Where is East?

Premiere 27th of October 2015 at the Theatre of Displaced People in Kiew.

01th and 2nd of April 2016 premiere in Germany at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin.

Founded by "Szenenwechsel" by the International Theatreinstitute (ITI) and Robert Bosch Foundation.

First presentations of the project was at the Gogelfest at DAKH Theatre in Kiew at the 24th and 25th of September 2015.

Authors Natalia Vorozhbyt, Georg Genoux and Maryna Vroda.
Film: Lizza Smith, Krysristina Lizogub.

After the hostilities in the east of Ukraine about 1.5 million people had to leave their home, their homeland, their center of life. They had to leave their friends, relatives, often children and parents were separetaed. The conflict in the east of Ukraine not only has entailed the death of 6,000 people (officially), but also has destroyed the lives and existence of one and a half million people.

Only some of them have been able in the new circumstances to start building of a new life. A story of most of them is a story of pain and at the same time, the story of their hopes and sometimes indestructible will and building a new life in the new circumstances. The loss of home and looking for a new one here are in the heart of lives of these people. Each particular figure of this 1.5 million is not just a number/ It is a personal story of one man. This project aims to ensure that this big number - 1.5 million on - got a human face, to make people in Ukraine, in Europe and in Russia understand what, in fact, stands behind this number.

Therefore, the author's project team in the coming one and a half year (2015/2016) is going to work with displaced and to present once a month in Kiev their stories in the form of theatrical performances. Not only texts will be developed together with displaced, they will also be represented by them. Thus, they become ambassadors of their own biographies, because they reflect the life in their stories and share their feelings about which they do not have to pretend, as on stages, they face their reality again.

They do not copy reality, they create and organize it here and now. Also we develop the projects home page, as a "map of displaysed", which with their texts, photographs and documentaries presents the stories of these people. The home page will be developed in several languages. But the purpose of this theater project is not only to inform people about the fate of these one and a half million people, but, first and foremost, to provide therapeutic support. The project supports the people helping to share their experiences and, thus, better to deal with it.


"Art is a therapy and it is the most important thing in it" (Joseph Beuys).