The Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts will present a staged reading of plays written by students taking the New Works Lab and Graduate Playwriting classes during a two-week residency with playwright Andrei Kureichik.
The workshop explored the relationship between theatre and social realities, grounded in the belief that art and lived experience are deeply interconnected. Kureichik’s approach draws from methods he has developed and taught internationally, including through his long-term documentary theatre project Insulted, which responds to political and civic upheaval in the post-Soviet region.
The work created during the residency will be performed by undergraduate students from the Lima campus.
Andrei Kureichik is a Belarusian playwright, director, publicist, and civil activist. As a writer and director prior to 2020, he was especially beloved for his comedies and suspense thrillers. Following the contested presidential elections and brutal aftermath in Belarus in August 2020, Kureichik gained an international following as a political playwright. Forced to flee the country as a member of the Coordination Council working with perceived winner Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s transition team, Kureichik leveraged his creative energy to produce the documentary play Insulted. Belarus about the 2020 presidential elections, subsequent protests, and violent crackdown by Alexander Lukashenko’s regime in Belarus. The play has been translated into 29 languages and received 200 readings and performances across the globe. Articles about the play have been published in Plays International and Europe, Contemporary Theatre Review, the Boston Globe, Dialog, and Theatre Journal. As a member of the Coordination Council of Belarus, he was awarded the 2020 Sakharov Prize by the European Parliament.