Name of the organization/initiative and year of foundation

The “Theatre for Dialogue” initiative was established in 2014. In 2015, it was registered as an NGO.

Mission

The Theater’s mission is to contribute to social and economic equity and combat discrimination in our society, build a culture of dialogue, and contribute to reconciliation and overcome the negative effects of the military conflict in Ukraine. All of this contributes to the achievement of the Theater’s primary goal – humanizing Humanity.

Actions and projects in the context of armed conflict

One of the primary forms of activity is participatory theater, based on the “Theater of the Oppressed” – a system of exercises, games, and techniques that work with the body, feelings, and personal experiences of participants to create opportunities for dialogue, critical reflection on social reality and active search for solutions to social problems. While working with communities, different formats of the theater are used – forum-theater (work on inequality and dialogue in the community), legislative theater (work on analysis and amendments to legislation), theater of images (creative understanding of community problems), a rainbow of desires (work on internal oppression and internalized conflicts). In addition, other creative methods such as collages, storytelling, and the method of nonviolent communication and elements of feminist pedagogy were utilized during the group work.

From 2015 to 2020, the Theater for Dialogue was actively working on peacebuilding and public involvement in social processes to overcome the consequences of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine. A separate organization’s vector is dedicated to building an inclusive society by strengthening the voices of less represented groups (people with disabilities, the LGBT community, internally displaced persons, youth) and ensuring gender equality. Among the projects which were implemented during this period are the following: “We Live Together. Community Dialogue on the Issues of Internally Displaced Persons in Kyiv” (2015); “Trust and Dialogue as a Pledge of Community Development” (Kyiv Region, 2015); “Through Dialogue to Equality in Suffrage”; “Promoting Peace through Dialogue in the Language of Theater (Eastern and Central Regions of Ukraine, 2016); the advocacy initiative “One of Us” designed to strengthen the voice of women in promoting the agenda “Women, Peace, Security” (2018-2019); “Strengthening the Capacity of Civil Society for Nonviolent Transformation of Conflicts in Local Communities” aimed at working with young people in eastern Ukraine (2018-2019).