Performance and Q&A: Tuesday, January 23 | 4:30pm-6pm | Woods Theatre
Theater of Cultural Resistance Workshop: Wednesday, January 24, 11:40am-1pm | Pollak Theatre
Registration is encouraged.
I need a street
Empty of bloodstains,
A street that has never seen
Or known terror.
Let it be flawless, let it be flawless, flawless
Like the sex of these girls that are killed unjustly
Let it be long, let it be long, long,
Like their agony.
Kajal Ahmad
In March of 1988 in Halabja, Iraq, Saddam Hussein’s regime attacked Kurdish peoples through the use of chemical weapons, as part of the Anfal ethnic cleansing campaign. Set in a carpet store at this time, I will dance with those oak trees as long as takes us on a poetic voyage into the life of three Kurdish women, inspired by the poetry of Kajal Ahmad and the characters Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and Ninsun from the world’s most ancient epic poem: Gilgamesh. Carpets, chairs, and strings create the environment in which two actresses interpret the three different women and how they react to a violent and unstable outside world. Accompanied by soundscapes inspired by traditional Kurdish music, this international duo uses objects, puppets, and a multilayered world of reality, dreams, memories, and visions to explore the question of what it means to be a hero when you have no other choice.
Performed by: Audrey Rose Dégez, Daria Holovchanska
Producer, Playwright, & Director: Audrey Rose Dégez
Puppet Master, Lighting & Sound Designer, Movement & Object Director: Daria Holovchanska
Stage Manager: Berivan Alothman
Produced by:CP4P International Productions
DARIA HOLOVCHANSKA
Daria was studying at the Kharkiv National University of Art (Ukraine) until the war began on February 24th, 2022, when she transferred to Aleksandr Zelverovich Theater Academy in Warsaw (Poland) to finish her Master Degree in Puppetry. Daria previously worked at Kharkiv National Academic Puppet Theater, performed in “Fairy tale for a little rabbit” (rabbit Sister, Hedgehog), “Princes spec” (Queen Isabelle), “Magical ring” (Angel), and ”Mother Courage and her Children” (Katrin), directed by Oksana Dmitrieva. Daria is one of the founders and actresses of TERRA Theater Company (performances “Peace to your home”, “Our City”, “Night Call”). She also took part in Slovo.Theater group, where she was a co-director, actress, lighting designer and mask maker of the performance “Mothermotherland”. Recently she performed in one of the biggest puppet festivals in the world in Charleville-Mézières 2023. She is interested in movement theater, objects, materials, puppets, stop-motion animation and masks.
AUDREY ROSE DÉGEZ
Audrey Rose Dégez is a producer, director, playwright (Our Common Thread (2015), Empathize Me (2016), 7×7 (2017), Mothermotherland (2022)), actress, mother, and wife from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA) and based in Paris (France). She received a BA in English Literature from Rutgers University and a professional acting diploma from l’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris. During her undergraduate studies, she founded the post apocalyptic punk group The Wichts, as well as ran the sober basement show house The Blueberry Shire, which was featured in the short documentary, Safe Space. Scheduled to write a play at Residency Slovo in Kharkiv, Ukraine in September/October of 2022 as the first international resident in Slovo Building, she made the decision to found Slovo. Theater Group after the invasion of February 24th. For the last 10 years, shen has been developing CP4P International Productions through poetry and theatre workshops around the world. She has lived in Berlin and Paris, where she has created theatrical performances in English with children and volunteered with Syrian and Ukrainian refugee communities abroad. In her spare time, she is passionate about making incredible vegan cookies with her daughter, Lili Maritchka and her husband, Louis.
For more information or to find ways to support this project follow: https://colabarts.breezechms.com/form/2023cp4p
Co-sponsored by the Program in Gender and Intersectionality Studies (PGIS): Program in Gender and Intersectionality Studies | Monmouth University
For more information about the event or to rsvp to the performance workshop contact Prof. Stojanov and Dr. Shoemaker astojano@monmouth.edu or dshoemak@monmouth.edu.