Nearby East Festival | The Mieroszewski Centre

The motto of this year's festival is 'Invitation to Hell'. On Europe's eastern borders democracy is dying and people are dying. How to create theatre in the underground and how not to be blinded by the light after leaving the underground? How to write biographies of female creators and artists whose names cannot be mentioned? How do we commemorate our dead colleagues so as not to harm their families? 

The participants of the study visit will take part in the entire Festival, but above all they will support with their authority and experience the experimental project entitled Dramaturgical Laboratory, which combines workshop and theoretical research with an attempt at immediate stage production. The method of action is to involve all the performers in the process of creating a theatrical sketch: authors, actors, directors, technicians, specialists, spectators, curators. For five days, five themes selected by Belarusian playwrights of the latest generation will be explored dramaturgically and on stage. The themes are: time of war - time of contempt, women in the onslaught, ego-documentary in theatre, pluses of emigration, theatre collective.

Creating one-day ensembles for workshop work in daily different configurations of participants in each group allows ephemeral, risky, uncertain ideas to be captured and tested in practice. Collectives formed on an anti-hierarchical basis: ideas and initiative come not only from directors and playwrights, but also from managers, actors, theatrologists, critics, composers, curators and producers who participate in the study visit. The daily presentation of the works that have been created in one day (stage sketches, perfomances, presentations, excerpts, readings, etc.) is open to the public. An important element of the project is a discussion with the audience, critics and friends of the festival.

As part of the project, video videocards of Belarusian artists, managers and cultural activists will be recorded, enabling more effective networking and contributing to the integration of the Belarusian theatre community.

- The Dramaturgy Lab allows the internal processes of theatre to be externalised. As one participant said: "the laboratory shows resemble the unwrapping of an advent calendar, where no one knows what will happen today: whether it will be a theatrical sketch, a fragment of a performance, a performance, a video-performance, a lecture-presentation, or perhaps a few essential words will be spoken on stage in total darkness, or eloquent silences will fall in full light." Artists in the morning have no idea what will happen in the evening. Themes are decided at the start of the day and the creative teams work intensively on them during the afternoon rehearsals. The evening presentations are a real miracle for both artists and audiences. It is the moment when what happens in the laboratory becomes more interesting and important than what has been rehearsed for months. The overall laboratory format symbolises freedom, both for the artists and the audience. The short sketches do not strain perception, while allowing the audience to see different perspectives on life and art in one evening. Pluralism of views and diversity of methods are key values of the lab. It is a place where diversity and experimentation with different forms of artistic expression are welcomed. As a result, audiences have the opportunity to experience unique and surprising interpretations of art, artists gain space for creative self-expression, and curators, producers and managers have the opportunity to gain a deeper insight into the potential of Belarusian artists in exile," says Irina Lappo, organiser of the Nearby East Festival.

The festival programme is available at this link.