Theatre, in order to hear each other
2 April 2017, Kyiv, Ukraine
As part of this artistic initiative, we managed to gather Roma youth from all over Ukraine to talk together about their own identity, the problems and challenges they face in everyday life – both within the community and in society in general.
For the first time in Ukraine, Roma youth were able to get acquainted with the method of playback theater and become participants in the performance. Our friends and colleagues from the Kyiv playback theater “Vne vremeni” joined as partners of the event, who in practice were able to convey the principles of operation and techniques of playback theater to the participants of the event.
This laid the foundation for further work and future joint projects with Kyiv playback theater “Vne vremeni”.
After the performance, they discussed the role of the theater in human rights activism and the establishment of a dialogue in difficult conflict situations, discussed the prospects and possible forms of cooperation of Roma activists with the Theater (in particular, within the framework of the “Art-Playback. Together” Festival), planned joint initiatives.
After the performance...
Also, as part of the event, a meeting was held with representatives of the office of Amnesty International Ukraine, one of the largest international human rights organizations.
The Roma issue has been an important focus of Amnesty International’s work in Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic, etc. for many years. This year, the Ukrainian office will also start working on this topic. And this means that we have the opportunity to make this content high-quality through joint efforts, taking into account the Ukrainian historical and cultural context, as well as relying on the experience of Roma activists.
