Belarus Free Theatre's
Minsk 2011, A Reply to Kathy Acker
January 20
February 3, 2013
Upstairs at Chicago Shakespeare
A World’s Stage Production from Belarus
Natalia Kaliada
Text/Producer
Natalia Kaliada is the co-artistic director, producer and co-founder of Belarus Free Theatre alongside her husband Nicolai. Natalia has been detained three times for participation in peaceful political and theatrical activities. She was the first person to be detained at a street protest against enforced disappearances in Belarus. She was convicted for publishing the Monitoring of Human Rights on the Internet. Her father, Andrei Kaliada, was dismissed from the Academy of the Arts for cooperation with Belarus Free Theatre and was physically attacked as a result; the criminal investigation case on it was closed down. In 2010 her play They Saw Dreams played at the Soho Theatre, London. The play is based on documentary material and stories of the political prisoners Irina Krasovskaya, Svetlana Zavadskaya, Tatiana Klimova and Lyudmila Karpenko. Co-produced with Nicolai Khalezin all BFT productions, including the latest King Lear for the "Globe to Globe" festival for the Cultural Olympics in London, and Trash Cuisine.