Are you an artist involved in theatre, film, photography, music, writing, or crafts? Have you worked professionally in the arts in your home country but haven’t had the chance in Poland? Do you want to organize a cultural event or build a community through art? Whether you’re sharing your work or supporting others, we can help!
Each participant will receive a micro-grant of PLN 3,000. You will also get a chance to implement your project and attend workshops on project planning, execution, and communication on November 16 and 17 in Warsaw.
The program will conclude with a meeting with all participants presenting the resulting initiatives on March 2, 2025, also in Warsaw.
The grass is greener there There’s no pain Buy the tickets For each woman there’s a loving man For each man there’s a sexy lover Husbands forgive unfaithful wives Betrayed wives don’t run away with children Children don’t go through puberty They become adult straight away And they visit their parents every Sunday The rich give money to the poor And the poor aren’t poor at all – everybody has a job Buy the tickets
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About the performance
The first performance of the Strefa WolnoSłowa!
The performance The Grass is Greener Here. Come! was an outcome of a two-month-long theatre workshop organised by Strefa WolnoSlowa Foundation within the project Exile Warsaw. Test. The project involved in joint creative work Poles and foreigners living in Warsaw.
Two months of theatre exercises, improvisation and writing texts with a group of people previously unrelated to the theatre resulted in the creation of a theatre performance – a kind of reflection on the journey, departure from one’s native land and the dreams and expectations of a new life. Franz Kafka’s Amerika served as the basis for improvisation and exercises. Kafka’s text, which finally wasn’t included in the performance, had been used as a source of inspiration for the workshop participants to create their own stories and monologues. In the created choreographies and texts real migration experiences intertwine with fiction which is often based on authentic events from the participants’ native lands.
An original collection of characters was established – for Kafka’s Karl becomes a kind of everyman, who talks about Armenia in the 1990s, the need to leave Pakistan, soccer in the Ukraine, lack of perspectives in the Macedonian countryside, or about the desire to leave Belarus. In single stories political and historical events intertwine with an individual struggle for living standards, creating a single narrative about the search for a better world.
The solution to all problems is to be the title America, which in the play becomes an excuse for a story about dreams and disappointments connected with the place where migrants arrived. The performance shows bureaucracy, ignorance of the language, no job perspectives in countries where it was supposed to be better, confrontation of ideas for a better world with reality, expectations with existing situation. This makes The Grass is Greener Here. Come! a very powerful play, as it is made by migrants themselves.
The idea, conducting of workshops and direction::
Alicja Borkowska
Cast: Anastasia Biernacka, Małgorzata Gajdemska, Jurij Jelin, Nadzieja Klimowicz, Victoria Kotelewec, Veronika Los, Olga Luts, Oscar Pena, Lewon Petrosjan, Natalia Pracz, Zbigniew Santorek, Ruzan Sargsjan, Julia Semczuk, Alexander Sokyrko, Bojan Wasilevsky, Marina Vileita, Viktoria Rosovetska, Julia Vasilevska, Nina Volontey.
Partners:
Fundacja “Ocalenie”, Warsztat Komunikacji Społecznej m.st. Warszawy
https://strefawolnoslowa.pl/at_home_2024
