Freeing Belarus through Theatre {World Policy Blog #4}

fdadmin — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 16:40:29 +0000

The Iron Curtain may have come down, but what remains is still in Belarus. Under Alexander Lukashenko’s stringent regime, the capacity for individual expression is strictly limited. Creative endeavors like plays—regardless of its politics—are censored by the government. The Belarus Free Theatre, founded in 2005, stages modern performances addressing social issues. While the company sells out internationally, they are still forced underground at home—where plays are government-sanctioned—staging covert performances in private residences. Many involved in the Belarus Free Gafas Ray Ban outlet Theatre, including co-founders Natalia Koliada, a human rights activist, and Nikolai Khalezin, a playwright, have suffered for their involvement. They have had several stints in prison and are under constant harassment by the authorities.

The group’s cause has drawn international admiration, and attention from organizations such as freeDimensional, a group which helps activist-artists, and Mischief + Mayhem, a newly established New York based publishing collective. Hoping to spotlight Belarus’ December 19^th elections, Mischief +Mayhem is producing a Belarus-themed November issue of its online magazine, Wild Rag,which will feature a video project, short essays, and narrative nonfiction. In addition, the collective is partnering with local theatres across the United States to put out readings of “Thanksgiving Day,” a play written by Khalezin, about an Ray Ban outlet elderly man living alone in middle-America, and his home nurse, a Belarussian immigrant.

by Betsy Mead

The World Policy Journal is featuring five freeDimensional stakeholders on its blog this Fall in relation to its current issue, The Creative Canon.

Image courtesy of Belarus Free Theatre.

The post Freeing Belarus through Theatre {World Policy Blog #4} first appeared on freeDimensional.

Free Belarus – Literary & Human Rights organizations campaign together in weeks before election

fdadmin — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 19:09:15 +0000

Founded in 2005 by a husband-wife team, the Belarus Free Theatre is the only unregistered – thus independent and therefore illegal – dramatic troupe in this post-communist country. Effectively banned at home, BFT’s performances have taken on an underground Magliette Calcio A Poco Prezzo existence, with audiences alerted via text message or e-mail. Its covert and uncensored performances have drawn international acclaim. In the buffer-state between the rest of Europe and Russia, ruled by President Alexandr Lukashenko since 1994, the BFT provides a rare voice of dissent in what is being called Europe’s last dictatorship. This November in a show of solidarity, theaters around the US will host readings of co-founder Nikolai Khalesin’s play, Thanksgiving Day organized by Mischief + Mayhem Books in cahoots with freeDimensional, Art & Democracy Bridge Conversations, and the World Policy Institute in order to raise awareness on the situation in Belarus in the weeks before its next election. Read DW Gibson’s ‘Free Belarus’: An Introduction in the Mischief + Mayhem’s online magazine, Wild Rag. See the press release for ‘Free Belarus’ Thanksgiving Day readings all over the US.

The post Free Belarus – Literary & Human Rights organizations campaign together in weeks before election first appeared on freeDimensional.

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Freeing Belarus through Theatre {World Policy Blog #4}

Free Belarus – Literary & Human Rights organizations campaign together in weeks before election