In late March, famous Belarusian playwright Andrei Kureichik came to Ohio State. During his time here, he gave two workshops to students taking the New Works Lab and Playwriting courses. During their time with Kureichik, students developed their skills as writers by enhancing their understanding of the relationship between theatre and social reality.

Who is Andrei Kureichik?

Kureichik is a famous playwright, director, and publicist. He wrote the screenplay for Lyubov-Morkov, the highest-grossing Russian-language rom-com in film history. However, Kureichik’s most important piece of art stems from his activism against Belarus’ authoritarian government.

The Belarusian government is led by Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994. Since then, he has strengthened ties with Russia and gained power through Belarus’ constitution. In 2020, Lukashenko was seeking a 6th term. At that time, Kureichik worked as a speechwriter for Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Lukashenko’s political opponent. It appeared that Tsikhanouskaya had some of the public on her side. Due to Lukashenko’s mishandling of Covid-19 and his obvious electoral interference, Belarus had the largest wave of popular demonstrations since the fall of the Soviet Union. Despite this, Lukashenko still won with an overwhelming 80.23% of the votes. Both Tsikhanouskaya and Kureichik were exiled from their home country. However, Kureichik didn’t let this stop him from taking a stand against Lukashenko’s authoritarian regime.

A month into exile, Kureichik published Insulted. Belarus. Based on Kureichik’s real-life experience, the play dramatizes the circumstances surrounding the 2020 elections, including the brave protestors and the violent crackdown by the authorities.

“It is the play that changed my life totally,” said Kureichik. “Life is divided. What is play and afterwards”.

Insulted. Belarus sparked Kureichik’s international career, enabling him to work with professionals across the globe. Despite Kureichik’s success, he still has many obstacles to overcome. He expressed difficulty in restarting his career after being an established playwright back home. Nevertheless, Kureichik remains optimistic, viewing his opportunities abroad as a chance to learn and bring his findings back to Belarus.

“I take it with a kind of dignity and gratefulness,” Kureichik says, explaining many of his colleagues back home are still in prison. “I’m free. I can talk about serious things. I can do theatre. I can teach students. I can write, and the only pain [is] that I cannot be with my friends and relatives yet, but maybe it's a kind of part of an experience which will be very useful later.”

“I was teaching at Yale, University [of] UChicago here, so I can bring something to Minsk and say, I can deliver knowledge which [has] never been here.”

His Work Here at Ohio State

Students in the New Works Lab and Playwriting class were able to learn and grow under Kureichik’s instruction in a variety of ways. In particular, they focused on Kureichik’s specialty— theatre and social change.

“We talked about some of the issues that are currently happening in the United States,” says Godfred Ogoe, a PhD student. “We had to vote and determine which one we would like to write about.” His group decided to write about immigration, ICE, and race.

Ogoe got to witness the elements of a story Kureichik considers when he writes. For example, the use of history.

“I’m a writer that uses history to tell a story, and I found out that Kureichik does the same thing, because he goes back to history and brings it on stage,” Ogoe says. “I realized he tries to attend to the roots of the matter. If he's in his play, he treats matters of race. He tries to go to the roots of race.”

History is important to Kureichik. His opponents may try to create a false narrative, but history remains true and unchanging.

“I try to take real words from people of the time and share that look at the truth, and this truth will be forever. Now you cannot change anything.” Kureichik says. “This is one of the missions, and it's really, really supported by audiences”.

Ogoe was also impressed by Kureichik’s ability to clearly frame his characters. “We spent time reading scripts and discussing how effectively characters came across, as well as how stage directions can support that clarity,” stated Ogoe.  

These aspects of playwriting were used to improve the political narrative regarding ICE, immigration, and race.

“Discussions about character and stage direction often came up in relation to how to make these themes clear and impactful in a script,” said Ogoe.

To Kureichik, well-written characters are crucial to writing about social change. Characters can represent a group and the problems they face, making for a more impactful story.

“Every hero, every character, represents a group, a group of people. And if this representation is made in a talented way, we always feel these kind of connections, because we see other people behind each of [those] heroes… Really good plays usually have these kind of heroes who present millions in their stories,” says Kureichik, while acknowledging that it is not possible to represent all members of a social group.

Those who participated in the workshop also were able to witness how collaboration can allow for a stronger play. Students in the workshops divided themselves into groups, and their joint forces had a more impactful story.

“Under Kureichik, I learned how playwrights of very different backgrounds can come together effectively to create a work of theater that highlights a glaring social issue” notes William DeVito, another PhD student who participated in Kureichik’s workshop “These logistical techniques, such as dividing sections of the plays for each individual of a group to write and incorporating individual stories into the same play, made a massive impact on our resulting project.” Ogoe also highlights how working with his classmates allowed him to view his work from a different perspective, illustrating aspects of the play that he may have been ignoring.

During Kureichik’s stay, students were allowed insight into the mind of a professional who is acclaimed worldwide. Students built up their skillset, refining their ability to create plays that interact with the political conflict in which we reside. And for the reader, Kureichik leaves behind this piece of advice for young activists and protestors:

“Be creative. Try to find new forms and expressions to tell [us] about the right things. I still believe that talent is something that really gives us energy. So if you are in connection with something very talented, beautiful, you have this energy for yourself.”