BEING HAROLD PINTER Adds Encore Benefit Performance At The Public 1/17

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis, Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson) and La MaMa proudly present an encore benefit performance of the Belarus Free Theater's acclaimed BEING Harold Pinter on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Monday, January 17 at 7 PM, at The Public Theater (425 Lafayette Street). Hosted by Tom Stoppard and Tony Kushner, the evening will feature a performance of BEING Harold Pinter as well as readings by celebrity guests, including Mandy Patinkin. Tickets to this one-night-only benefit performance are $500 (include prime seating location, a backstage visit, and a post-show reception), $100 (include a post-show reception), and $50 and are on sale now at (212) 967-7555 or www.publictheater.org.

All proceeds from the evening will benefit the Belarus Free Theater who is facing persecution in their homeland. The troupe barely escaped imprisonment in December to travel to New York to perform at this year's Under the Radar Festival. The two week sold-out run at La MaMa will conclude this Sunday, January 16 at the Under the Radar Festival so Monday's encore benefit performance will be the final chance to see this moving and powerful play that Ben Brantley of The New York Times called "truly passionate, truly political theater...Being Harold Pinter isn't just admirable, it has virtues beyond its relevance and bravery."

"Artistic freedom has a new and powerful symbol: the Belarus Free Theater," said Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis. "Their work is passionate, brilliant and immediate; their lives are outspoken and courageous: their theater is fighting for their country, and for all of us. They deserve our unstinting support and solidarity."

"As La MaMa approaches our 50th year it is so clear how important Ellen Stewart's one world vision is and how a company like Belarus Free Theater must be heard," said Mia Yoo, Co-Artistic Director of La MaMa.

Adapted and Directed by Uladzimir Shcherban, BEING Harold Pinter incorporates transcripts from Belarusian political prisoners with excerpts from Harold Pinter's lifetime of writings. Creating visually striking images with simple means and underscoring the fierceness of Pinter's words with the intense physicality of the actors, BEING Harold Pinter blurs the boundaries between art and reality, delivering a poignant contemporary commentary on violence, oppression, freedom and human dignity.

BELARUS FREE THEATER (BFT) was founded in 2005 by Natalia Kaliada along with her husband, Nikolai Khalezin, who is the company's General Director and Producer. The cast of BEING Harold Pinter features Pavel Garadnitski, Irene Iarochevitch, Mikalai Khalezin, Yana Rusakevich, Aleh Sidorchyk, Dzianis Tarasenka, and Maryna Yurevich.

ULADZIMIR SHCHERBAN (Director) has produced 11 performances with Belarus Free Theater that have toured 20 countries on four continents. His work has received great reviews in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, Newsweek and many other international media. In February of 2008 in London, together with actors of Belarus Free Theater, notable British artists performed Being Harold Pinter including Alan Rickman, Kim Cattrall, Richard Wilson, Diana Quick, Henry Goodman, Tobiaz Menzies, Jocelyn Gee and Andrea Riseborough. In 2008 together with Mikalai Khalezin and Natalia Kaliada, Shcherban founded Fortinbras - the only underground Arts School in Belarus. He has taught at the European Humanities University, Lithuania, DasArts School, Netherlands; at the California Institute of the Arts, USA; and Chantier Nomades in co-operation with ENSATT, Lyon, France. Shcherban graduated from the Belarusian State Academy of Arts specializing in Drama Direction under the tutelage of Boris Vtorov's. He joined Belarus Free Theater in 2005 - a month after its opening- and staged the company's first performance - 4.48. Psychosis by Sarah Kane. Shcherban was dismissed from the National Dramaturgical Theatre named after YankaKupala for cooperation with Belarus Free Theater. Various performances by Shcherban around Belarus were cancelled and he has been arrested for his professional activities.

In addition to the benefit performance at The Public Theater on Monday, January 17, several other events coordinated in conjunction with Global Artistic Campaign in Solidarity "Free Belarus" will be taking place next week to show support for the courageous Belarus Free Theater.

On Monday, January 17 at 7:30 PM in Washington, DC, there will be a stage reading of BEING Harold Pinter at Theater J as a part of the Global Artistic Campaign in Solidarity "Free Belarus," an initiative started by Belarus Free Theater and endorsed by playwrights Tom Stoppard and Vaclav Havel, as well as notables Ian McClellan, Jude Law, and others. The reading will be done by local DC actors, not the Belarus Company, and will include a talkback following the reading.

On Wednesday, January 19 at 12 PM., The Public Theater, in partnership with Amnesty International USA, will hold a peaceful public demonstration at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Belarus to the United Nations (136 East 67th Street). The demonstration will invite theater artists in New York City to join in solidarity with the persecuted Belarus artists and activists. The peaceful protestors will speak out against the arrests that followed the disputed elections in Belarus on December 19th, 2010 and call for an end to the government's repressive actions against free speech and expression. For more information, visit www.amnestyusa.org/eventcenter.

At Le Poisson Rouge on Wednesday, January 19 at 7:00 PM, the Belarus Free Theater will join Tom Stoppard, PEN American Center, and a stellar supporting cast for an evening celebrating artistic freedom and the courage of hundreds of writers, artists, journalists, and intellectuals targeted in Lukashenko's latest crackdown. Stoppard, Don DeLillo, and other surprise guests will come together for this benefit evening featuring literature, music, and cocktail conversation about the power of art and the future of Belarus. All proceeds benefit the Belarus Free Theater. For more information, visit www.lepoissonrouge.com/events.

Tickets to The Public Theater's one-night-only benefit performance of BEING Harold Pinter at The Public Theater (425 Lafayette Street) are $500 (include prime seating location, a backstage visit, and a post-show reception), $100 (include a post-show reception), and $50 and are on sale now at (212) 967-7555 or www.publictheater.org. All proceeds benefit the Belarus Free Theater.

 

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