The show is brought to Progress by SummerWorks. Novorossiya: No One’s Land is being workshopped with five local actors and dramaturgy by Jonathan Garfinkel. Prior to the showing there will be a conversation with Yurov about his experience and the piece will also be followed by a larger conversation about the conflict that includes perspectives from local specialists on the conflict.
Progress is produced by SummerWorks in partnership with The Theatre Centre and with the addition of Novorossiya: No One’s Land features seven international shows, seven languages and five free artist workshops and talks. Programming has been curated by SummerWorks, Why Not, Videofag, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, FADO Performance Art Centre, Volcano Theatre, The National Arts Centre and Dancemakers.
“We’re thrilled to add Novorossiya: No One’s Land to the Progress lineup,” says Rubenfeld. “It embodies the very nature of the theatre’s capacity to focus on critical conversations of international concern.”
All Progress performances take place at The Theatre Centre (1115 Queen St W), host venue of the festival.
Novorossiya: No One’s Land (Ukraine)
Curated and presented by SummerWorks
Reading performed in English, translated from the original Russian and Ukranian
Created by: Pavel Yurov and Anastasiya Kasilova
Directed by: Pavel Yurov
Dramaturgy by: Jonathan Garfinkel
February 14, 2014
90 Minutes
On April 25, 2014, in Slovyansk, Ukraine (Eastern Ukraine) theatre director, Pavel Yurov was falsely accused of being a spy for the Ukrainian government, and taken hostage by pro-Russian separatists. He was beaten and tortured for two weeks and remained in captivity for more than two months. After being freed in July 2014, he sought to make sense of the experience and started writing Novorossiya: No One’s Land with Ukranian artist, Anastasiya Koralova. To build this documentary style piece, Kasilova and Yurov explore found text from interviews with Ukranian and Russian press that explore the multiple disparate perspectives on the conflict. Part journalistic experiment, part theatre, this remarkable project asks the painful question: how did the place Yurov once called home become his captor?
About Progress
Progress is a new international festival of performance and ideas produced by the SummerWorks Performance Festival in partnership with The Theatre Centre. Progress offers world class performance at accessible prices. In curatorial collaboration with Toronto’s leading performance-based companies, Progress presents global dialogues driven by local voices. The inaugural Progress is curated by SummerWorks, The Theatre Centre, Why Not Theatre, Volcano Theatre, Videofag, FADO Performance Art Centre, Dancemakers, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and Canada’s National Arts Centre English Theatre. www.thisisprogress.ca
About SummerWorks
SummerWorks is Canada’s largest curated performance festival. Widely recognized as one of the most important agencies for enabling new Canadian artists in the country, SummerWorks annually features over 60 performance projects during its 11-day Festival in August. In 2015, SummerWorks celebrates its 25th Anniversary and also inaugurates Progress, an international festival of performance and ideas.
About The Theatre Centre
The Theatre Centre is a nationally recognized live-arts incubator that serves as a research and development hub for the cultural sector. We provide artists with infrastructure and resources to make their art – from idea to production. The Theatre Centre is committed to new work and new ways of working. We are a public space, open and accessible to the people of our community, where citizens can imagine, debate, celebrate, protest, unite and be responsible for inventing the future.
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