International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. According to UN Women estimates:

• 750 million women and girls alive today married before their 18th birthday

• 35% of women have experienced either physical and/or sexual violence

• Approximately 120 million girls worldwide have experienced non-consensual sexual intercourse and/or sexual assault

Bond Street Theatre works with women globally who are survivors of abuse, forced marriages, sexual violence, and incarceration. By teaching theatre, we create a platform for women to use their voice to speak out against the violence that they have been subjugated to.

Bond Street Theatre has worked with women all over the world, introducing theatre as a tool to amplify their voices. We have collaborated with women and girls in the US, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Malaysia, and more, and we know that discrimination, harassment, unfair treatment and violence against women are global issues.

Recently, we began a project with members of Malaysia’s  Rohingya community, and in doing so we helped facilitate the creation of the Rohingya Women's Theatre. The five members of the new ensemble were each married by age 15 and had no experience with theatre beyond Bollywood dramas. By using theatre, we were able to offer creative tools to share their stories and promote their rights.

From 2011 to 2014, Bond Street Theatre worked with inmates at a women's prison in Afghanistan, many of whom are survivors of abuse. The program was launched with the support of Dining for Women. We encountered many inmates who have faced systemic violence and a flawed legal system, and offered healing ways to approach problems, learn their legal rights, and develop the communication skills and motivation to speak out for justice. In addition, they learned educational and creative activities to enjoy with their children who were incarcerated with them.

Bond Street Theatre continues to promote an end to violence against women, both through our work with women and girls and, equally importantly, by engaging men and boys to speak out for justice. Through artistic solutions, we aim to change entrenched cultural gender norms present in communities from the US to Afghanistan, and to bring an end to violence against women.

 Members of the Rohingya Women's Theatre and Masakini Theatre perform a play about refugee rights in Malaysia.

Violence against women needs to be eliminated now. Today, we are inspired to continue in our line of work towards a better world, with artistic rigour, cultural sensitivities and diligence. While noting the strides that we have made, we  know that there is so much more work to be done. Today and everyday, Bond Street Theatre joins with our sisters and fellow advocates around the world in saying NO MORE.

Malaysia: Scenes from Kuala Lumpur

Performances are well underway as we continue our inaugural project in Malaysia, partnering with Asylum Access Malaysia to create programming with Kuala Lumpur's refugee population. Working with local troupe Masakini Theatre, as well as the Rohingya Women's Development Network and Somali Community Coalition, we've created a series of performances addressing common issues faced by refugees, from access to healthcare, to interactions with law enforcement, to applying for status with UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency).

Performances also address resources that refugees can access to help deal with common issues, as seen in this snapshot of a rehearsal with Masakini Theatre. Though Malaysia is not a signatory of the UN Convention on Refugees, domestic and international non-profits operating in the country do offer some limited resources.

All performances are interactive, meaning that audience members have the opportunity to discuss, or even correct information presented based on their experiences. This is both an effective tool for sparking dialogue among refugees, and for relaying the most up-to-date information about refugee experiences to advocacy groups attending performances.

Audience members ranged in age, nationality, religion, gender and background. Here, some of our youngest audience members enjoy a refreshing post-show treat with a cast member.

The program has been a great success, and we are so excited to share that the Rohingya Women's Development Network and Somali Community Coalition will continue to train with Masakini Theatre.

Working with Refugees in Malaysia

Greetings from Malaysia, where Bond Street is launching its newest project working with refugee groups.

More than 150,000 refugees and asylum seekers are registered with UNHCR in Malaysia, coming from a range of countries and languishing in makeshift housing.

Many have fled active conflicts in Myanmar, where Bond Street has been working since 2009, while others have traveled from Afghanistan, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Iraq and Syria. With the influx of men, women and children from different parts of the world, language barriers, cultural differences, and lack of employment plague refugees who struggle to start a new life.

We are partnering with Asylum Access Malaysia – a respected advocate for refugee rights – to implement programming that will assist in their work. Asylum Access runs a variety of “know your options” trainings for refugees, covering everything from healthcare access to education to UNHCR registration.

However, these trainings are often delivered by PowerPoint, which presents a challenge since many of Malaysia’s refugees are illiterate.

That’s where theatre will come in.

A workshop with the Rohingya Women's Development Network

First, we are working with a group of Rohingya women who want to learn theatre. We are working on teaching theatre techniques, and on identifying a range of problems faced by the community, which we will later work together to dramatize.

We are also working with a mixed-gender group of Somali refugees who have newly formed a community advocacy organization. When we did our Problem Tree exercise, where participants speak about local issues and their causes, the group named cultural integration, language barriers, and jobs among their concerns.

Finally, we are working with Masakini Theatre, a Malaysian troupe, to bring Asylum Access's PowerPoints to life.

After one week, we’re already off to a great start. We can’t wait to see where this project takes us.

Celebrating World Refugee Day

It is World Refugee Day, and here at Bond Street Theatre we are taking the opportunity to commemorate the resilience, strength, and courage of millions of refugees all over the world. Today, we encourage you, our friends and colleagues, to educate yourselves on the very serious refugee crisis that continues to impact our world.

According to the UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency), there are currently 65.6 million people who have been displaced worldwide. 22.5 million are refugees and 10 million are stateless. Refugees are defined as individuals that have been displaced and forced to leave their homes due to war, famine, persecution, or violence. Their ability to succeed in the face of everything is remarkable.

A citizen of any given country is guaranteed a set of basic human rights but, as a refugee, a person may lose access to these rights and protections. According to the 1951 Refugee Convention, all refugees have the right to safe asylum, the right to not be forcibly returned to their country of origin, and the same rights as any foreigner who is a legal resident, including freedom of thought, movement and freedom from torture.

However, in countries that did not sign the 1951 Refugee Convention, refugees are left vulnerable and they are often stripped of access to these rights. This is why we at Bond Street Theatre continue our commitment to working with refugees, and why we are bringing new refugee-centered projects to Malaysia in 2017.

Theatre creates the space for laughter, for critical thought, for expression, for mutual understanding, and so much more. At Bond Street Theatre, we challenge and call upon all artists to spread tolerance, especially towards people who are facing turmoil and persecution, and to seek out new opportunities to learn from others.

Below we share stories of those from the refugee communities that we have had the privilege of learning from:

1987: Montreal

In 1987, BST was invited to Montreal’s International Youth for Peace and Justice Program to address 60 teenagers from 45 war-torn nations on the power of theatre, and to teach them practical popular theatre techniques.

1999: Kosovo Refugee Camps - Macedonia

As an immediate response to the war in Kosovo, BST initiated a three-week program bringing laughter, joy, and creative play to more than 10,000 Kosovar children, many of whom had been traumatized by the war, in seven refugee camps located throughout Macedonia.

We staged shows in open areas before audiences of 1,000-2,000 people, and taught mime and theatre games to the children. When we returned to the camps later, we were pleased to find the children demonstrating what they had learned from days before. This project has clearly demonstrated to us the value of interactive theatre, and the healing power of all of the expressive arts.

2001: Afghan Refugee Camps - Pakistan

Following September 11, 2001, BST members traveled to Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan to bring joy and laughter to Afghan children, conduct workshops, and learn more about the conflict.

We returned in 2002 to refugee camps in Peshawar, where 10,000 Afghan boys and girls were reached with live performances new confidence-building skills and games. The company trained teachers from Plan International to use theatre-based educational activities for children, bringing this program to rural villages in Chakwal.

2003: Exile Theatre - Afghanistan

BST began a collaboration with Exile Theatre, aimed at bringing healing programs to refugee families that were pouring back into the country. With partner group Afghanistan-Schulen, Bond Street reached 25,000 children in the rural north, focusing especially on girls who were returning to school.

2007: India

Bond Street traveled to India to conduct mask-making and physical expression workshops with 30 children from the violence-ridden area of Bastar in central India. These refugee children had been traumatized by years of rebel uprisings, and our workshops moved from liberating games to image-making relating to their emotions.

2011-2012: Refugee Camps - Haiti

BST conducted training programs for FAVILEK, a theatre group of female sexual violence survivors in Haiti, with tours in refugee areas and tent camps in the post-earthquake areas.

2016: Borak Arts Series - Penang Malaysia

Bond Street Theatre's Artistic Director, Joanna Sherman, was a featured speaker at the Borak Arts Series in Penang, Malaysia. The series is designed to provide an international forum in which artists and activists from around the world can share information and ideas. Joanna spoke about the relationship between sustainable social development and performance, and demonstrated for the audience of artists, many of whom are working with migrants and refugees in the Malaysian region, some of the useful exercises and techniques they could use in their work.

Summer 2017: Malaysia

This summer we will be traveling back to Malaysia to embark upon a new theatre project. Bond Street will work with refugees, many of whom are currently living without access to basic rights, as Malaysia is not a signatory of the 1951 Convention on Refugees. Many  do not have access to legal residences, education, or employment, let alone work permits. Because they are not recognized as refugees, they have very little protection from local law enforcement, often leading to brutality and corruption.

On World Refugee Day, we celebrate the lives and accomplishments of refugees all over the world. Refugees around the world are in need of assistance, so we encourage everyone to do what you can to help, whether it be donating, volunteering, or welcoming refugees into your home, community, or country!

Links to Learn More!

https://www.globalgiving.org/world-refugee-day/?rf=ggad_16&gclid=COTEntv8vdQCFUhYDQodBwIHZg

http://www.unhcr.org/afr/publications/brochures/3b779dfe2/protecting-refugees-questions-answers.html

https://therefugeecenter.org/help-refugees/world-refugee-day/?gclid=CPO4g-T9vdQCFVpMDQodP54DYQ

Behind the posters: Bond Street Theatre's work in the Balkans

There are a variety of ways to tell a single story. Recently, the posters from BST’s work overseas have been archived, and it is amazing (especially for the intern who archived them and is writing this blog) how much they have to tell.

This week, Bond Street Theatre shares the posters from our work in the Balkans, where the company initiated the Balkan Peace Project and formed the Performing Artists for Balkan Peace, an inter-Balkan network of artists. Back to the year 2000!

One year after the war in Kosovo, Bond Street Theatre came to the region in response to to an emerging need for  psychosocial support for  the population of the area. In 2000, Bond Street Theatre and Theatre Tsvete, a puppet theatre company from Bulgaria, created a non-verbal version of Romeo and Juliet as a part of the Balkan Peace Project initiated in Kosovo. The two companies’ goal was to address the tragedy of the war between neighbors through physical theatre and visual storytelling. The actors were able to symbolically talk about choosing between love and violence, following one’s heart and duty to defend.

The play was presented throughout Kosovo, featured at such festivals as the  International Theatre Festival Skampa in Albania,  the Sibiu International Theatre Festival in Romania, and the International Festival of Alternative & New Theatre in Serbia. In partnership with UNICEF, Romeo and Juliet was performed in the most critical areas of Serbia, where ethnic tensions were still high. The play was warmly received, and the story resonated with audiences, providing a safe space to reflect on the conflict situation in the region.

A poster announcing the International Theatre Festival Skampa in Albania,
where Romeo and Juliet was presented, 2002

A poster announcing Romeo and Juliet, 2000

In 2005, continuing the collaboration in the region, theatre practitioners from Serbia, Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, the UK and the USA convened in Bulgaria to initiate the Performing Artists for Balkan Peace network, which was devoted to free exchange of ideas and cross-border cooperation. The connected artists confirmed their role as global actors for social improvement, stressed the importance of involving and reaching local communities in peacemaking processes, and aimed to create arts projects that would address the current social and political issues of the Balkans.

A poster announcing free lectures, workshops, and performances from the
Performing Artists for Balkan Peace in Bulgaria, 2005

                                        
As a result of the collaboration,  five theatre directors united to craft a performance titled Honey and Blood. In the Turkish language, “bal” means honey and “kan” means blood. A performance conducted by 20 actors from 9 countries was presented to a wider audience, stimulating a cross-border dialogue.

An English version of a poster presenting Honey and Blood
in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2005

A Cyrillic version of a poster presenting Honey in Blood, 2005

The work of Bond Street Theatre and its partners in the Balkans went far beyond these posters. To quote  Bond Street Theatre’s Artistic Director, Joanna Sherman,  this social project, focused on relationships between artists from ethnically diverse backgrounds, was a success.“Could Kosovars and Serbs room together? Could five directors really create together in collaboration?  We were all sublimely pleased that the project was both a successful social experiment and a truly deep artistic experience as well”.

Intern Spotlight: Polina Peremitina

This week Polina Peremitina, our Arts Administration intern from both Saint-Petersburg State University and the Bard Globalization and International Affairs program, writes about her experience from the New York office.

This is me, an Arts Administration intern at Bond Street Theatre, sitting in an old Ford and waiting for the Easter Parade in Brooklyn to begin. Michael and Joanna (name a more iconic duo) invited me to join them to help and have some fun with kids and kites all around, while they led the parade on stilts, and dozens of children followed them down the streets. It was a cold, gloomy day, but the bright costumes, big smiles, and readiness to be there for these kids, making them laugh and question whether Michael and Joanna’s legs were truly that high and wooden, made all the difference. However, there are some questions that will remain mysteries no matter what, kids.

                                                 Waiting for the Easter Parade to begin

When I was a kid, I also had lots of questions. However, having played in my hometown musical theatre for almost ten years as a child, I never wondered if this experience would somehow shape my future. Pursuing theatre was a done deal, with “no” as the answer. I considered theatre to be a means of entertainment, and hadn't even thought about its capacity to influence social justice. Luckily, I educated myself with the help of my dear friend Jordana, who explained the concept of social theatre to me last summer while in Palestine through school. And when, having been accepted to the Bard Globalization and International Affairs Program this January in New York City, I knew exactly in what kind of organization I wanted to intern with for academic credit. So I found Bond Street Theatre and I applied right away. And, once again luckily, I got in.

At my very first day in the office, I had to conduct research on problems that Afghan refugee returnees face as they come back to their country. By doing that, I learned about needs assessments. Yes, it’s true that BST cannot help with water and food supplies. But the company can help with spreading information among the returnees about their rights in an effective way. Where there is a need that can be covered by theatre, the company is there, and the more I searched for grant opportunities later on, the more I realized how it can be applicable.

It also taught me a lot about NGO management itself, especially if an NGO is small. There are only three people in the NYC office who maintain the company, as well as a full Afghan staff, and it’s a great opportunity to be involved in a variety of things: marketing, fundraising, researching, photo editing, design. Speaking of which, who would have thought that I would gain some basic graphic design skills at this job, creating promotional materials for “Amelia and Her Paper Tigers”, Bond Street’s young audiences show? Wow. I learned a lot from Emma directly, Internship Coordinator and Development/Communication Director, and I am genuinely grateful to her, Joanna and Michael who taught me so many things that I think I am not even able to embrace fully yet.

                                      Bond Street Theatre NYC Staff - Spring 2017

As Emma develops the BST website, I am close to wrapping up my biggest project here. I am creating an interactive map that will show all the counties in which BST has worked, with a short description and pictures for each project and performance. In a way, it is an archival project. BST was founded in 1976, and there is quite a history that needs to be systemized constantly. I am helping with it, going through all the pictures that have been taken since 1979 and digitizing the ones that I think may be worth adding to the already existing and awesome digital photo library of the office. I also use these pictures for this map, which is a fun quest - to find the gap (where are the Colombia pictures?) and fill it by searching through more than 155 envelopes of photographs.

                              This is what the process and my office space looked like

I believe I became more aware and conscious about global affairs and social injustice around the world during this internship. And I LOVE how well it is linked to my academic program, where I use the knowledge I gain at the internship for writing my papers and class discussions.

But back to the initial question: yes, theatre can be about entertainment. Theatre can be about education, enlightening issues of a particular society, providing tools for peacemaking and reconciliation, and empowering audiences to act along. But theatre can also be about grant researching and writing, maintaining the current projects and preparing new ones. It can be about marketing upcoming shows, trying to figure it out how and where to promote them best. It can be about more than three thousand analogue pictures, waiting to be digitized and archived. In addition to all of that, you can always have some fun hanging in an old Ford and walking on stilts. And yet again, another mystery solved.

Celebrating International Women's Day

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, we celebrate the achievements of women and girls around the world, and are reminded of the challenges that lie ahead on issues ranging from domestic and gender-based violence, to girls’ education, to voting rights for all, to social justice, to safe self-expression. Today, we highlight a selection of projects created in collaboration with our partners around the world devoted to women’s rights.

  

As a part of the 2010-2012 Theatre for Social Development project in Afghanistan, we worked with four Afghan theatre companies, and created four new all-women’s theatre troupes as part of the project. For the first time, the troupes were able to reach women directly, performing in homes, girl’s schools, and women’s shuras. The photos above and right below were taken as part of a 2011 workshop conducted by Bond Street Theatre and Simorgh Theatre of Herat.

Malia, one of the workshop participants, shared: ”When I came to the workshop, I was really shy to even move, but now I really feel free to speak aloud and talk to audiences”.

Manizha, another participant, reflects on the importance of women’s unity: “What I learned by performing in so many different places is that most of the women have no good relationship with others and with society.  They are fighting with each other!  If we stand up together, we can solve this problem. This is the most important and useful thing for myself”. 

From 2014-2016, BST’s Youth-Led Community Engagement Project brought  together 375 youth from 25 Afghan provinces for arts-based leadership and communication training. One of them, the Women’s Group of the Volunteer Youth of Kunar, chose to implement a project focused on ending violence against women. The participants conducted sessions and workshops with women, and  met one-on-one with families to discuss the vital importance of education. 

In Guatemala, we initiated The Acting for Peace project, which implemented theatre programs for at-risk women and youth living in rural areas, and workshops with young women aged 10 to 17 in collaboration with Oasis Orphanage.

As a task for one of the workshops, girls had to come up with short pieces to perform. In this picture, captured in 2012, the girls present the following story of unity: “There is one tree in the forest that stands alone. It is proud of itself, thinking it the strongest and best tree around. One day, a woodcutter comes along and cuts it down easily. Then the woodcutter goes to a grove nearby, where all the trees have grown together.  He tries and he tries to cut the trees down, but he can't - the trees are united”. 

In these pictures captured in 2007 in India, BST staff and Indian women collaborate on workshops, later to be turned to a play to be presented to a wider audience. As part of our time in India, BST was fortunate enough to work with the famed Patachitra painter-storytellers of West Bengal, a primarily female group dedicated to storytelling across mediums. Recalling a BST stilt-walking workshop, Nurjahan recalls: “At first I was “Ohhhh, I don’t want to go on stilts,” but now I know once I go for it, after that, I don’t have any apprehension at all”.

Working in Haiti in 2012, BST collaborated with women’s group FAVILEK (Women Victims Get Up, Stand Up), survivors of politically motivated violence. The original show created by the women, Fanm Yo Di Ase!, was a powerful testament to the resilience of women, and a call to action. In the words of Marie of Haiti, “They fight violence. It takes courage and valor. Replace violence with love!”

As we work towards creating a more equitable world for all women, Bond Street is grateful for the women and allies that we have met and worked with around the world, crossing lines of citizenship, age, disability, and sexuality, but sharing a common core of courage and creativity.

Volpone: From Rehearsal to Performance

In our final weeks in Myanmar, Bond Street Theatre and Thukhuma Khayeethe premiered our quite unique version of Volpone, an adaptation of Ben Jonson's 1605 play. The play is a fusion of styles, combining Italian commedia dell'arte with a Burmese dance to the spirits, and addresses the particularly relevant theme of personal responsibility in a country just moving from strict military rule to a certain amount of personal freedom. With freedom comes responsibility! 

Check out photos from the process below:

The Bond Street and Thukhuma Khayeethe teams discuss the script
(L-R: Nyan Lin Aung, Ngwe Ngwe Tin, Zin Mar Thwin, Kyae Zan and Soe Moe Thu. 
Not shown: Soe Myat Thu, Thila Min, Michael McGuigan and Joanna Sherman)

Rehearsal sure is tiring!

A dusty dress rehearsal at Gitameit

Our smallest audience members listen to the live pre-performance music at our second performance -- in a squatter settlement just outside Yangon. Wah Wah (in the blue dress at right) played the Burmese harp, which can be seen on the chair next to her, and the violin. 
 The audiences stayed enthralled and attentive for the entire hour and a half show!  And eagerly contributed to the ending in which the audience gets to decide who is guilty and who is not and why. Most important, they understand that they have a voice in their future -- they can speak out against injustice and have a responsibility to do so. 

Audience participation at the final show in the lovely township of East Dagon in Yangon.

Bond Street Theatre and Thukhuma Khayeethe give a huge thanks to all those that made this production possible, especially the Theatre Communications Group's In the Lab Grant program that supported the entire mulit-year process, the Gitameit Music School, and all of our supporters!