Project EUREPICA-2008 is an attempt to create a new European epos, based on theatrical expressions of twelve dramatists from eleven European countries, USA, and Belarus Free Theatre, with inviting artists from Belarus, USA, Australia and Sweden.

The result of a year work should become a twelve-parts play, consisting from mini-plays, which are written by dramatists of different countries about the major challenges their countries are facing today. That will be a collective expression of dramatists, representing the following countries:

Michal Walczak (Poland)
Paul Jenkins (England)
Vyacheslav Durnenkov (Russia)
Anders Duus (Sweden)
Aaron Landsman (USA)
Angelica Liddell (Spain)
Stefan Peka (Romania)
Goran Stefanovski (Macedonia)
Nikolai Khalezin (Belarus)
Aleksey Scherbak (Latvia)
Ozen Yula (Turkey)
Anna Yablonskaya (Ukraine)

Producers of the Project are Natalia Koliada (Leading Coordinator of the Project) and Nikolai Khalezin (Creative and Literature Coordinator). Vladimir Scherban will be the play’s Director. It was a great achievement to enlist the services of Sergei Newski, a famous Russian composer living in Germany, to work on the project.

A list of participating in the project artists will be open till August 2008, when rehearses of the play start in Swedish Lund. Up today it’s absolutely clear that a few artists of Belarus Free Theatre will take part in the play, as well as American singer Stephanie Pan and Australian actress Esther Mugambi. The premier of the play is scheduled on the last week of October 2008 in Lund.

Nikolai Khalezin said, giving the comments on three days work shop of dramatists in Minsk: “Despite the fact, that the level of the plays were extremely high, many of dramatists made a decision to continue to enhance the texts after they had seen readings of their works. That was absolutely wonderful, because we could produce a common language of the project after a pretty short period and, at the same time, save a room for each and every dramatist’s authenticity and national identification”.

Director of the Project Vladimir Scherban also pointed to a very high level of the dramaturgy: “We made an absolutely right decision to stake on the famous in Europe and their national countries dramatists. The projects like our demand extremely serious approach and balanced decisions, because the only one text, which is falling out of a general picture, can totally destroy a play”.

Belarus Free Theatre, at the press conference dedicated to the presentation of the Project EUREPICA, presented a video-clip with the address of the stars of British theatre and cinematography to Belarus citizens. The cycle of addresses was started by Vaclav Havel, Tom Stoppard and Mick Jagger and now continued by the movie and theatre stars Kim Cattrall, Henry Goodman, Alan Rickman, Mark Ravenhill and others. As all previous video addresses to Belarus citizens that one was crowned with the slogan “Belarus Lives!” which was recited by the artists in Belarusian language.

Natalia Koliada, Director of Belarus Free Theatre and Leading Coordinator of the Project EUREPICA, giving comments on the video address, pointed at the stable orientation of the theatre on Belarus’ European choice: “We started the cycle of the video addresses of the outstanding figures of the world’s arts and culture to Belarus citizens because we didn’t see any other way for our country but to return into the bosom of the United Europe. That’s why we support the movement “European Belarus” developing the idea of the European choice for our country”.



Press conference dedicated to the presentation of the Project EUREPICA


Presentation of the video-clip “European Belarus”


Dramatists-participants of the Project: Aaron Landsman, Paul Jenkins, Anders Duus, Stefan Peka, and Ozen Yula


Readings of the plays by the Belarus Free Theatre’s artists


Picture to remember


The Project’s participants tie ribbons up on the good luck tree in the mansion-museum Dudutki