CURRENT REPERTOIRE:

“Let's go to Berlin”

Social issue: Human trafficking
Target audience: teenage girls, 14-17 years of age 

A trafficker and his female accomplice who promise a great job and better life overseas to young Russian girl, are featured in “Let's go to Berlin .”

This production focuses on human trafficking — a global human rights crisis which affects hundreds of thousands of women and children. In Russia each year, thousands of young girls and women are lured by traffickers using newspaper ads, friends, and even legitimate businesses as fronts that promise high-paying jobs with little or no experience. Too often, those who become victimized are forced into prostitution and/or sold into debt bondage. Germany , the Netherlands and other European countries are the main trafficking destinations — but Russian women are trapped in many other countries as well. This play explores how a typical victim — a young girl looking for the bright lights and easy life in the West — responds to the promises of a better life overseas. The production is deceptively light-hearted — full of music and dance — but the underlying theme is menacing danger. A trafficker and his attractive female accomplice offer to take the young girl to Berlin and although she first is unsure, because she is so captivated with their promises, she agrees. This play shows teenage high school girls the lure and the risks of accepting such offers — but does not show what happens when the trio arrives in Berlin. Does she find a better life? Is she forced into prostitution? The after-play discussion and the anti-trafficking brochure that is given to each student makes it clear that before making any decision to work abroad, women need to get the facts before getting hooked.

”The Enemy Within”

Social issue: prejudice, racism, inter-ethnic violence
Target audience: senior high school students

Sveta, an orphan,together with Ruslan, an Azerbaijan refugee in “The Enemy Within.”

Hate crimes, inter-ethnic violence, ultra-nationalism, prejudice and xenophobia are on the rise in Russia and around the world, and teenagers need to know and understand how such intolerance undermines their future and the future of Russia . The play focuses on four different characters, each of whom suffers intolerance because of how they are perceived by society — a refugee, an orphan, a disabled person and an HIV-positive person. Unlike the light-hearted look and feel of “Let's go to Berlin," this production is darkly serious and is intended only for mature senior high school students. The after-play discussion includes a sophisticated Overcoming Intolerance brochure that traces the roots of intolerance and what each individual

student can do about it. The brochure also includes photos and stories about local people who are part of the marginalized groups represented in the production.

“You Have a Choice”

Social issue: xenophobia and intolerance towards people with HIV/AIDS
Target audience: senior high school students

Valera and Afsona bond over the difficulties they each face navigating an intolerant society.

This play is focused on refugees and people living with HIV/AIDS.  Russia now has one of the highest incidences of HIV/AIDS in the world, estimated to be between 700,000 and 2 million.  Intolerance against migrants and refugees is also an explosive issue in Russia.

This production continues the storyline and characters from "Enemy Within," and follows the life of an HIV-positive teenager, his friendship with an Azeri refugee girl, and their struggle to overcome intolerance from society, their friends, and their families.

After the performance, senior high school students and teachers fill out questionnairs about topics raised during the play, their knowledge of these problems, and their attitudes towards them.

”Through the Prism”

Social issue: revealing the inner world of orphans and the disabled
Target audience: senior high school students

"Through the Prism" is the current Theatre for a Change production.  "Through the Prism" focuses on the inner lives of orphans and people living with disabilities.  There are currently more than 700,000 orphans living in Russian institutions and every year more than 1 million people are given disabled status by the Russian government.

Two marginalized groups are brought together in "Through the Prism."

This new play dramatizes the isolated inner world of a disabled teenage girl and her best friend, a boy growing up in an orphanage.  It gives the audience a chance to peer into the minds and imaginations of these two marginalized groups by bringing them "Through the Prism" so that we can clearly see their problems, worries, and feelings, all of which are usually invisible to the outside world.

Teachers are given a set of follow-up activities to continue working on tolerance issues in their classes and a copy of the 2003 Booker Prize-winning book "White on Black," about the childhood of the author, who is disabled and grew up in an orphanage.

Post-performance questionnaires provide important information about how students think and feel about the social issues involved in the performance, and also serve as an evaluation of the production itself. 

Theatre for a Change not only performs in educational institutions, but plays an active role in the development of civil society in the Volga Federal District.  Theater for a Change participates in conferences and roundtables and organizes community events in collaboration with partner NGOs and student volunteers.

On November 16, 2005 Theatre for a Change organized "Tolerance Day" in primary and secondary schools in NIzhny Novgorod and Saratov; an event aimed at creating tolerance among children from all regional ethnic groups.  Included in the program were ethnic games, a national cuisine competition, and poster and essay contests.

"Colors if Nizhny Novgorod" and "Graffiti of Nizhny Novgorod" were two popular events that brought more than 150 volunteers to the streets to paint over hate signs and other graffiti that has littered the city of Nizhny Novgorod for years.  A tolerance wall was created by painting over graffiti along the main central walking street of the city.  Instead of messages of hate, the wall now displays colorful fairy tales designed and painted by children from orphanage #2 and the School of Arts.

Commissioned projects: Theatre for a Change has also been commissioned to produce a series of anti-trafficking TV and radio commercials, which aired throughout six regions of Russia as part of Russia 's most extensive anti-trafficking public education campaign. The TV spots featured a female fish, bored with her life swimming in the same dull pool, who is hooked and caught by a trafficker/fisherman using the promise of a glamorous life overseas as “bait”.