Maria Drăghici and Bogdan Georgescu will carry ‘The Generosity Offensive’ to
ACTING TOGETHER ON THE WORLD STAGE: A Conference on Theatre and Peace Building in Conflict Zones


Theatre Without Borders, presented by La MaMa ETC and in affiliation with Brandeis University, announces ‘Acting Together on the World Stage: A Conference on Theatre and Peace Building in Conflict Zones,’ September 23-26, 2010 in New York City. This conference brings together theatre and performance practitioners from around the world to share their experiences with artists, activists, educators, policy makers, and the general public.

‘Acting Together on the World Stage’ grows out of a five-year initiative of Theatre Without Borders (TWB) and Brandeis University. During this time, the members of Theatre Without Borders – a grassroots, volunteer, virtual community of individual theatre artists around the world who are committed to international exchange – have attended gatherings and explored, with the guidance of peace-building scholar/practitioners, a range of questions about the relationship between the arts and conflict transformation. ‘Acting Together on the World Stage’ will begin a year of programming to disseminate the documentation of artists working in conflict-zones worldwide.

For this kick-off conference, artists will be arriving from and/or representing more than 25 countries, from Argentina, Belarus, Burma, and Cambodia, to Peru, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Uganda, United States, and Zimbabwe. Conference highlights include performances, workshops and roundtable discussions, as well as a Burmese Art Exhibit. At the conference, TWB and Brandeis will also launch a documentary film and a website and plans for an upcoming anthology. 

From 25 represented countries, the conference has also invited Romanian theatre professionals Maria Drăghici, and Bogdan Georgescu to present the experience of two unique initiatives of art in community development in Bucharest: The Generosity Offensive and laBOMBA. On Saturday, September 25, at 2 pm, they will join Dale Byam (Brooklyn College, Theatre for Development in Africa, USA), Zane Lucas (Theory X Media, Zimbabwe), and Adalet Garmiany (ArtRole Iraq-US Exchanges, Iraq), for a panel on “Rebuilding Society after Conflict” moderated by Deborah Asiimwe (Uganda).

The conference is organized with support from 651 ARTS/Africa Exchange, Brandeis University, Fordham University, The Public Theater, and the Romanian Cultural Institute of New York, and in Association with: 7 Stages, Atlanta, Brown University, CUNY/Creative Arts Team, Immigrants Theatre Project, The Lark Play Development Center, The League of Professional Theater Women/International Committee, New York Theatre Workshop, New York University, TCG - ITI/US Center.


The Generosity Offensive Initiative (Ofensiva Generozităţii) has as its goal the development and implementation of ActiveArt, a concept that embraces a local formula for community art, the recuperation of the social function of art, and the facilitation of free access to culture for all. Between 2006 and 2010, this initiative brought together communities, volunteers, artists, nongovernment organizations, public institutions and private investors. The working formula is as follows: Work with a community; Document and archive; Share (creative educational workshops); The artistic product is only a consequence of the first three steps (active-creative / community creation). In the creative workshops, the documented reality is fictionalized in the final process of creating the performance. This way, a safe negotiation area is created, a process in which the consequences of the common experience are generated, without boundaries between audience and performance, and always on a positive platform. This year Ofensiva Generozităţii was awarded the Great Expectations award by the International Association of Theatre Critics. ofensivagenerozitatii.blogspot.com. 

laBOMBA is a multi-cultural center that supports all forms of artistic creation by young professional or amateur artists who work with and for the Rahova-Uranus community, a mostly Roma area of Bucharest currently undergoing gentrification. Through concerts, exhibitions, public readings, theatre plays, video projections and debates, laBOMBA mediates the acceptance of multicultural self-representation. The center encourages self-organization through volunteer practices, community self-representation and active local citizenship. Representatives of the center also participate regularly in local and international events and conferences on sustainable development. labombastudios.ro. labombastudios.blogdpot.com.