UNMIK/PR/1443
PRISTINA – As part of efforts to foster open debate on the issue of missing persons, UNMIK’s Office of Missing Persons and Forensics (OMPF) is launching a participatory theatre project tomorrow. The project, in collaboration with the Centre for Children’s Theatre Development, will address the issue of missing persons and the barrier it creates between Albanians and Serbs, and form the basis for related discussion forums.
The initiative is part of the OMPF Memory Project, a transitional justice programme, which seeks to “de-victimize the victims by moving them from the role of passive recipients of history to active recorders”. Furthermore, it aims to assist families of missing persons, as well as others who have been affected by the phenomenon to demonstrate that the experience of loss is the same regardless of the language used for its expression.
According to the producers, “in expressing opinions and experiences publicly, the people of Kosovo can collectively decide on the real story of these disappearances and the long and painful search they entail”.
The production, which takes the form of short scenarios derived from accounts of members of both Kosovo Albanian and Kosovo Serb communities, was written by two playwrights, one from each ethnic group.
The project is based on theatre personality Augusto Boal’s forum theatre work and its emphasis is on participation. The practitioners are working in collaboration with the Families Associations, organizations that represent the communities of the missing in Kosovo. The project will be spearheaded by OMPF coordinator Andrew Zadel and British director, Jonathan Chadwick.
Tomorrow’s launch will take place at the Multimedia Centre in north Mitrovica at 10am. Theatre forums will be held until Tuesday 6 December. Performances are scheduled for Gnjilane/Gjilan, Velika Hoca, Gracanica, Gjakove/Djakovica, Vushtrri/Vučitrn, Izbice, south Mitrovica, Pejë/Peć, Deçan/Dečani, and will culminate in Klina.