Credits:
AUTHOR:
Andrei Kureichik is a prolific writer and director from Belarus.
Voices of the New Belarus and
Insulted: Belarus, both about the political crisis in Belarus, have been produced in theaters around the world.
DIRECTORS:
Steve Clorfeine has been teaching, performing, and writing since 1974. He is one of the founding arts faculty at Naropa University and taught at SUNY New Paltz for many years. His performance work has been commissioned by venues in the U.S., Europe and Asia, where he continues to offer theater/improvisation workshops. For 10 years, Steve was a member of Meredith Monk’s company, and of Ping Chong's Fiji company, performing throughout Europe and the U.S. After co-directing Naropa University's Study Abroad Program in Nepal, Steve taught theater in Nepal, India and Singapore and received Cultural Envoy grants from the U.S. for work in Calcutta and in Kathmandu. Steve is the recipient of a NYFA fellowship, an OBIE award, Poets and Writers grants and a film award from the Atlanta Festival for the Arts. His non-fiction book on Nepal was published by Station Hill Press (2000) and 5 poetry collections published (2004-19).
www.steveclorfeine.com
Steve Wangh is a playwright, director and acting teacher. He is the author of fifteen plays and was Associate Writer for
The Laramie Project (Emmy nomination 2002), and a writer of
The People’s Temple (Glickman Award: Best Play in the Bay Area 2005). He was dramaturg of Moisés Kaufman’s
Gross Indecency. Steve is the author of two books about teaching acting:
An Acrobat of the Heart, a Physical Approach to Acting inspired by the work of Jerzy Grotowski, Vintage Books, Random House, NY (Mandarin translation by Hinabook), and
The Heart of Teaching: Empowering Students in the Performing Arts (Routledge). He has directed in Boston, Boulder, and in Graz, Austria. Steve taught acting at NYU for twenty years, where he is now Arts Professor Emeritus. He also taught at Naropa University, at Emerson College, and in Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Bangkok and at the Freedom Theatre in Jenin, Palestine.
www.stephenwangh.com
FILMMAKERS
Cynthia Levine (Video Editor/Post-production Manager) now lives and works in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and has also lived and worked in San Francisco and New York as a video editor, animator, special effects and graphics artist for a variety of productions. More info and contact:
www.furballproductions.com
Maggie Donovan (Assistant Video Editor) (they/them) is a senior at Mount Holyoke College studying psychology. They work for the nonprofits Time to Tell and Translate Gender, with survivors of childhood sexual abuse and LGBTQIA+ youth respectively. Since the pandemic, they have worked as tech support and as a jack of all trades on a variety of creative projects through the non-profits they work for, and elsewhere. Maggie worked with Steve Wangh on his Zoom play,
The Waiting Room, and is honored to have been brought on for Voices of the New Belarus.
Matthew Kohn (Videographer) is the director of
Call it Democracy, which explored Bush v. Gore and Presidential Elections.
ACTORS
Vegan Aharonian was born and raised in Armenia (then part of the Soviet Union) in 1965. He graduated from an engineering college in Moscow, attended graduate schools in Moscow and at Columbia University. Vegan has PhD in geophysics and worked as a software engineer for most of his career. Vegan has lived in New York since 1991. He practices and has taught meditation and Shambhala Buddhist teachings since 1996. Vegan has been very interested in the well-being of the society since his teenage years and cares deeply about the democratic developments in the former Soviet republics. This is his first acting engagement since high school.
Paul Binnerts, New York/Amsterdam. Dutch theater director, acting teacher, playwright, novelist. His plays: Black Box, The Same Sea (based on Amos Oz novels), Mephisto (based on a Klaus Mann novel) won awards in Europe. His book on acting: Acting in Real Time was published by Univ. of Michigan Press in 2012. His new novel:
Labyrinth of Lies was published in Dutch, in 2021. Plays in English include:
A Very (c)Old CasePart I & II (2009/10),
Lost and Found. Paul has directed in Holland, UK, Germany, US and Japan. Teaching credits include theater schools in Holland, Germany, UK, USA.
Chan Xiyong Andrew, graduated from HKAPA in 2018, with a Bachelor’s Degree from the School of Drama, major in Acting. Nominated as The Best Leading Actor Award by The Hong Kong Theatre Libre.
Matt Heys Newcastle/Awabakal, NSW, Australia. His training started at NIDA and continued abroad at Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore - obtaining his BA (Hons) Acting in 2010. Recent credits include John Proctor in Prospero Players production of The Crucible, Wallace in Knock and Run’s production of The Unseen, and Matt will be appearing in the feature film
Three Chords & the Truth by Claire Pasvolsky. Matt is passionate about physical theatre and has performed with Force Majeure, Yumi Umiumare, Branch Nebula, Ninefold Theatre Ensemble, Strings Attached, Matt is a qualified Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization Exercise Instructor.
Anton Krueger is an Associate Professor in the Department of Drama at Rhodes University, South Africa, where he teaches creative writing and performance research. He’s written books in many genres, including: memoir, criticism, short stories, poetry, plays and a novel. More recently he’s begun experimenting with improvised language performance to music by a diverse range of musicians. Anton’s solo show
The Voice in Your Head was performed as part of the Main Stage at the Virtual National Arts Festival of 2020. He also performed in a duprov at the 2021 NAF, HA!Man and Anton:
In Fearless Flow, with multi-musician Francois le Roux.
Budi Miller is Senior Lecturer (Acting) at Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne and is on the Blak C.O.R.E. (Circle of Radical Energy) Leadership Committee. He is the co-Artistic Director of Theatre of Others. He is an UNESCO designated master teacher of mask work. He has been an actor-director-writer-teacher in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Denmark, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, Australia, Malaysia, India, China, and Indonesia since 1992. He is the Director of Advanced Training for the Fitzmaurice Institute. He has coached film and television roles for Michelle Williams, Jonathan Majors, and Julian Elijah Martinez.
Kiki Ng participates in theatre, community arts, and education, and believes that story can be a key to bringing about changes in the world. She is an Accredited Playback Theatre Trainer from the Centre for Playback Theatre, the USA, and the co-artistic director of Encounter Playback Theatre, HK (EPT). She is also a research associate and a part-time lecturer at Hong Kong Baptist University. Recent theatre/ community projects include
Spice Road (2019 France, 2021 Online),
Tesserismeron (2020),
StoryBox (2020-22),
Pandoras' Box (2017, 2019, 2021, 2022), and《黃花昨日》《形聲細塑/訴》at the Tai O Cultural Festival.
Ahmed Tobasi is an actor, director and educator working in theatres throughout Palestine and internationally. Born in the Jenin refugee camp in Palestine, restricted and frustrated by the occupation, Tobasi joined the armed resistance and was in prison before his 18th birthday. Upon his release 3 years later, Tobasi embraced the idea that he could become an agent of change and resistance using the medium of theatre. After 2 years of study at The Freedom Theatre, Tobasi undertook further education in Norway, followed by a 3- year professional career abroad. Tobasi is currently the artistic director of The Freedom Theatre, Palestine.
Court Dorsey is a writer, theater artist, and conflict resolution specialist in Western Massachusetts, USA. Associate artist, Pilgrim Theater Collaborative: Project Unspeakable playwright, Mephistopheles Faust 2002, BCA, Malta Theater Festival in Poznan, Poland and Guys Dreamin’ La Mama E.T.C. (“Top Ten Shows of the 1997-8 Season”, New York Theater Wire). Serious Play Theater Ensemble: Milosevic at the Hague, Joakim Interfest, Serbia. Wendy Woodson and Present Company: Dudes in Suits, Amherst College, Jacob’s Pillow, Dance Place (Washington DC), BACA Downtown (NYC), Emerson Majestic Theater (Boston). Founding member of Bright Morning Star, a folk cabaret ensemble (Flying Fish) and toured with Pete Seeger.
Dorothea Gädeke lives in Freiburg, Germany. For many years she was a stage actress. Now she works in many different fields of performance with a focus on voice, as a radio speaker and as a musician. Her current performances are a mix of literature and music. Dorothea works also as the voice therapist at the Freiburg University and Music Conservatory and in voice coaching. In both these fields she is supporting people to find their voices - both in the direct and in the metaphorical sense. Dorothea is also a meditation teacher and a Buddhist practitioner
Rosemary Quinn lives in New York City’s Lower East Side where she works as a community arts activist, teacher, actor, director, dancer and theatrical producer. Her career promoting new theater and new writers has extended over decades from working with Sam Shepard and Jean-Claude van Itallie to today’s cutting edge theater makers. Rosemary is a member of The Roy Hart Theatre of France teaching Voice workshops in the summers. She is Director of the Experimental Theatre Wing at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts where she teaches acting. She recently appeared in the short film Untidy by Untidy Films.
Kgothi Rapoo is an actor in training, currently doing Post-Graduate Honours in Drama (Rhodes University). He has been under the wing of South African actors such as Stian Bam & Veronique Jephtas and has been cast as an extra in a South African series titled
Dam. His main roles have been within small departmental productions. In his years of high school, Kgothi was awarded ‘Best Drama Performer’ for his work in a comedic Disney parody. He aims to pursue a career in acting and dabble in other things that will allow me to master my craft.
Eleanor Tolley is a visual artist, performer and musician living in so-called Brooklyn, New York, on unceded Lenape land. She graduated in 2020 from NYU Tisch’s Experimental Theater Wing. Their visual artwork, consisting of ceramics and printmaking, can be viewed on her instagram, @eleanors.hands. They stand in solidarity and struggle with all survivors of state sanctioned violence across the world.
William Wong Ka-kui is Artistic Director of the Blank Space Studio in Hong Kong.
He is an active participant of the Worldwide Belarus/Ukraine Reading Project.
He has directed
Insulted:Belarus for 4 times (twice in Cantonese, once in English and once in Mandarin) and co-directed an interactive presentation of
Voices of New Belarus in Cantonese. Recently he directed an online reading of Bad Roads and raised HKD$125,200 for Ukraine.
NARRATOR
Yva Momatiuk was born in Warsaw in 1940. 25 years later, she and two colleagues won second prize in the international architectural competition for the Civic Center Plaza in San Francisco, CA. After working as an architect in New York City, Yva became a professional nature photographer and writer. For several decades now, Yva and John Eastcott, her professional partner and husband, have travelled the globe and produced articles for National Geographic and other international magazines. She has also co-authored several documentary books of images and text. Yva resides in the Catskills in New York State, and is currently in Poland.