Staging the Stans (Chicago, IL)
12jul(jul 12)7:30 pm15(jul 15)9:00 pm
Event Details
Staging the Stans Festival—Staging the Stans is a festival of staged readings of plays by Central Asian and Eurasian playwrights curated in collaboration with Kazakh playwright Olzhas Zhanaydarov and Russian playwright Evgeny Kazachkov, and featuring Zhanaydarov’s new work, The Store.
Per the plays featured in the festival, the “Stans” refer to the nation-states, and former Soviet Republics, of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and the Autonomous Republic of Tartarstan in Russia.
Uzbek
by Talgat Batalov and Yekaterina Bondarenko
Translated by John Freedman
Directed by Sami Ismat
Friday, July 12 at 7:00PM and Saturday, July 13 at 3:00PM
In Talgot Batalov’s Uzbek, the tales of Central Asian immigrants become fodder for a stand-up comedy routine. The ironies, dangers, paradoxes, and absurdities of moving from one culture to another are satirized in this intrepid tribute to human resilience. Uzbek avoids cliches and partisanship, insisting instead that everything cuts two ways.
The Store
by Olzhas Zhanaydarov
Translated by John Freedman
Directed by Jeremy Aluma
Saturday, July 13 at 7:00PM and Sunday, July 14 at 3:00PM
Based on real events, Olzhas Zhanaydarov’s The Store exposes the brutal torment of a Kazakh migrant working in Moscow. Public indifference and a corrupt police force silence young victims lured from their homeland by a Kazakh trafficker. Promises of money, citizenship, and family reunification set the stage for a life of indentured servitude and abuse, a reality rationalized by religious interpretations of master and slave.
The Izmailovo Studio
by Emilia Kazumova and Zarema Zautdinova
Translated by Graham Schmidt
Directed by Adrianne Cury
Sunday, July 14 at 7:00PM and Monday, July 15 at 7:00PM
Fleeing domestic violence, rape, and deception, three women find refuge in a squalid apartment in the Izmailovo district of Moscow. Based on the personal life of playwright Emilia Kazumova and anecdotal stories that she collected, The Izmailovo Studio explores the pursuit of personal dignity against patriarchal torment.
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Organizer
Silk Road Cultural Center
Silk Road Cultural Center is an interdisciplinary arts organization rooted in Pan-Asian*, North African, and Muslim experiences. We embrace the arts as a catalyst for connecting people, places, histories, and futures.
*We define Pan-Asian as inclusive of all cultures that span the Asian continent, including their diaspora communities.
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