28/07/2023
On July 28, 2023, starting at 7:30 p.m., a meeting was held with representatives of ATO - Center for Contemporary Culture and Art from Bitola in the premises of "Mobility Bitola". The reason for the meeting was the new theater play that is being prepared by the ATO-Center, which will treat the life experiences and challenges of marginalized groups of citizens and their daily problems in our society, expressed through a theatrical play. Namely, ATO - Center achieved significant success with the play "Are you Crazy?", where the actors portrayed the life of the deaf community in our country, also encouraging the institutions, among other things, to finally standardize the Macedonian sign language. This play, also the first in Macedonian sign language in our country, was played in several cities, and was watched by representatives of relevant ministries and institutions, as well as the President of the country, Stevo Pendarovski. Encouraged by the success of "Are You Crazy?", director and founder of ATO - Center Jovan Ristovski and playwright Vesna Kusleska are preparing a play that will show the problems of other marginalized groups of our fellow citizens, including the people with physical disabilities. The preparation for this documentary type of theater takes place with face-to-face conversations with the target groups, gathering data from their life experiences, and based on them, the script and the stories they will tell in the play will be created. During the almost three-hour meeting, the members of "Mobility Bitola" from Bitola, from Demir Hisar and from Resen, shared personal stories from their everyday lives. From early childhood, school days, access to higher education, employment and workplace experiences, healthcare, to the discrimination they face almost everywhere they go. Such stories told in the context of a theatrical performance have the potential to affect the audience in a different way, showing the characters in a complex, human dimension.
