Programs
Festival Workshops - Discussions on The Arts, Gender and Conflict Cycles
Four workshops for artists, Women PeaceMakers in residence, masters students and scholars will provide the space to think creatively about how to connect the theatre arts with peacebuilding. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to explore with leaders in this field how and where the theatre arts in particular have made, and can make, a significant impact during cycles of conflict. Practical and theoretical perspectives will be explored in the interactions created to focus on four specific arenas in cycles of violent conflict: conflict prevention, mitigation, reconciliation and healing.
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The Use of Arts in Trauma Healing
Facilitated by Catherine Filloux
Thursday, September 24, 2009
10:30 -12 p.m.,
KIPJ Room F
This workshop is a participatory experience illustrating how the act of remembering through theater engagement provides a transformative space. Using her brief play “Photographs From S-21,” Catherine Filloux will lead participants in a writing exercise that draws upon photographs to explore memory and art. The process demonstrates how in the aftermath of violence, remembering can be a revolutionary act. This workshop will be limited in number. Students in theater arts and peace studies, and practitioners in peacebuilding and conflict resolution will be given priority seating.
Facilitator Catherine Filloux, author of Silence of God and Other Plays (August 2009), is a co-founder of Theatre Without Borders, which creates stages for change and recovery.
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The Link Between the Arts and Conflict Prevention
Facilitated by Roberta Levitow
Thursday, September 24, 2009
1 - 2:3o p.m.,
KIPJ Room E
This workshop will allow for a shared discussion of the use of theater and performance to bring unexpressed conflicts into a safe space for public acknowledgement, with the goal of preventing such conflicts from transforming into violence. It will begin with a critical reflection on the example of "Benedictus," an Iranian-Israeli-U.S. theater collaboration begun in 2004 with the specific goal of addressing a potential U.S. military strike against the nuclear facilities in Iran. The resulting work has been performed in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and provides a model for exploring divisive, threatening issues.
Facilitator Roberta Levitow, director, teacher and co-founder of Theatre Without Borders and the Theatre & Peacebuilding Initiative, was one of five members of the Creative Team that has created "Benedictus."
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The Role of Arts During Conflict
Facilitated by Dijana Milosevic
Friday, September 25, 2009
12 – 1:30 p.m., KIPJ Room F
This workshop explores the transformative power of arts by examining the relationship between personal and collective history. There will be an investigation of theatrical tools, such as movement, mapping the space, writing and drawing that can be used in order to empower each participant and create strong space inside oneself that could be used in difficult moments. Discovered in efforts to protest war, create street productions that open minds and build cross-community collaborations in Bosnia and Serbia, the possibility to help people both survive and acknowledge their roles in prolonging conflict is the inspiration for the workshop.
Facilitator Dijana Milosevic, artistic director of Dah Teatar and Research Center located in Belgrade, Serbia, has networked women in contemporary theater as she has explored the use of theater and performance as a means of communication and action in times of violence.
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Youth, the Arts and Conflict Transformation
Facilitated by Kristen Kuriga, Marcia Luttio and Tanya Susoev
Friday, September 25, 2009
1:45 - 3 p.m., Peace & Justice Theatre
Three graduates of the MA in Peace & Justice Studies Program at the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies (KSPS), Kristen Kuriga, Marcia Luttio andTanya Susoev traveled to Colombia to participate in a youth arts delegation through the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Read more about their experience by reading Kristen Kuriga's blog.
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Creative Approaches to Reconciliation
Facilitated by Cynthia Cohen
Friday, September 25, 2009
3 - 4:30 p.m., KIPJ Room E
How are relationships between adversaries transformed from hatred and mistrust to relationships of cooperation and respect? We will consider examples from conflict regions around the world that illustrate how cultural productions contribute to the rehumanization of former enemies, sharing stories, mourning losses, empathizing with the suffering of the other, addressing issues of injustice, letting go of bitterness and imagining and substantiating a future different from the past. Drawing on stories, empirical research and insights from leaders in diverse cultures, we will explore how the arts engage communities in the kinds of learning that reconciliation requires.
Facilitator Cynthia E. Cohen, executive director of the Slifka Program in Intercommunal Coexistence at Brandeis University, directed the international fellowship program Recasting Reconciliation through Culture and the Arts, and is co-editing the anthology Acting Together on the World Stage: Performance and the Creative Transformation of Conflict.
Updated on 9/27/2009