DAH Teatar to Offer Free Workshop Performance at Georgetown, 3/30

The Georgetown University Theater & Performance Studies Program presents for one-night only Belgrade-based DAH (meaning "breath") Teatar, known for its acutely personal yet profoundly political performances. The Monday, March 30, 2015 workshop performance at 8 p.m. of their duet piece "The Quivering of the Rose," excerpted from a larger ensemble work called The Presence of Absence, gives voice to the pain and constant presence of absence endured by families of the missing - those lost to ethnic and political conflict, crime and misfortune, and to the unknown and undefined. Drawing on the stories of the missing in DAH's native Serbia and around the world, the work frames the language of loss in a global context. The workshop of "The Quivering of the Rose" is free, but ticketed, and will be held in the Davis Performing Arts Center's Devine Studio Theatre.

Founded in 1991, the experimental professional troupe DAH Teatar has been praised by the New York Times for the "poignant intensity" of its work opposing war and violence. This performance marks the company's return to Georgetown's Davis Performing Arts Center, following a powerful 2010 residency of workshops, as well as performances of works including "The Story of Tea" and "Crossing the Line."

"The Quivering of the Rose" was conceived by and features DAH Teatar co-founder Dijana Miloševi? with actress Maja Miti?, set design by Neša Paripovi?, costumes by DAH Theatre and Marija Markovi?, and soundscape by Jugoslav Hadži?. In a post as part of the 2014 TCG National Conference: Crossing Borders {Art | People} blog salon, Miloševi? says, "Listening to the accounts of those incredibly brave women from Bosnia, Serbia or Kosovo who have lost loved ones in their families, I realized that their lives are inhabited with a constant presence. The presence of absence; the presence of the absent ones." Of the significance of the rose, she notes, "Roses were carried by mothers from Plaza del Mayo in Argentina, in their ongoing circling, searching for the truth about their missing. The Saturday mothers from Turkey carried roses.... Hundreds of roses were carried by families of the disappeared from Duli?i, Bosnia, who left them on the sites of the concentration camps.... Also the families of kidnapped Serbs from Kosovo carry roses when they mark the anniversary of their disappearance."

DAH has a close relationship to several Georgetown faculty members' research and trajectories. "We are so honored to be welcoming the visionary DAH Teatar and their Dijana Milosevic back to campus yet again. Their work has been a continued inspiration to us here at Georgetown in its unique blend of political urgency, courage and extraordinarily beautiful artistry, and we are thrilled to be continuing to deepen this long-term collaboration," says Davis Center Artistic Director, Professor Derek Goldman. Goldman, co-founder of the Laboratory in Global Performance and Politics, is close friends with DAH, and in addition to teaching their works, his research profile is prominently tied - as artist and public intellectual - to issues of memory and witness; Assistant Professor Christine Evans, an Australian Playwright, collaborated with DAH as performer prior to moving to the US; Maya Roth, the Della Rosa Distinguished Professor of Theater, wrote the Preface for the forthcoming "Theater of War and Exile," by Domnica Radulescu, which features DAH's work as a primary case study (McFarland Press).

For tickets or information, visit performingarts.georgetown.edu or call 202-687-ARTS (2787) Monday through Friday, 3-6 p.m. Georgetown University's main campus is located at 3700 O St. NW, in Washington, D.C.

This performance is part of the Georgetown University/Arena Stage/Ammerman Family Partnership, which promotes Georgetown's cross-fertilization with prominent trends and significant artists in professional theater.

Dijana Milosevic is an award winning theatre director, writer and lecturer. She co-founded DAH Theatre Research Center in Belgrade, Serbia and has been its leading director for more than twenty years. She has developed an extended theatrical network throughout her work. She was a program director for theatre festivals: Art saves life and Festival of New and Alternative Theatre, Novi Sad, Serbia, and she was the president of the Association of the Independent Theatres, the first one in former Yugoslavia Region. She is a board member of national ITI (International Theatre Institute) and president of the board of BITEF Theatre, Belgrade.

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