Refugee camp, Varazdin, Croatia

With a grant from Artslink, collaborator Sonja Kuftinec and I traveled to a refugee camp in Croatia during the war and spent a month creating an original theater piece with Bosnian Muslim refugees. Working primarily with teenagers, we conducted workshops in movement, theater, writing and song to generate material that we eventually wove into the fabric of performance. The piece did not aim to recount events or broadcast personal tragedy. Since the audience consisted of refugees in the camp who shared a common horror, that was unnecessary, might even have been detrimental to the participants, and would probably have resulted in—as is the case in many such dramas—poor theater. Instead, it was a reflection, not a reenactment, and was able to rise to a level of abstraction, metaphor and detail. The content was nonetheless emotionally challenging, with participants facing a past forever lost to them, a present of hardship and a future of uncertainty.

The response to the piece was overwhelming. Camp residents said they found it moving, inspiring, cathartic. Participants found that it strengthened their connection to each other and their belief in the future. And many reported surprise and gratitude that something so beautiful could come out of an environment so bleak.

DIRECTED by Sabrina Peck and Sonja Kuftinec | WITH: Ajla, Amir, Amra, Bojan, Deniza, Edina, Edo, Heike, Jasna, Marko, Mirna, Renata, Rikky, Samir, Sanimir, Sanila, and Sadika | MUSIC by Goran and Amra (percussion and song); Edo (accordion)