“Roma
Heroes” is the title of the one and only international Roma theatre festival in
the world, which is organized by Independent Theatre Hungary for the second time between 24-27th
May, in Studio K Theatre (1092 Budapest, Ráday u. 32.). By
presenting eight contemporary European plays, the special cultural event sheds
light on the values of Roma drama and storytelling, draws attention to the
situation of Roma communities and puts exemplary life courses and extraordinary
challenges into the spotlight.
The
international festival of Roma theatre in Budapest focuses on personal storytelling.
The programme of the four-day-long festival consist of plays presenting Roma
heroes who were able to initiate changes in their own life or in their
community. Having watched the performances, the activity of the protagonists
stay with us and gives food for our thoughts afterwards.
“Roma
theatre artists and storytellers deserve more attention than what they get now”
– claims Rodrigo Balogh,
artistic director of the festival organizer Independent Theater – “There are a lot of valuable artists in
Europe, this is also proved by the fact that this year, we received much more
applications to the festival than how many artists we could invite. In the
future, we will have to show several other storytelling performances and
theatre plays to the world – and cultural decision-makers throughout Europe
have to be aware of this demand too. The festival proves that the members of
Roma communities have been living their lives in accordance with middle class
values for a long time.”
The eight plays will be presented
with Hungarian and English surtitles or interpreting.
The play Chameleon
Girl by Independent Theater Hungary shows the heroic stories of present-day
Roma youngsters who participated in the workshops related to last year
festival.
You didn’t see anything by Alex Fifea and David Schwartz
(Romania) examines the circumstances of a Roma man’s death murdered a few years
ago.
Nataliya Tsekova (Bulgaria) in her play Gypsy Wheels tells the
story of a Roma woman trying to get rid of her own identity and memories.
Sonia
Carmona Tapia (Spain) presents two parallel lives: one is a Roma woman who was
beatified last year and the other is a world-known performing artist. The two
women stood up to the communists and the Franco-regime with Profound
Dignity.
Sebastiano Spinella (Italy) – whose family hid their Roma
origin from him, to which the circus artists who travelled a lot in Europe
finally returned– speaks about his own life in his play Children of the Wind.
Three youngsters from Tudás6alom Company, Franciska Farkas, Cristopher Pászik
and Norbert Varga also revive their own memories in the play Let
me tell you a story, and share how they found their own way after many
challenges and bypasses.
The play Today’s Lesson by Richard O’Neill
(United Kingdom) presents a Traveller teacher who was urged by the school he
worked for to conceal his origin.
Michael Collins (Ireland), who is also a
Traveller, tells his own life story to his daughter to convince her it is
important to study, in his play It’s a cultural thing. Or is it?
After each performance, the audience can participate
in a conversation with the artists.
After the festival, an educational material will be prepared based on
the plays, which will complete the educational methodology based on the shows presented at the last year festival.
The
aim of the educational material is to show the values of Roma plays and
protagonists to youngsters; and to help the students to present the heroes in
their own community with creative art methods. In autumn 2018, the educational
methodology will be taken to - mostly Roma - students in Hungary.