetheaternorway.com/www.ensemblefreetheaternorway.com/Belarusian_Dream_Theater.html

8 June 2013 – Ensemble Free Theater Norway´s Artistic Director Brendan McCall announces the launch of Belarusian Dream Theater – an international theater action supporting freedom of expression in Belarus.

History:

In 2011, the Solidarity with Belarus Information Office held their first international journalism competition, Belarus In Focus. Awarded as one of the winners in the competition for his essay “When Theatre is ´Thoughtcrime´,” about the work of Belarus Free Theatre, McCall was inspired by SBIO´s international competition for journalists. Why not do something similarly through theater & dramatic literature?

Theater artists have organized similar international projects in recent years, using creativity and drama to capture a global audience´s attention towards a specific issue, cause, or subject. McCall is indebted to two in particular: Theatre Communications Group´s Shinsai: Theaters for Japan and Gun Control Theatre Action, organized by NoPassport Theatre Alliance & The Vicious Circle.

Belarusian Dream Theater aims to increase awareness about contemporary Belarus through culture, storytelling, and theater. Playwrights of all nationalities are invited to give voice to those subjects current undiscovered in our news media on Belarus, so that local and foreign audiences may more deeply engage with the country and its people.

Call for Submissions:

Ensemble Free Theater Norway is now accepting submissions of plays for inclusion in Belarusian Dream Theater. The deadline for entry is 1 October 2013.

-Each play must be no longer than 10 pages in length, or approximately 10 minutes in length. -Plays may be written in any genre, style, or aesthetic.

-Plays must relate to Belarus in some way (ie the country´s politics, people, language, history, art, economy, etc), and may be inspired by anything from a news article to an interview, or a play based on personal experience to theater based on imagination and research.

-Entries by dramatists of every nationality are welcome to apply, including students.

-Plays by Belarusian writers are particularly welcome.

For submission details, please contact us here.

Performances:

The Belarusian Dream Theater plays will be presented by a team of international partner-theaters from around the world on 25 March 2014 – Belarusian Freedom Day. Each group may stage as many of these plays as they wish, either as readings and/or performances; and are responsible for their own casting, rehearsal, and other production-related responsibilities. We ask that all performances be free and open to the public.

The following groups are confirmed as partner-theaters in Belarusian Dream Theater:

Bennington College – Bennington, VT, USA

Cummins Theatre – Merredin, WA, Australia

Florence International Theatre Company – Florence, Italy

Global Theatre Project – Los Angeles, CA, USA

Korniag Theatre – Minsk, Belarus

Maladype Theater – Budapest, Hungary

Memento Teaterkompani – Oslo, Norway

Out Of Balanz – Copenhagen, Denmark

Square Theatre Company – Athens, Greece

Strefna WolnaSlowa – Warsaw, Poland

TLS Frankfurt – Frankfurt, Germany

TRESS Teaterkompani – Oslo, Norway

Maybe you would like to submit an entry? What to become a partner-theatre? Please email us for details.

Press:

Polskie Radio

The Nordic Page

Please feel free to forward this to anyone that you wish. The more people we can get involved as playwrights and/or partner-theatres, the better.

Email brendan.mccall.norway@gmail.com if you have any questions!

Brendan McCall

INFO ALERTS ARCHIVE

Belarus Free Theatre: some news and an appeal

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I’m writing with a short update and an appeal, on behalf of the Belarus Free Theatre and its co-founders, Natalia Kaliada and Nikolai Khalezin. So many of you were instrumental in, or were present for, their successful run in New York last winter, co-produced by LaMama and The Public Theater following the Under the Radar Festival; or worked with the company on previous trips; or were generous enough to offer your homes to them when we reached out to you.

And some of you may already know that Natalia and Nikolai, and several BFT company members applied for and won political asylum in the United Kingdom—their many friends and supporters in London were instrumental in bringing that about. Circumstances in Belarus continue to be dangerous, and Natalia and Nikolai are tireless in their efforts to focus awareness on the abuses of power and human rights violations that are taking place there. They are frequently traveling abroad to meet with diplomats and politicians who will hopefully apply pressure on the Belarusian government to release political prisoners and bring an end to enforced disappearances.

The BFT are also busy creating new pieces they hope will make a difference, one of which, A Reply to Kathy Acker: Minsk 2011 was presented at the Edinburgh Festival. Kathy Acker received a top award of the festival, "The Scotsman Fringe First 2011" Award for "Innovation and Outstanding New Writing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe", as well as The Guardian’s "The Very Weighty Topics Award.”

In establishing their new home in the U.K., BFT are in the process of officially registering "Belarus Free Theatre" for charitable status (not-for-profit). They have started an online fundraising campaign to raise the money to employ a UK staff member and kick-start a tiny office in London—and to provide some means for the BFT to survive. The goal of the first leg of this campaign is £9,000 (approximately $14,000) and they are half way towards that goal. The deadline for the campaign is December 12^th—and as any of you who’ve done an online fundraising campaign will appreciate, if they don’t reach the goal by that time, they will be liable for a high penalty—

As a number of you have asked how you might help the Belarus Free Theatre, I’m reaching out in the hope that you will click on the link below and donate—whatever you can– to the company’s efforts to establish themselves in their new country, and continue their brilliant and very important work. You’ve heard this before, but it’s true: every little bit counts…

To donate, click on http://www.sponsume.com/project/belarus-free-theatre

Catherine Coray, Associate Arts Professor
TSOA Dept of Drama, Experimental Theatre Wing
cc19@nyu.edu
NYU Abu Dhabi Affiliated Faculty
October 21-December 21, 2011: +971 2 628 4498

Director and Curator,
hotINK at the LARK: a festival of new plays from around the world

catherine@larktheatre.org

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Cry freedom: how theatre helps us fight for human rights in Belarus – Belarus Free Theatre

After six defiant years, the Belarus Free Theatre has been forced into exile abroad. But our campaign will go on.

Rend-game … members of the Belarus Free theatre perform Being Harold Pinter in Belarus in 2007. Photograph: Ho/Reuters

When I was 16 years old I wanted to become an actor, but because my father was vice-president of the Academy of Arts it wasn't possible: children of top officials weren't admitted. My elder brother Yuriy told me that I could become a diplomat – practically the same as being an actress but with the benefit of foreign languages. Today, he lives in the US and is a political refugee. My parents have not seen him for 10 years.

On 31 December, my dad was standing at a crossroads attempting to wave in a way that would not draw attention to me. I was sitting in the car, crying and wondering whether it was the last time I'd ever see him. We were on the road for three months. The apartments of my parents and my husband's parents were raided and neighbours were instructed to report to the police if they saw us. We were called "public enemies". And yet all of this is nothing compared to what happens to those who are in prison or under house arrest. Today, 56 people face between three and 15 years in jail. Among them are friends of ours: 2010 presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov and his wife, Irina Khalip; anthrolopologist Dmitriy Bondarenko and activist Alexander Atroschenkov; and Natalia Radina, the editor-in-chief of human-rights group Charter'97.

Why? Because between 30 March 2005 and 19 December 2010, we ran the Belarus Free Theatre. We gathered together to make drama, and to say whatever we thought, wherever and whenever we felt like, performing in front of anyone we cared to. We wanted our spectators to think – this, of course, is the most terrifying part for any dictatorship. As Vladimir Shcherban, the BFT's director, says: "We speak the issues that the audience keeps silent on." We've played in cafes, restaurants, apartments, and private houses – even in the woods. We've performed under cover of weddings, birthdays, Christmas parties. (Can you imagine a wedding where the "bride" and "groom" have just met each other, and where the bride has a three-year-old son in tow? Well, that was the kind of wedding we organised.)

The first foreign writer who came to visit us was Tom Stoppard; from the first moment we had an enormous personal connection. Since that time, we feel like we're part of one family. Tom spent five days with writers, directors, journalists and met with those who are now in jail. It was Tom's advice to us to read the plays of Harold Pinter, which led to our most-performed show, Being Harold Pinter, directed by Vladimir. The theatre has now existed for six years, and as I write this it's four months since it left Belarus. We've performed in New York, Chicago, Hong Kong and are now back in London, being looked after by our friend Irina Bogdanova, who joined with Tom to set up the Free Belarus Now movement. Our friends from the Public theatre in New York are having us back to perform in April, and after that we've been invited by our friends at London's Almeida theatre to perform here once more.

I'm waiting for the moment when we start rehearsals again (Kevin Spacey kindly offered us space at the Old Vic), and I'm keen to see how our new piece is created and how the public responds. But today we understand that it's not enough to be just theatre-makerss. And it's important to refer, every day of our lives, to what our patron and friend Harold Pinter said in his Nobel speech:

"A writer has to smash the mirror – for it is on the other side of that mirror that the truth stares at us … Despite the enormous odds which exist, unflinching, unswerving, fierce intellectual determination, as citizens, to define the real truth of our lives and our societies is a crucial obligation which devolves upon us all. It is in fact mandatory. If such a determination is not embodied in our political vision, we have no hope of restoring what is so nearly lost to us – the dignity of man."

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BELARUS FREE THEATRE returns to New York‏

Photo courtesy of the Belarus Free Theatre

"TRULY PASSIONATE, TRULY POLITICAL THEATER… Being Harold Pinter isn't just admirable, it has virtues beyond its relevance and bravery." – Ben Brantley, The New York Times

"Being Harold Pinter is a work that straddles political theater and actual activism." – Helen Shaw, Time Out New York

"This simple, objective re-creation of a terrifying reality makes for powerful political theater." – David Sheward, Backstage

The Public Theater and La MaMa present the return of
BELARUS FREE THEATRE

April 13 – May 15
In repertory at The Ellen Stewart Theatre at La MaMa
Following their sold out performances this January as part of the Under the Radar Festival, the award-winning Belarusian company — now outlawed at home for speaking out against "Europe's last dictatorship" — returns to New York to stage three shows in repertory.

BEING HAROLD PINTER
A poignant contemporary commentary on violence, oppression, freedom and human dignity.

ZONE OF SILENCE
A haunting exploration of contemporary life in Belarus.

DISCOVER LOVE
A drama based on the true story of dissident Irina Krasovskaya and her husband.

CLICK HERE for more information.

HOW TO ORDER

Call 212-475-7710, CLICK HERE, or visit The La MaMa Box Office, 74A East 4th Street (btw Bowery & 2nd Avenue).

BOX OFFICE HOURS:
Thu-Sat 12-9; Mon-Wed 12-5; Sun 12-6

On the day of the performance, tickets may be purchased/picked up at the Ellen Stewart Theatre at 66 East 4th.

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TEH Newsletter #2 2011: CHANGING ROOM Study published!‏

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TEH Picture of the month

TEH Delegate Petar Todorov in “Parallel Personalities", part of the project "Parallel Realities" by Pro Rodopi Art Centre (Bostina, Bulgaria) in June/July 2010.
Photo: Nikolina Kostova-Bogdanova

Dear readers,
Welcome to TEH Newsletter #2 2011, featuring the latest news from Trans Europe Halles – a European Network of Independent Cultural Centres. The TEH Newsletter is produced by the TEH Coordination Office in Lund, Sweden.

We are very happy to announce the publication of Changing Room – Mobility of Non-Artistic Cultural Professionals in Europe. It is a first-of-its-kind research study examining mobility issues in the European culture scene within the two-year pilot project CHANGING ROOM. Another recent publication from TEH is Nordic Perspectives on European Networking – 13 independent cultural centres in conversation. In this 20-page booklet, delegates from the Nordic TEH members reflect on the role of networking in a Nordic and European context. Both publications are available for free download from the TEH website.

TEH are concerned to hear about the assassination of Guatemalan artist Victor Leiva on February 2nd. There are around 3000 assassinations of artists, cultural actors and spiritual leaders in Guatemala yearly. The victims are killed merely because of the way they think, dress or express themselves, and TEH together with freeDimensional condemns these acts of violence and hope for the killings to cease immediately.

Also in this Newsletter, we urge you to sign the we are more manifesto to express your support for culture in Europe. Read more about the campaign and get involved below.

Enjoy the read!
Marian Söderholm, Office Manager
Anna Weitz, Communication Manager

NEW PUBLICATIONS

CHANGING ROOM Study published!
Changing Room – Mobility of Non-Artistic Cultural Professionals in Europe is a first-of-its-kind research study by the Sibelius Academy examining mobility issues of the “backstage staff” of European culture within the Trans Europe Halles project CHANGING ROOM.

This study is an in-depth investigation of the possibilities for, and barriers to, mobility within the European independent cultural sector. Its outcomes include key learning points and concrete recommendations on how to develop mobility practices for non-artistic staff members in the future.

Click here to download the study…

Trans Nordic Net presents Nordic views on networking
In the booklet Nordic Perspectives on European Networking delegates from the 13 Nordic TEH members are asked what it means to be part of an international network, and what they would like to use the network for in the future. The interviews have been carried out by Karl Hallberg, president of Not Quite in Fengersfors, Sweden.

"It is fantastic to meet all these super smart, cool and fun people who all want to make the world a little bit better", was one of the answers.

The publication rounds off the the three-year project Trans Nordic Net, which has been supported by the Nordic Council of Ministers.

Click here to download the booklet…

NETWORK NEWS

Register for TEH Meeting 71 this week for early bird prices!
This is the last week of early bird prices for TEH Meeting 71: "Shifting Gears" at Creative Center Carnation in Tartu, Estonia, 14 – 17th April 2011. The early bird deadline for cheaper registration is February 28th. So don't forget to go straight to the TEH website and register today!

TEH at To Culture With Love. Management in Potsdam
On February 13 – 16th, Marian Söderholm from the TEH Coordination Office participated in the second edition of To Culture With Love. Management workshop in Potsdam, Germany. TCWLM is an international workshop for European young professionals and students working in the field of arts and culture.