Submitted by crinadmin on
Summary: Can theatre skills help unlock the grief of the people of Kosovo - both Albanian and Serb - who have suffered the trauma of having a loved one disappear? Can the dramatic arts help them look beyond their immediate suffering and recognise the experiences they share with people from the "other" group?
The Centre for Children's Theatre Development (CCTD) is working with the United Nations Mission in Kosovo Office on Missing Persons and Forensics (OMPF) to create a participatory theatre project that addresses the issue of missing persons and the barrier it creates between Albanians and Serbs. Following the success of "The Longest Winter," a multiethnic play produced in two separate language-specific versions, UK director Jonat! han Chadwick returns to again work with both Serb and Albanian Kosovans. Two playwrights, one from each ethnic group, have created short scenarios derived from the accounts of members of their community. Rooted in Augusto Boal's groundbreaking forum theatre work, the emphasis of the project is on participation and the practitioners are working in collaboration with the Families Associations, organisations that represent the communities of the missing. In expressing their opinions and experiences publicly, the people of Kosovo can collectively decide upon the real story of these disappearances and the long and painful search they entail. As a result of the Kosovo conflict, the fate of two and a half thousand people still remains unresolved. This attempt to address the social and psychological consequences of "the disappeared" has been launched by OMPF, an innovative effort from an office mandated to exhume and identify human remains. The project is part of the OMPF "Memory Project", a transitional justice initiative which seeks to "de-victimise the victims" by moving them from the role of passive recipients of history to active recorders of history. Working in parallel with both Albanians and Serbs, the forum theatre initiative aims to demonstrate that the experience of loss is the same, regardless of the language used to express it. The Center for Children's Theatre Development (CCTD) is a Pristina-based NGO established in 2002, to develop the educational and social role of theatre in Kosovo. Their activities have included creating and distributing original plays for children, producing them, and publishing articles on the theory and practice of socially conscious theatre. Jonathan Chadwick is currently Artistic Director of Az Theatre and is a Guest Director at The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He has worked in Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Romania and Kosovo. The CCTD/ OMPF forum theatre initiative is being implemented between 18 November and 6 December, 2005. Critics, academics or other interested persons are invited to join us and observe this pioneering work on post-conflict issues. Links