Please sign ASAP
Lanna Joffrey
By now many of you know of the terrible events of the past few days in Belarus—hundreds of people, among many thousands of demonstrators, were arrested and/or beaten in the center of Minsk as they peacefully protested the recent elections in their country. Among them was Natasha Koliada and Nikolai Khalezin, founders of the Free Theatre of Belarus, as well as several other members of the company. Within the last 24 hours, many people have been arraigned and imprisoned, simply for expressing their opposition to the electoral procedure and outcome. Others have gone into hiding.
Since 2006, Natalya and Nikolai have led a courageous group of underground theater artists in Minsk. Their work together includes producing original devised theater, and presenting the work of emerging and recognized writers from Belarus and many other countries. In Europe’s last dictatorship, this simple act has meant they and their families have been blacklisted, beaten, jailed, and censored. They have seen their friends disappear, their families fired from state jobs, and seen the bodies of their murdered colleagues turn up unexplained.
The Belarus Free Theatre are scheduled to appear in the Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival, beginning January 5th. Please sign the petition, drafted by Aaron Landsman on behalf of the Under the Radar Festival demanding the release of the artists and activists being held by Belarusan authorities—hopefully, international attention and pressure will result in the Belarus Free Theatre being able to bring their amazing work to New York in January. Please just click on the link below—it will take only a minute to add your name to the petition.
Many thanks,
Catherine Coray
http://humanrights.change.org/petitions/view/free_political_prisoners_in_belarus#
For more information on ordering tickets to the belarus Free Theatre performance of Being Harold Pinter in the Under the Radar Festival: http://www.undertheradarfestival.com/index.php?p=235
Please feel free to forward…
Catherine Coray, Associate Arts Professor
TSOA Dept of Drama
Experimental Theatre Wing
212.992.9349
cc...@nyu.edu
Director and Curator,
hotINK at the LARK: a festival of new plays from around the world
www.hotink.org
Featuring Rob Campbell, Carson Elrod, Meg Gibson, Shalita Grant, William Jackson Harper, Jackie Sanders Hayes, Ruy Iskandar, Lanna Joffrey and Nicole Lewis.
http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/theater/theater_in_prison_for_good_measure_uOtpOEo24jt30HCLdkdnLK
"War seen through women's eyes makes a different kind of war story." --Sally Hayton-Keeva
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