{"id":442,"date":"2010-11-16T09:40:29","date_gmt":"2010-11-16T16:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freedimensional.org\/?p=442"},"modified":"2017-04-03T07:21:03","modified_gmt":"2017-04-03T07:21:03","slug":"freeing-belarus-through-theatre-world-policy-blog-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fd.artistsafety.net\/2010\/11\/freeing-belarus-through-theatre-world-policy-blog-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Freeing Belarus through Theatre {World Policy Blog #4}"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Iron Curtain may have come down, but what remains is still in Belarus. Under\u00a0Alexander Lukashenko\u2019s stringent regime<\/a>, the capacity for individual expression is strictly limited. Creative endeavors like plays\u2014regardless of its politics\u2014are censored by the government.\u00a0The\u00a0Belarus Free Theatre<\/a>, founded in 2005, stages modern performances addressing social issues. While the company sells out internationally, they are still forced underground at home\u2014where plays are government-sanctioned\u2014staging covert performances in private residences. Many involved in the Belarus Free Gafas Ray Ban outlet<\/a> Theatre, including co-founders Natalia Koliada, a human rights activist, and Nikolai Khalezin, a playwright, have suffered for their involvement. They have had\u00a0several stints in prison<\/a> and are under constant harassment by the authorities.<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s cause has drawn international admiration, and attention from organizations such as\u00a0freeDimensional<\/a>, a group which helps activist-artists, and\u00a0Mischief + Mayhem<\/a>, a newly established New York based publishing collective.\u00a0Hoping to spotlight Belarus\u2019 December 19th<\/sup> elections, Mischief +Mayhem is producing a Belarus-themed November issue of its online magazine,\u00a0Wild Rag,<\/em>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 \u201cThanksgiving Day,\u201d a play written by Khalezin, about an Ray Ban outlet<\/a> elderly man living alone in middle-America, and his home nurse, a Belarussian immigrant.<\/p>\n

by\u00a0Betsy Mead<\/strong><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

The\u00a0World Policy Journal <\/a>is featuring five freeDimensional stakeholders on its blog this Fall in relation to its current issue, The Creative Canon.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Image courtesy of Belarus Free Theatre.<\/em><\/p>\n