How to tell of war, how to recount fleeing – and how can that be done while still under the immediate impression of the events? This is the question writers have been confronted with in light of the onset of violence in all epochs. Now it is being posed with urgency once again. Especially by those who have had to flee from the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine and who are seeking exile in large numbers in Berlin.

In the While History Writes Itself writing workshop, held from January to November 2023, playwrights are invited to search for theatrical forms of expressing their stories and to address the questions mentioned above, under the direction of Sasha Marianna Salzmann and Anastasiia Kosodii, as well as in exchange with experts. The participants are from Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia and Croatia. The resulting texts will be presented in workshop performances in the Gorki’s Studio Я staged by directors from zones of war and conflict. In addition, there will be a newcomer platform especially for young Ukrainians in exile in Berlin, some of whom have no writing experience yet, but want to make their experiences tangible.

With support from the German Federal Cultural Foundation