Bond Street Theatre Receives $95,000 Grant for Afghanistan Program
Capitalizing on cross-cultural and peace-building work initiated over the past 8 years, Bond Street Theatre returns to Afghanistan with the generous support of a $95,000 grant from the United States Institute of Peace. The 18-month program designs and implements innovative programming that connects local theatre artists to NGOs with goals of passing on theatre-based techniques in conflict resolution and peace-building, and building the capacity of artists and NGOs in Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif and Herat. Inherent to Bond Street Theatre's commitment to Artistic-Humanitarian Relief Work, the company will create leave-behind programming that equips a community to sustain itself and progress in a post-war atmosphere.
"If you want to get information to an area of high illiteracy, you can't hand out a flyer," explains Bond Street Director Joanna Sherman in a recent interview with KadmusArts, when asked about how the versatile application of theatre works in communities in crisis.
"So we partner with a local theatre company to create a show quickly about, say, polio vaccines... You may have to dispel the mythology they may have about foreign medicine, clearly and in a practical way, so that when the medical team follows up, the village is prepared." In such a tense place like Afghanistan, the arts serve as an effective tool to ease the psychosocial effects of disaster, war or poverty, provide voice to the voiceless, as well as building good will. Bond St.'s Meghan Frank working with Afghan girls.The THEATRE FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT program provides creativity training for youth, a safe environment to explore issues, a platform to promote a public understanding of peaceful alternatives to violence, a vehicle for community dialogue, and motivation for those most capable of affecting positive change.
"Bond Street's 'Theatre for Social Development' is a medium connecting Afghanistan's rich oral traditions with the modern performing arts," says Barmak Pazhwak, Senior Grant Program Officer (Afghanistan & Pakistan). "It works to revitalize and build the organizational capacity of local theatre artists and groups to promote peace-building and conflict resolution in their communities in asustainable and effective manner."Current Situation in Afghanistan
Increasing violence, instability and mistrust has now shattered Afghanistan's brief cultural renaissance. Programs for youth that stimulate creative problem solving, conflict resolution and leadership are scarce at a time when the country most needs a visionary new generation.
Since 2002, Bond Street's Artistic-Humanitarian Relief Work has demonstrated a unique commitment to the country, its people and its future. Such work has included programs for children, youth and teachers in Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan, training for Kabul University students in theatre-based methods of conflict transformation, and educational programs for over 10,000 children in partnership with German NGO Afghanistan Schulen in remote villages in northern Afghanistan. While in refugee camps in Pakistan, Bond Street directors met Exile Theatre, a group of Afghanistan's finest actors who had fled during the Taliban era, and the two groups began an eight-year mutually beneficial relationship. Together, they created the critically acclaimed theatrical production, BEYOND THE MIRROR, of which the New York Times stated: "The first collaboration between an Afghan and an American theater company, it has a quiet authority, even delicacy, that is truly powerful." The show, depicting Afghan history and life in wartime as told through first-hand personal stories, toured in Japan and twice in the USA. (The set design for this production was recently invited for inclusion in the prestigious 2011 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design & Space.)
From their first trip, Bond Street Theatre has formed a unique, thriving, artistic-humanitarian relationship with Afghanistan. In light of America's continued involvement in the country's future, this New York-based theatre company stands tall amidst the most committed cultural ambassadors.
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