Roma Heroes 2017
I. International Roma Storytelling Festival
On July 27 and 28, 2017, the Independent Theater Hungary organized the I. International Roma Storytelling Festival in Budapest, at the Studio K Theater. In two days, the audience could see four works by four artists.
The special cultural event drew attention to the values of Roma drama, the situation of Roma communities, including women, by presenting the monodramas of four European contemporary theater artists, focusing on exemplary individual destinies and heroic life paths. The focus of the event in Budapest was personal storytelling.
The monodramas in the two-day festival program were about Roma women, heroines, who are still alive today and who have been able to make a difference in the lives of themselves and their communities. The plays discussed powerful human stories and social issues, all with the personal, sometimes heart-wrenching, sometimes humorous means of storytelling.
Monodramas
"I declare at my own risk"
Artists
Writer, director, performer: Alina Serban
Music: Cătălin Rulea
Set design: Adrian Cristea
Short description
In the play, Alina Serban shares the details of her own life and childhood with the audience. The story gives an insight into the life of a young girl who, like her peers, is passionate about pop musicians, loves to make friends, and weaves dreams for her future.
At the same time, this girl grows up in one of the worst neighborhoods of Bucharest, in unsuitable conditions for learning, and regularly feels ashamed of her origin.
Although sometimes even she cannot believe that her dreams can come true, she eventually has been admitted to the Royal Academy of Theater in London and accepts her Roma origin, which actually can be a cause for pride.
"The hardest word"
Artists
Writer: Richard R. O’Neill
Dramaturge: Márton Illés
Director: Rodrigó Balogh
Jess Smith: Edina Dömök
Short description
The story tells about the civil activity of Jess Smith, a writer, poet, and storyteller belonging to the Gypsy Traveller community in Scotland. The goal that Jess sets for herself is nothing less than demand the country’s first minister to apologize for the long centuries of persecution that Travellers had to suffer.
From her confession, we learn what challenges she has to face while fighting steadily for her goals – against her own family, the society or the authority. Sometimes civil disobedience is the only way to maintain our dignity, she believes.
"Speak, my life!"
Artists
Performer: Dijana Pavlovič
Violin: Seres Tamás
Writers: Dijana Pavlovic and Giuseppe di Leva (based on the novel ‘The Stone Age’ written by Mariella Mehr)
Short description
In Speak, My Life! by Dijana Pavlović unfolds the life story of Mariella Mehr, the Swiss Jenish writer, and the attempted genocide of Jenish people in Switzerland in 20th century.
The play presents the life of a woman who – similarly to many Yenish people – was torn from her mother at the age of 5, and lived in different families, institutions and suffered violence. Her son was also taken from her and she got sterilized at the age of 18.
Although the extermination program was stopped in 1973, but many families never got back their loved-ones. The Swiss Federation has apologized to the Yenish, but all documents related to the genocide have been encrypted for a hundred years.
"Tell them about me"
Artists
Writer, performer: Mihaela Dragan
Director: Liana Ceterchi
Short description
Based on interviews with Roma women and her own experiences, Mihaela Dragan wrote the monodrama Tell them about me.
The play presents the diversiti, opportunities and challenges, joys and trials of the Roma society in Romania, all from the perspective of women among whom we can discover every day heroes.
The performance focuses on the compatibility of tradition and modernity, Roma and Romanian identity within one nation, one community or even in one person. The main focus of the play is on the early marriages in Romania, mostly among Roma communities.
