MERULA theater on stilts is an initiative by a Kosovar-German team, including young Albanians, Gorani and Roma from the Prizren region in southern Kosova. This project operated between 2012-2013. At the core, the project dealt with ambiguous and frictioning ethnic identities among the young people participating in reconciliation workshops. Through learning together the craft of staning on wooden stilts, a theatrical form more popular for circus, the youngsters from groups with embedded prejudices and animosity were transforming their sentiments to appreciation and acceptance towards both the differences as well as the similarities among themselves.
We were particularly interested in highlighting the personal experiences of some of the young participants who were deported from The European Union because their families did not gain legal residency rights. Voicing their stories as well as helping them integrate in their new home and new community was the focal point of this project. Through acquiring skills on how to stand high up on stilts, the participants learned how to rely on each other on equal grounds. A mini documentary about the beginnings of the MERULA initiative and our preparation for the pilot presentation (a year before we got financial support to realize “Searching for Fantomia and the Desolate Mamumian”) can be found on this link: https://vimeo.com/96650350
The stilts training was offered by Munich based Peter Pruchniewitz, an aficionado of stilts from Die Stelzer Theater. https://diestelzer.de/en/about/
The project was initiated by Felix Remter from x-change perspectives, and it included Isen Bobaj from AWO Kosovo and Afrim Ajradini, a medical doctor and trainer in conflict resolution. I was engaged as a playwright, theater trainer and theater director.