Spring Weekend: Hoped I Wouldn't Meet Myself Today at Bohemian National Hall

Sunday May 12 at 7 pm Puppenhaus.Treatment by Magda Fertacz, translated by Artur Zapalowski, directed by Zishan UgurluStage reading, Talk Back & After Party"Traitors to the country, collaborators, and renegades, are World War II figures that have re-entered the national and political discourse of today. Playwright, Magda Fertacz, examines the issues of treason and collaborationism from the perspective of alternative codes of memory: those typically dismissed as uncomfortable, incompatible with one-dimensional heroism and black-and-white view of patriotism. By constructing a theatrical fantasy about wartime, the artists are asking questions about the stigmatization, punishment and judgment of individuals who, for a variety of reasons, renounce heroism and refuse to fight and make sacrifices for their country. How is historical memory and moral evaluation of past choices and actions constructed? What are the limits of interpreting and fantasizing about history charged with trauma and heroism? How can collective memory be healed?Magda Fertacz was born in 1975. She is a playwright, screenwriter, interior designer, and winner of the Gdynia Drama Award and the competition at the Polish Contemporary Art Exhibition. Magda Fertacz is a graduate of the College of Communication and Social Media and the Department of Journalism of the University of Warsaw. She made her debut as a playwright with the play, Dust, staged at the National Theater in Warsaw by Anna Trojanowska, which earned a distinction in the Radom Odwany contest in 2005.Zishan Ugurlu is a resident actress and director at La MaMa Theater and has worked extensively both in New York and abroad. She is the founding artistic director of Actors without Borders-ITONY. She graduated from Columbia University with a MFA degree and holds a Ph.D. She is currently teaching at The New School University as an Associate Professor. She is the recipient of the prestigious Fox Foundation Fellowship granted by Theater Communications Group.