Lark Play Development Center Presents Belarus Free Theatre's Charonville 9/22

The Lark Play Development Center is pleased to host Belarus Free Theatre for a public reading of Charonville by Nikolai Khalezin, directed by Lisa Rothe, with original translation by Yuriy Koliada and Rory Mullarky and dramaturgical and translation assistance by Erik Ehn. The reading takes place at 7pm on Wednesday, September 22 at the Lark Studio.

Banned in their native Belarus and renowned for staging covert, uncensored performances, the Belarus Free Theatre provides a rare voice of dissent in what has become known as Europe's last dictatorship. Its artists are under constant persecution by the regime in Minsk, and their courage and perseverance have won them the support of many, including Sir Tom Stoppard, Mick Jagger, Mark Ravenhill, Diana Quick, Henry Goodman, Alan Rickman, Kim Cattrall, Tobiaz Menzies, and Steven Spielberg. Playwright Harold Pinter had said of Belarus Free Theatre, "They're bringing back the essential meaning of the theatre."

Charonville involves a journalist who finds himself attending the funeral of John Dillinger, who, contrary to legend, was not killed by the FBI, but lived his life out in this remote Midwestern town of Charonville, which turns out to be the refuge of many more legends who died under mysterious circumstances-including the King of Rock and Roll.

This reading is being presented in association with Theatre Without Borders' "Acting Together on the World Stage: A Conference on Theatre and Peace Building in Conflict Zones," as presented by La Mama, E.T.C. in affiliation with Brandeis University from September 23 - 28. Nikolai Khalezin's participation is made possible by an Independent Project Award from CEC ArtsLink.

The reading is an extension of Lark's growing Eastern European Exchange Program. For reservations and more information, please visit: www.larktheatre.org or call 212.246.2676 ext.24. For more information on Theatre Without Borders conference, visit: www.lamama.org.

A laboratory for new voices and new ideas, the LARK PLAY DEVELOPMENT CENTER provides playwrights with indispensable resources to develop their work. The Lark brings together actors, directors, playwrights and the community to allow writers to learn about their own work by seeing and hearing it, and by receiving feedback from a dedicated and supportive community. The company reaches into untapped local populations and across international boundaries to seek out and embrace unheard voices and diverse perspectives, celebrating differences in language and worldviews. The Lark also plays a leading role in advancing unknown writers and their works to audiences through carefully stewarded partnerships with a host of theaters, universities, community-based organizations, and NGOs, locally, nationally and globally. The Lark is led by Producing Director, John Clinton Eisner and Managing Director, Michael Robertson.

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