Salzburger Landestheater Presents #ERSTHELFER #FIRSTAID

The research for this play began in the city of Salzburg, which was a focal point of European migration movements in the autumn and winter of 2015. The photos of refugees and of children playing in the improvised camp in the underground car park of the railway station are still fresh in the memory of the people of Salzburg.

Nuran David Calis drafts a phenomenology of active charity: Who were the volunteers who decided on the spot to help these people? Who became active and joined forces to ease and channel the flow of people in need in an unbureaucratic manner? To prepare his play "#Ersthelfer #FirstAid", Nuran David Calis travelled the Balkan route and interviewed people who helped refugees in their emergencies in 2015. These people are people like you and me, with and without a public function, politicians, staff of charitable organisations, ordinary citizens who took days off to be able to help. The resulting text is a kaleidoscope of different experiences and personal stories, a web of human relationships in which what unites us is stronger than what divides us.

The play invokes the power of solidarity in our civil society. Experts for the daily routine in the migration crisis and actors share the stage in this production, which is designed with the possibility of European guest performances along the Balkan route in mind.

Nuran David Calis was born in Bielefeld in 1976. He worked as a bouncer, studied directing and produced music videos for hip hop bands. He is now active as a director, playwright and screenplay writer. He won many awards for his work, including the Bayerischer Kunstförderpreis for literature in 2006 and a scholarship from the Tarabya Cultural Academy in 2014.

In his writing and directing, Nuran David Calis specialises in the development of documentary theatre projects, which he has staged for instance at the Deutsches Theater Berlin, the Schauspiel Köln and the Schauspiel Hannover. The project "#Ersthelfera??#FirstAid" is based on interviews that the theatre maker conducted with Salzburg citizens and on the experiences he made during his journey along the Balkan route.

https://www.salzburger-landestheater.at/en/produktionen/ersthelfer-firstaid.html?ID_Vorstellung=3930&m=380

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