Photo ©Ingo Höhn
I was invited to partake in the project “Schatzi, a je mirë?” which translates to “Sweetie, are you ok?” by Luzerne, Switzerland-based theater director Nina Halpern and dramaturg Selina Beghetto with whom I co-wrote the play. This devised play was developed during workshops held in Luzerne and Gjilan in Kosova with youth from VorAlpentheater Luzern and high-school students of Don Bosko gymnasium in Gjilan, and it premiered both in Gjilan and Luzern. “Sweetie, are you ok?” tells the story of two young people, Lumturije from Gjilan and Hans from Lucerne, who are looking for something that is different from what they have in their everyday lives, goals that help them appreciate a culture different from their own and re-evaluate the culture from which they come.
Photo ©Ingo Höhn
Below is a writing by Selina Beghetto explaining the artistic process in the making of this performance.
VorAlpentheater Luzern X Don Bosko School Gjilan, Spring 2017
“Schatzi, ai je mirë?” is the second part of the intercultural project “Ich bin Lumturia”, a two-year collaboration between the Swiss theater institution VorAlpentheater Luzern and the Don Bosko School in Gjilan, Kosovo. The whole project started back in 2015 when director Nina Halpern was involved in an exchange with the city theater of Gjilan and got to know the local artists in Kosovo. This encounter gave rise to the desire to continue this connection and start thinking of possible ways to cooperate. Back then, Nina was leading the youth club of the VorAlpentheater Luzern, a small theater institution which is mainly focusing on theater education. Together with dramaturge Selina Beghetto she started to create an idea of how to set up an exchange for teenagers and young adults from Switzerland and Kosovo. The project “Ich bin Lumturia”, meaning “I am Lumturia” was born. In 2015/16 Selina and Nina traveled several times to Gjilan and managed to establish a valuable partnership with the local Don Bosko School. In the following months, Nina and Selina spent many days in Gjilan, giving theater workshops to the school kids there and working parallel back home with their theater group “actNow”, one of the youth clubs at VorAlpentheater Luzern. The topic they chose for this intercultural project and for the stage play was “Lumturia”, happiness. After many workshops over several months in Switzerland and Kosovo, the Swiss group traveled to Gjilan for one week. At the end of this intensive training, the kids celebrated their first premiere of a self-developed piece on stage of the Don Bosko School.
Back in Switzerland, Nina and Selina felt the wish of a closer exchange with the Kosovar students. It was nice to come and visit but in the end only the Swiss group traveled to Gjilan. The goal of the second part of the project was to also bring the Don Bosko people to Switzerland and to deepen the artistic research with the help of an Kosovar Albanian author. While the first play was mainly in Swiss German and English, for Nina and Selina it was crucial to add the Albanian language. With Fjolla Hoxha they found a local author with a broad theater experience which was a stroke of luck. Together they started working on the next self-developed play called “Schatzi, ai je mirë?” an autobiographical piece that was created together with all kids involved and which based on their experiences of this exchange. The structure of the project remained the same: Nina and Selina visited Gjilan a few times, gave workshops for the local students but this time they had great support from Fjolla who could translate and build a valuable bridge between the Swiss and the Kosovar team. The highlight of the second year were of course the performances: This time both in Luzern and Gjilan, using the three language Swiss German, English and Albanian as well as all kids – means that no only “actNow” returned to Kosovo but also the Don Bosko students visited Switzerland. This exchange made it possible that we could show “Schatzi, ai je mirë?” in both countries with great success.
In the end it was not only about the artistic result. This project allowed some insights in another culture, language and country and established long term friendships between the two groups. To us this was one of the main reasons to start “Ich bin Lumturia”: To create a relationship that lasts and of course a memory for life. If we found our Lumturia, our happiness? Yes, definitely.