Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
by.BY A festival of stage readings of dramatic texts by contemporary Belarusian writers. Aim of the Project The title of the project is a word play referring to the authorship ("by") of Belarusian dramatists ("BY" is the international vehicle registration code of Belarus). Belarusian drama is virtually unknown to the Czech audience. The aim of this project is thus to present the best of the contemporary Belarusian dramatic works. The project emphasizes current topics within the context of Belarusian drama (with one exception, all writers are living authors, and all plays were written at the turn of the millennium) and also attractiveness for the Czech audience as regards staging of new interesting topics or issues typical of contemporary Belarus as well as the Czech social climate where political topics resonate with the recent past and intimate topics speak about the human condition in the postmodern era in general. The festival thus has a potential to attract a wide scope of audiences. It purposively avoids authors kindred with Lukashenko's regime and this way it assumes the role of becoming a platform for a mobility of writers who are, if not immediately persecuted, at least restricted by the regime and for staging of plays which are not produced in Belarus for various, mainly political, reasons. All plays will be staged in Czech for the first time and in the first Czech translation. The festival will try to bring some of the writers to the Czech Republic, thus significantly contributing to vitalizing the cultural relationship between the two countries. The readings will be staged from April to December 2012. They will take place once a month in a site-specific environment: productions will take place in selected non-theatrical spaces around Brno which specifically resonate with topics of the particular dramatic texts and amplify their central ideas. Until last year, there was no continuous cycle of stage reading of original dramatic texts in Brno. As positive response to the first year of the festival YOUGO! by the Feste Theatre showed, audience in Brno welcomes this kind of theatrical activity and is willing to support it. The festival "by.BY" materializes a long-term goal of the Feste Theatre to establish a tradition of a systematic exploration of international dramatists and their work in the region of South Moravia, as well as to rediscover and reuse untraditional and forgotten places in the centre of Brno. It addresses directors and actors from Brno and its surroundings from across the theatrical spectrum (professionals and students) to participate on the project. Exact locations and dates of particular stage readings will be announced in March 2012. Amnesty International is one of the festival partners. It will be take patronage over the festival off-programme focusing on the topic of respecting human rights in Belarus. The festival will thus also offer topical exhibitions, lectures and a year-long campaign for the release of the prisoner of consciousness Ales Bialacki of the VIASNA organization, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee. Dramaturgy of the by.BY festival The selection is varied and it covers political, general social, and intimate topics. It does not centre on one style or expression but it includes a wide rage of dramatic and theatrical means. Source language is another important dramaturgical element of the festival. Belarus as a country with two main languages, Belarusian and Russian, produces literature in both languages. The festival will present writers from both language camps. It will give more space to authors writing in Belarusian for the primary reason that authors writing in Russian have more opportunities for translation into other languages. This way, the festival becomes an exporter of works in Belarusian and as such, it fulfils an important social role. The key for the order goes from politics (as an expected topic) to intimacy (a general topic). The aim is to connect some of the stage readings with their author's visit and a presentation on a certain topical aspect of the particular play. For example, a staging of a play written in Russian is a good topic for a lecture on the importance of language in a fight for freedom and national identity in the era of globalization; on a similar note, alternative texts initiate a debate about current trends in the world theatre. There are three Belarusians participating on the festival dramaturgy: Sjarhej Smatrychenka, translator, Czech studies scholar, and editor, Anastasia Dodu, photographer and translator, and Vital Voranau, translator, literary scholar, and writer. Selected texts: 1. Sjarhej Kavalyov – The Return of a Hunger Artist (Belarusian) 2. Nikolai Chalezin – Conceiving Love (Russian) 3. Uladzimir Saulich – A Dog with a Golden Tooth (Belarusian) 4. Pavel Prjazhko – Panties (Russian) 5. Ales Astashonak – Short Dramatic Texts (Belarusian) 6. Ihar Sidaruk – Head (Belarusian) Photos by Jakub Jíra, YOUGO, 2011.