Open Call for International School of Theatre of the Oppressed

Do you want the citizens of your country to become more active and politically conscious? You wonder how gender sensitivity could make your activism and your community stronger and develop its sustainability? You are bored with dry figures and standard demos, you seek deep insights and creative approach to activism? Then our project is for you.

Ukrainian 'Theatre for Dialogue' NGO in collaboration with German-Bolivian community theatre practitioner Hjalmar Jorge Joffre-Eichhorn invites to learn the principles and the practices of Theatre of the Oppressed in the international team of activists on June 12-17 2017 in Kiev. The event would happen with the support of the Regional office of Friedrich Ebert Foundation 'Dialogue Eastern Europe' and Creative Development Center in Tbilisi.

We offer you Theatre of the Oppressed as an instrument to engage your communities into analysis of the issues of concern, to search for strategies of self-organisation and to collectively generate possible solutions to these issues.

Terms of participation:

We would be happy to work with activists from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, especially those who work with people of the age under 35. We are particularly interested in supporting women activists and LGBTQI activists and also people with experience of internal displacement.

Participation in the project is free of charge. Round trip to Kiev, accommodation and meal are covered by the project. To apply please fill in the form https://goo.gl/1cYMNd by April 30.

The project includes a six-day long intensive training, support in organisation and facilitation of regional workshops in Theatre of the Oppressed together with experienced practitioners, participation in international Forum Theatre festival at the final stage of the project in 2018.

Theatre of the Oppressed is a worldwide nonviolent aesthetic movement that aims at peace and non-passiveness. The movement grew out of a theatre method that was developed by theatre director and politician of Brazilian origin Augusto Boal in 1960s-1970s. Today the method is spread all over five inhabited continents.

The school in Kiev would be led by:

- Hjalmar Jorge Joffre-Eichhorn – a German-Bolivian theatre maker who uses different forms of participatory theatre to work with communities in conflict. He has worked in more than a dozen countries on all continents and is one of the co-founders of the Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization (AHRDO). He was also one of the initiators of 'Joker Tsunami' project as the reply to the crisis in Ukraine in 2014.

- the members of the Ukrainian 'Theatre for Dialogue' NGO. In the last three years they managed to use the method for empowerment of individuals and communities and for building the dialogue in all the parts of Ukraine. They have field experience of working with IDPs, LGBTQI, people with disabilities, youth, female only groups, grassroots activists, officials and authorities.

Contacts: theatrefordialogueua@gmail.com Yana Salakhova.

The project 'Bridges of Solidarity' is realised by 'Theatre for Dialogue' NGO in collaboration with regional office of Friedrich Ebert Foundation 'Dialogue Eastern Europe'.