Why Belarus?

That is an important question.  With all of the possible issues that are occurring in the world, why would we chose to focus on a country few have ever heard of?  Although this is a question I hope all the artists, youth and community members involved in our current two events will ask themselves, I have been taking a look at it myself for quite awhile now.  Why did I decide to participate in the Belarusian Dream Theater initiative?

Belarus is a small country that many people have never heard of.  Its history is complex, and one never reads about it in the paper, hears about it on the news.  It is not discussed at dinner tables that I have been at (unless I bring it up). There is a silence which hovers over a country where people are not allowed to speak, to write, to perform, to act in any way that is counter to the oppressive dictator-like government.  I say ‘dictator-like’ because, technically, Belarus is a democracy.  And their ‘dictator’ is President Lukashenko who, in the last elections won by an overwhelming 80% of the vote.  Easy to do when you put all your opposition and their supporters in jail after beating them and torturing some of them.

So, this country which lies on the continent of Europe is ignored.  It is not politically useful for our governments to help these people.  So they struggle on their own.  Or they disappear and no one hears from them again.

So, here we are at The GTP participating a second time in a call to the world by theatre artists to pay attention.  To wake up.  Why?

For myself, I cannot bear suffering.  I cannot bear cruelty or humanity reaching its lowest common denominator.  I believe, truly, we can be better than this if we just open our hearts by opening our eyes and our minds. But, as the person leading The GTP I think this project has value because our mission is to encourage active engagement with the world.  And what better way than to explore a country and a people we know nothing about.

When we did our inaugural event focusing on the struggles of the Belarus Free Theatre, my sister said to me: ‘Are you doing this because we are Belarusian?’

That question shocked me.  I had no idea that my roots lay in Belarus.  No idea that my grandmother was born in Minsk.  Did it suddenly become personal?  No.  Because I have no intimate knowledge or memory of stories from Minsk.  I only know there was a place which my grandmother and her family escaped from.  And now I know it is Minsk.  But what it did was show me how it could become personal, how the connection from one person to another, one history to another can exist. That if we begin to tell others’ stories, share the narrative of lives that require attention on this planet at this time, we may deepen our experience of our own lives and bring value to each breath we take.  We may understand that we are not singular as individuals, countrymen, religious groups, etc. but communal with a common thread connecting us which we can then decide has value.  And through the development of empathy, we realize and manifest our humanity. We can change what we then see and know as wrong or antithetical to a world we wish to live in.

Why Belarus?  Because I am Belarusian.  On March 25^th, we should all consider ourselves to be so because there are people in this prison of a country who are suffering.  People whose stories need to be told for the reason that they are real, and they are happening.

Let’s use Belarusian Dream Theater to begin a discussion which will effect change.  Because this is not a political question.  It is a social one.  It is a human one which belongs in the hearts, minds, voices and hands of us all.

Why Belarus? Join us this month, learn about the country, its people, the censorship issues there and speak about it at dinner tables and in classrooms, at the theatres, in the piazzas and centers of our lives.  If we ask the question enough we may come to understand there is a legitimate answer for us as individuals, and as a collective humanity.

If you cannot attend our events in Los Angeles or Florence or any of the other participating theatres around the world you see listed here, then we invite you to request a packet we will send you which will allow you to participate on the 25^th by learning about Belarus, reading the plays we will be doing, and having discussion points with which to begin discussing Why Belarus?