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Peacebuilding, Conflict Transformation, and Conflict Zones

This section features content created in conflict zones or in response to cultural, political, or social conflict. You can start by reading a conversation with Chilean playwright Guillermo Calderón about theatremaking in Chile during the fall 2019 crisis, a piece about the bombing of Gaza’s last-remaining arts space, or an essay about a project highlighting plays from Arab and Jewish playwrights about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Latest

Calling Up Justice Presents The Gaza Monologues
Video
Calling Up Justice Presents The Gaza Monologues
Calling Up Justice is producing an accessible and disability justice informed digital production of The Gaza Monologues from Ashtar Theatre Palestine.
Wednesday 29 November 2023
United States
The Gaza Monologues Presented by Theatre of the Oppressed NYC
Video
The Gaza Monologues Presented by Theatre of the Oppressed NYC
A response to ASHTAR Theatre's urgent request to publicly read or perform The Gaza Monologues on The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
Wednesday 29 November 2023
United States
Online Reading of The Gaza Monologues by Ashtar Theatre Palestine
Video
Online Reading of The Gaza Monologues by Ashtar Theatre Palestine
Theatremakers Publicly Performed The Gaza Monologues on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
Wednesday 29 November 2023
United States
Performance of Burning Doors by Belarus Free Theatre with Pussy Riot's Maria Alyokhina
Video

Performance of Burning Doors by Belarus Free Theatre with Pussy Riot's Maria Alyokhina

Wednesday 12 October 2016
Machester, UK

Belarus Free Theatre presented Burning Doors with Pussy Riot's Maria Alyokhina livestreamed from Contact in Manchester, UK on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv Wednesday 12 October at 12 p.m. PDT (Los Angeles) / 2 p.m. CDT (Chicago) / 3 p.m. EDT (New York) / 19:00 UTC/GMT / 8 p.m. BST (London) / 21:00 CEST (Berlin) / 22:00 MSK/EEST (Minsk, Moscow, Beirut). On Twitter, follow @HowlRoundTV@BFreeTheatre, and use #BurningDoors to share your thoughts. Watch the livestream here on HowlRound.TV or on the Belarus Free Theatre's livestream webpage.

Conflicts, Ethics, and Aesthetics at IETM Satellite
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Conflicts, Ethics, and Aesthetics at IETM Satellite

Friday 7 October 2016
Beirut, Lebanon

IETM—international network for contemporary performing arts—presented a conversation Conflicts, Ethics, and Aesthetics​ from Beirut, Lebanon on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv Friday 7 October at 14:15-15:45 EEST (Beirut, UTC+3) / 13:15-14:45 CEST (Brussels, UTC+2) / 12:15 p.m.-1:45 p.m. BST (London, UTC+1) / 11:15-12:45 UTC (GMT) / 7:15 a.m.-8:45 a.m. EDT (New York). Share your thoughts and join the conversation on Twitter by using the hashtags#ArtsFreedom and #IETMBeirut.

What is the Role of the Artist/Arts Presenter in a Community in Crisis?
Essay

What is the Role of the Artist/Arts Presenter in a Community in Crisis?

26 March 2016

Paul S. Flores traces the path to creating and touring his play PLACAS through community engagment with acknowedgment and palabra, and offers suggestions to supporting peace within extremely marginalized communities in conflict when making theater.

From Gaza, with Love
Essay

From Gaza, with Love

25 February 2016

Patricia Davis on Mosaic Theatre's US premiere in Washington, D.C. of I Shall Not Hate, based on the life of Palestinian doctor Izzeldin Abuelaish.

Belarus Free Theatre’s Staging a Revolution Festival
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Belarus Free Theatre’s Staging a Revolution Festival

Monday November 2 to Saturday November 14 2015
London, UK

Belarus Free Theatre presented the Staging a Revolution Festival livestreamed to audiences across the world by CultureHub on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv and simultaneously via Belarus Free Theatre's sister website The Ministry of Counterculture from Monday November 2 to Saturday November 14. Each evening’s performance will be available to view online here for two weeks after the livestream.

Studio Theatre Stages a Heroic Chimerica
Essay

Studio Theatre Stages a Heroic Chimerica

15 October 2015

Patricia Davis interviews Ron Menzel, an actor in Studio Theatre's production of Lucy Kirkwood’s Chimerica in Washington, DC.

Golden Thread's ReOrient 2015 Forum
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Golden Thread's ReOrient 2015 Forum

Saturday 3 October and Sunday 4 October 2015
San Francisco, CA, United States

 

Golden Thread in San Francisco presented the ReOrient 2015 Forum—a weekend of panel presentations and artistic exchange on theatre and the Middle East—livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv Saturday 3 October and Sunday 4 October. 

Livestreaming Conscience Under Fire by a Military Veterans Collective
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Livestreaming Conscience Under Fire by a Military Veterans Collective

Friday, September 11 2015
Miami, FL, United States

MDC Live Arts presents Conscience Under Fire livestreaming on the commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Friday, September 11 at 8pm EDT (New York) / 7pm CDT (Chicago) / 5pm PDT (Los Angeles). In Twitter follow @mdclivearts and @howlroundtv and use #liveat25 and #mdclivearts.

Latinos and the Rebirth of Post-Katrina New Orleans
Essay

Latinos and the Rebirth of Post-Katrina New Orleans

29 August 2015

José Torres-Tama writes about his experience in New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina, ten years ago.

Sand Castles in War Zones
Essay

Sand Castles in War Zones

Insanity and Forgiveness

30 July 2015

Martha Steketee on Daniel Talbott’s ghost story of a sand-bound ship of fools and the exquisite possibility of forgiveness. 

Performance of Belarus Free Theatre’s Trash Cuisine 
Video

Performance of Belarus Free Theatre’s Trash Cuisine 

Sunday 17 May 2015
New York City, NY, United States

 

La MaMa presented a performance of Belarus Free Theatre's Trash Cuisine livestreamed from New York City on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Sunday 17 May at 1 p.m. PDT (Vancouver) / 2 p.m. MDT (Calgary) / 3 p.m. CDT (Chicago) / 4 p.m. EDT (Montreal) / 20:00 GMT / 9 p.m. BST (London) / 10 p.m. CEST (Berlin) / 11 p.m. FET (Minsk).

Should Torture Taste So Good? Belarus Free Theatre’s Trash Cuisine
Essay

Should Torture Taste So Good? Belarus Free Theatre’s Trash Cuisine

7 May 2015

Jonathan Mandell on Belarus Free Theatre's Trash Cuisine, playing through May 17 at La Mama ETC in New York City.

Grounded
Essay

Grounded

A Stunning Singular Strike at Olney Theatre

31 March 2015

George Brant’s Grounded, at Olney Theatre, is a fast-paced, suspenseful, and moving one-woman show about a drone operator’s struggle to play two roles: annihilator and mother.

On Belarus and Theatre, Activism and Exile
Essay

On Belarus and Theatre, Activism and Exile

5 March 2015

In his last installment, Brendan McCall talks with Nicolai Khalezin, one of the founders of Belarus Free Theatre about art, exile, and if theatre has any impact on politics.

Performing Arts in the Islamic World
Essay

Performing Arts in the Islamic World

The Divine Spark

4 January 2015

Muslim theater artist Hafiz Karmali discusses the 12th-century Persian poem The Conference of the Birds and the overlap of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian performance traditions.

Theatre at Belarus’ University in Exile
Essay

Theatre at Belarus’ University in Exile

23 December 2014

In this installment, Brendan explores what happened when he directed some of the plays from the Belarusian Dream Theater at Belarus’ exiled university, resulting in differing perspectives.

a production shot from belarus dream theatre project
Beyond Lukashenko
Essay

Beyond Lukashenko

New Short Plays About Belarus

3 November 2014

In addition to new works by Belarusian playwrights, writers as far-flung as Europe and the United States, Australia and New Zealand, ended up making excellent contributions. The Belarusian Dream Theater project linked playwrights with more than a dozen independent presenting groups in Europe and North America, who donated their time and talents to assemble the collaborators necessary to present as many of the twenty-five new plays as each group wanted.

Citizen Theatre
Essay

Citizen Theatre

Anne Hamburger on Basetrack Live

28 October 2014

Bertie Ferdman interviews Anne Hamburger about Basetrack Live, a multimedia theatre production inspired by Basetrack: One-Eight, a web project created in 2010 by photojournalists embedded with US Marines fighting in southern Afghanistan.

two women projected onto screens
Voices Unheard: The Syria: Trojan Women Summit from Amman, Jordan & Washington DC
Video

Voices Unheard: The Syria: Trojan Women Summit from Amman, Jordan & Washington DC

Friday 19 September 2014
Amman, Jordan & Washington, D.C., United States

The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University in Washington, DC and the Syria: The Trojan Women Project in Amman, Jordan presented a conversation livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Friday 19 September at 4:30 p.m. PDT (Los Angeles)/ 7:30 p.m. EDT (Washington DC)/ 23:30 GMT / 2:30 a.m. AST (Amman, Jordan on Saturday, September 20) / 9:30 a.m. AEST (Sydney, Australia on Saturday, September 20).

Creating the Belarusian Dream Theater Project
Essay

Creating the Belarusian Dream Theater Project

19 September 2014

While I was reaping the benefits of working internationally, my Belarusian friends were living as a theater company in exile. What could I do to help make a difference? What tools could I use, as a theater artist, to break down this silence, censorship, and oppressive regime?

Listening for Unheard Voices—Syria
Essay

Listening for Unheard Voices—Syria

The Trojan Women

18 September 2014

Derek Goldman offers an overview of the production of Syria: The Trojan Women.

Photo from #FergusonMoment.
Ferguson Artist Gathering
Essay

Ferguson Artist Gathering

In Conversation with Jacqueline Thompson and Don McClendon

5 September 2014

On Sunday, August 24th at the Regional Arts Commission in St. Louis, St. Louis-based theater artists Jacqueline Thompson and Don McClendon participated in the #FergusonMoment gathering and workshop with forty-five local artists and five visiting artists. In the workshop, Don's story of a recent moment of racial profiling was the basis of a short play that the group created and investigated. On Tuesday, September 2nd, Jacqueline interviewed Don about his experience in the gathering.

a production shot from being harold pinter
Belarus, Theater, and Breaking the Zones of Silence
Essay

Belarus, Theater, and Breaking the Zones of Silence

15 August 2014

I felt compelled to act, to do something, to speak up—but how? What could I, an expatriate American living in Scandinavia, do to break the zone of silence surrounding Belarus? While I was enjoying certain freedoms as a theater artist in this affluent Nordic country, my friends and colleagues elsewhere in Europe—writers, directors, journalists, and more—were being imprisoned and threatened.

Photo from Teatro Valle Occupato.
The Commoners Occupy Teatro Valle in Rome
Essay

The Commoners Occupy Teatro Valle in Rome

24 July 2014

The three-year occupation of Teatro Valle in Rome is now legendary: a spontaneous response to the failures of conventional government in supporting a venerated public theater, and the conversion of the theater into a commons by countless ordinary citizens. Now the mayor of Rome is threatening to end the occupation, evict the commoners, and privatize the management of the facility.

Dispatch from the Youth Theater Festival in Ramallah, Palestine—Part Two
Essay

Dispatch from the Youth Theater Festival in Ramallah, Palestine—Part Two

19 July 2014

In a volatile, war-torn place, things change quickly and recurring issues of conflict, occupation, and survival dominate—all the more reason to have festivals like this and theaters like Ashtar that persist under such circumstances and create transformative experiences.