Theatre

Media: KTV
Story Title: “Çimka” në dy botë paralele: pasqyrim i së kaluarës, thirrje për reflektim
Date: May 08, 2022
Link: https://www.koha.net/shtojca-kulture/cimka-ne-dy-bote-paralele-pasqyrim-i-se-kaluares-thirrje-per-reflektim

By: Berat Bajrami

Left from “The Bug”, The House of Leaves is a space of two parallel worlds: the Yugoslav regime in Kosovo and that in Albania, which the audience experiences simultaneously. The stories of wiretaps, suffering, and the persecution of thousands of Albanians, victims of these totalitarian regimes, are revived and re-experienced through the performance The Bug, written by Shpëtim Selmani and directed by Zana Hoxha.

Where once the interned, dissidents, and rebels were forced to walk toward the tortures of the totalitarian regime, on the evening of May 1st, the audience in Tirana walked with curiosity through the rooms and spaces staged for The Bug. The experiences of a divided people converge in one place—the National Museum ‘The House of Leaves.’

The audience experiences the unique atmosphere of the performance as soon as the museum doors open. Divided into two groups—either as “leaves” or “bugs”—they begin walking in opposite directions, a slow and hesitant pace, awaiting the scenes that will unfold.

Adapted from “The Bug,” the House with Leaves is a space of two parallel worlds: the Yugoslav regime in Kosovo and the one in Albania, which the audience experiences simultaneously.

The stories of surveillance, suffering, and persecution of thousands of Albanians, victims of these totalitarian regimes, are revived and reinterpreted through the play The Bug, written by Shpëtim Selmani and directed by Zana Hoxha. The play has had three reruns (May 4, 5, 6, 2022). These stories serve as a mirror of the past, to reflect, and to learn from them.

The surveillance, tortures, terror, and oppression of a people, divided into two states, are masterfully brought to life through the two protagonists: Dervish Shaqa and Musine Kokalari, portrayed by Mikel Markaj and Xhulia Musagalliu, respectively.

In these two personalities, the director Zana Hoxha has seen the rebellion against the respective regimes, as figures who first and foremost – loved freedom.

“I consider that both of them are rebels, and that they did not compromise their art. Dervishi did not compromise his art and used music to convey messages both in Kosovo and Albania. On the other hand, Musine, the emblem of her time, a dissident, did not undermine her dignity despite all the difficulties, punishments, deportations, and harsh living conditions,” says Hoxha.

As the scenes change, the audience, immersed in the space, hurries to witness the next scenes. They move from the narrow corridors of the museum to the outer spaces, also encountering the anxiety experienced by the Albanian people for a long period. This is highlighted through the tableau of Edison Gjergos, a painter who was a victim of the totalitarian regime in Albania. The anxiety intensifies as the characters fail to find a suitable space to hide his painting. He and his art, like hundreds of other artists, endured the iron fist of the totalitarian regime.

However, the dreams, the love for freedom and life, the song and the dance, culminate in the meeting of Dervishi and Musine, victims of regimes on both sides of the border. Characters who continue to inspire for life even today. Scenes like these evoke a feeling that is both strange and unusual. They provoke thoughts and reflections on the experiences of these personalities and many others.

“The truth is, here fear and terror prevail. But who has the courage to say no? Who? No one! Yet within my heart, dreams reign. I know that if not me, those who come after me will dance, will take steps as they wish. No oppressive regime will ever be able to trap the human need for free will,” says the character of Musine Kokalari, and this serves as the closing message of the performance.

This performance also stands as a unique collaboration between artists from Kosovo and Albania. The co-production of “Artpolis” and the Experimental Theatre “Kujtim Spahivogli” has brought together six actors from Albania and two from Kosovo: Lulzim Zeqja, Loredana Gjeçi, Myzafer Zifla, Xhulia Musagalliu, Mikel Markaj, Edlir Gashi, Urim Aliaj, and Altea Dulellari.

The public will have the chance to experience this performance, created specifically for “The House of Leaves”, for a few more days: Besides Saturday night, also on May 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15.

01.05.2022

“ÇIMKA” (The Bug) reflecting on the past of the Albanian people and a call to reflect.

On May 1st, 2022, the public had an opportunity to experience special emotions, at the premiere of the performance “ÇIMKA” (The Bug), authored by Shpetim Selmani under direction of Zana Hoxha.

Resurected at the “ House of Leaves”, where not long ago many peronalities and ordinary citizens were bugged “ÇIMKA” (The Bug) comes as a reflection on the past of the Albanian people and a call to reflect and learn from it.

The public as a “leaf” or a “bug” experienced two worlds in parallel, the dictatorship in Albania and the Yugoslav regime in Kosova.
The taping stories, tortures, terror, the oppression of thousands of souls comes alive between two Protagonists, dervish Shaqa and Musine Kokalari.

The protagonists of the play “ÇIMKA” ( The Bug) for the Director Zana Hoxha represents the symbol of resistence in different ways: “ A troubadour, surviving through his songs, and the other a dissident artist who gave her life without losing her integrity”.

The scenes change. The public moves from the tight spaces of the museum into the open space outside, to be introduced with an anxiety that the Albanian people have experienced for a long time. This is also portayed through the painting of Edison Gjergo, an artist who was a victim of the totalitarian regime in Albania. The anxiety arises when the protagonists cannot find an appropriate space to hide the Gjergos’s painting, that was hit by the irron fist of the censorship.

But, the dreams, and the love of life and freedom, the song and dance climaxes during the meeting between Dervish and Musine, both the victims of the regimes on both sides of the border. The protagonists that inspire us until this day.

The performance closes with a powerful mesage from Musine Kokalari: “ The truth is that here reigns fear, and terror. But who dares to say no, who? Nobody! But inside my heart the dreams reign. I know if it’s not me, those who will come after me will dance, they will take their steps as they please. Not a single oppressive system would be able to throw their net over the needs of a person to practice his free will”.

The Production: National Experimental Theater
“Kujtim Spahivogli” & Qendra Artpolis

Author: Shpetim Selmani
Director: Zana Hoxha

Actors: Lulzim Zeqja, Loredana Gjeçi , Myzafer Zifla, Xhulia Musagalliu, Mikel Markaj, Edlir Gashi, Urim Aliaj, Altea Dulellari

Composer: Liburn Jupolli

Scenography and Costumed: Youliana Voykova – Najman
Director Assistant: Greta Baci & Kevin Rrapaj
Technical Assistant: Elira A Lluka
Choreographer: Valentina Mytevelli

This performance was sponsored by the Ministry of Culture in Albania, “ The House of Leaves” The Office of the President, Kosovo, CFD, and Buçaj Corporation.

📸 Andis Rado

#ZanaHoxha #Artpolis #TeatriKombetarEksperimental #Çimka #theater #documentary #tirana #prishtina #albanianart #muzeugjetheve #albania #kosova #artandcommunity

The evening of October 31, 2021, marked a historic moment for culture in Kosovo, with the inaugural concert of the Kosovo Opera, “Opera Gala,” held at the Sports Hall of the Palace of Youth and Sports in Prishtina. Zana Hoxha was invited by the renowned director Burbuqe Berisha to co-direct this grand project. Unfortunately, just days before the concert, Berisha passed away, unable to witness the fruits of their collaborative efforts.

For Hoxha, the evening was an emotional experience – grief over the loss of her friend and collaborator, Burbuqe Berisha, and pride in their joint commitment, which resulted in an unforgettable spectacle.

“Super proud with the opportunity to become the Director of Opera Gala Concert last night and how this evening surpassed every expectation,” Hoxha shared on social media after the concert.

In an interview with KOHA Group, Hoxha described the process as a unique challenge, as it was her first time directing this kind of event. 

“As we know, we don’t have directors specialized in opera. This is not opera, it’s an inaugural concert for the opera, but it involved a lot of organizational work. Over 200 people worked on this event, and I was one of the people managing all of them. It was a fantastic coordination with the working group established by the Ministry of Culture. As directors, we started the process with the working group to create a venue that, as you know, didn’t exist before, but was made specifically for this concert. We worked on the visual aspects, the video details you saw, the stage design. Everything was work that’s not directed in the usual sense, as in a play or film, but more in the sense of an event, a concert for television,” Hoxha explained to KOHA.

Despite technical challenges, the evening exceeded expectations and marked a major step for opera in Kosovo. “Opera Gala” remains a powerful memory for Zana Hoxha, intertwining the feelings of loss and pride for a shared achievement, proving the power of art to unite.

On June 25, 2021, the stage reading “Games in the Backyard”, directed by Zana Hoxha, was premiered in the City Park in Prishtina.

The resident troupe of the Artpolis Center performed this work by Edna Mazyas in front of an audience with gender, age, and ethnicity diversity, which welcomed the realization of this work and the topics addressed in it.

Edna Mazya through her work brings us the real story of the rape of a girl by four young people in Israel, in the years 1988-91. In addition, “Games in the Backyard” highlights the deep roots of the patriarchal system in state institutions, which only increases the burden of oppression on women.

The activist, Durim Elshani, regarding this topic said that “it is not natural for a boy to be unemotional, aggressive, violent, and harassing. It is a system of power created with clear norms, and with roles defined according to social constructs, where to be a ‘good, honest and loving’ boy one must be aggressive, provocative, and dominant. That is why the boys during the rape were not afraid of the violence they were causing, because that, within the masculine hegemony, makes you a strong man.”

Author: Edna Mazyac
Directed by: Zana Hoxha
Translator: Artur Lena

Actors: Zhaneta Xhemajli, Mikel Markaj, Edlir Gashi, Ismail Kasumi, Blerta Gubetini and Art Pasha

28.05.2021

The tireless work of Zana Hoxha, director of the musical play “Spring Awakening” was awarded the prize for best performance of the year 2020. This award was shared by the Minister of Culture, Hajrulla Çeku, Deputy Minister, Sejnur Veshall, and Culture Advisor, Liburn Jupolli.

This show created and presented during the pandemic has also succeeded in the fourteenth edition of the ITF SkupiFestivali, with the prize for the “Grand Prix” awards as the best show. The success was not missing also in the festival “Moisiu On” in Tirana, that one of the awards was won by the actress Arta Muçaj, who was awarded the prize “Best Non-Protagonist Actress”, for her role in the musical show “Spring Awakening”.

In 2021, several reruns were given in Prishtina, Gjakova and Gjilan and it is intended to travel to festivals outside Kosovo, including the traditional Albanian Theater Festival in Dibër, Macedonia.

The play “Spring Awakening” by Frank Wedekind, is directed and adapted by Zana Hoxha, produced by Artpolis – Center for Art and Community and the National Theater of Kosovo.

For the director of the performance Zana Hoxha, Frank Wedekind’s masterpiece “Spring Awakening” was an artistic calling, a desire and a need to bring this play in Kosovo, further adapting it in the era of 90s in Kosovo. The need of young people to understand and be understood has been and continues to be a challenge, especially considering the history that has followed the young people of Kosovo in the 1990s, a time of protest and resistance, a time when collective and personal freedom was limited by the political regime of Milosevic and the patriarchate, nevertheless solidarity kept the spirit of collective resistance alive.

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Youth and their natural needs have not been a priority of the society, so information about sexuality, feelings, love and experiences have been discouraged and neglected by family, school and society. School violence, physical and sexual abuse, prejudice, unplanned pregnancy and abortion have been and remain real problems of our Kosovar society.

The first premiere during this pandemic time of COVID 19 coincidently addresses the lack of collective freedom in Kosovo.

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This performance awakens the need to raise discussion of such “forbidden” topics, to talk about feelings, sex and first experiences as they are happening, the need to know it all, to understand and experience them all.
This performance including all of its creators is dedicated to all the teenagers who fell in 1998-1999 in the last war in Kosovo.

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Author: Frank Wedekind
Adaptation & Director: Zana Hoxha

Actors:
Hajat Toçilla, Valmir Krasniqi, Labinot Raci, Arta Muçaj, Shkelzen Veseli, Semira Latifi, Shpetim Kastrati, Qëndresa Loki, Verona Koxha, Flamur Ahmeti, Armend Ballazhi

Musicians: Alzan Gashi, Arbër Salihu & Drin Tashi
Choreography: Robert Nuha
Costumes: Yllka Brada
Scenography: Youliana Voykova – Najman
Stage Manager: Bajram Mehemtaj
Asisstant: Elira Lluka

A production of Kosovo National Theater and Art and community Center – ARTPOLIS

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Photo: Meddy Huduti

Inspired by the nature and its beauties of the village of Kukaj, where space and everything that surrounds this environment is in harmony with the earth and the sky, began an extraordinary story of the performance “Artemis’s Huntresses”. This creative process started from a visit to the peaceful nature, a healer for body and soul, and inspired the theatre director Zana Hoxha, to create a work that is in accordance with nature as a healing goddess, source of life and inexhaustible energy.

The ” Artemis’s Huntresses” were slowly shaped by personifying the soul of an independent woman by doing pagan rituals and giving love and solidarity in harmony with nature. The choreography, music, costumes and performances of the actresses are the result of the emotions and feelings that this symbiosis of nature with woman and art evoked, and was fully in accordance to the place, atmosphere and the Ethno Fest event.

The performance “Artemis’s Huntresses”.
From: Zana Hoxha
Music: Arbër Salihu
Choreography: Robert Nuha
Actresses: Aurita Agushi, Semira Latifi, Donikë Ahmeti, Daniela Markaj, Qëndresa Kajtazi, Hajat Toçilla, Fitore Jashari.
Costumes: Arbnor Brahimi
Technical assistant: Elira Lluka

Photo: Medi Huduti

“Believe me you’re not alone no
Please believe me
Believe me, I’ll thaw the life
And I will not be far from you.
Believe in the sun, belief in the sun … ”

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With verses of the song “Believe in the Sun”, a hit of the 90s, at the Oda Theater finished stage reading of the play “Spring Awakening,” which was brilliantly performed by Kosovo’s professional actresses and actors.
The staged play, set in Kosovo in the 1990s, has sadness the diverse audience consisting of youngsters, willing and curious, to understand more about their parents’ beliefs, games, and stories in their teens, and from the older public who witnessed and experienced that period of life, at that time.

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After the performance, a discussion was opened with the public to receive comments, questions or suggestions on the theme and process of the play, which will be completed in March 2020, when the premiere of the play “Spring Awakening” will be given.

Author: Frank Wedekind; Director and adaption: Zana Hoxha
Actors: Hajat Toçilla, Valmir Krasniqi, Arta Muçaj, Shkelzen Veseli, Labinot Raci, Qëndresa Loki, Verona Koxha, Flamur Ahmeti, Armend Ballazhi.
Music: Alzan Gashi; Choreography: Robert Nuha; Ass.director: Arlinda Morina, Costumes: Youliana Voykova – Najman; Lights: Skender Latifi; Design and illustrations: Vanja Lazić
Production: Artpolis – Art and Community Center
Photographer: Blerta Hocia

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This is the first time National Theatre of Kosovo has presented a piece about the well-known Sufi poet, Rumi. To tell his story the troop have gone through an intense training to captivate authentic dervish dances. “Destur”, a play by Musa Ramadani and a novel within a novel called “Sweet Blasphemy” ( from “40 Rules of Love” by Elif Shafak) have all merged to create a play with dramaturgy and directed by Zana Hoxha.

Set in the 13th century, this play revolves around the various interpretations of religion and love and the conflicts that arise between academic intellect and pure wisdom. Shams of Tabris, a wanderer searching for God, has found his purest form of love and his captivating presence leaves all people transformed when they cross Shams’ path. Maulana Rumi, is a dervish (Sufi) imam praised for his academical wisdom for God.

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The dramatic encounter of Shams and Rumi in the city of Konyo is the turning point to Rumi’s spiritual journey. These [two] lock themselves in Rumi’s library for 40 days as each day, they discuss the 40 Rules of Love. This love is addressed to God throughout the story, but its magic lies in the relevance of the philosophical discussions about romantic love, pertinent to modern day 21st century. Shams teaches Rumi how to open his heart entirely and experience God in a new way.

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Leading roles: Maulana Rumi: Çun Lajçi, Shems of Tabriz: Shkelzen Veseli Other roles: Armend Smajli, Edlir Gashi, May-Linda Kosumoviç, Semira Latifi, Anisa Ismajli, Basri Lushtaku, Kushtrim Qerimi, Flamur Ahmeti, Armend Ballazhi, Mikel Markaj, Selman Jusufi, Florent Salihu, Blend Sadiku, Leonit Maloku. Choreographer: Robert Nuha, Costumes and Stage Design: Youliana Vojkova-Najman, Music: Memli Kelmendi, Assistant Director: Flutura Çelaj, Stage Manager: Bajram Mehmetaj, Lighting: Sherif Salihu dhe Mursel Bekteshi, AV: Arben Aliu, Stage Organiser: Aziz Maloku. This play is dedicated to Mr. Istref Begolli, iconic actor of the National Theatre.

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25.05.2018

From August 28 to September 10, 2017, the artists of the La MaMa Theater in partnership with the Artpolis Center, in the Oda theater in Pristina and in the artistic village Kukaj focused on raising new capacities of artists and artists in the exploration of sound , music and gestures, as well as using lyrics from La MaMa’s famous 1974 production “TROJANET”.

About La Mama:

La Mama experimental theater is dedicated to all artists everywhere in the world. The theater was founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, while it is traditionally known as the theater of all world’s cultures. La Mama has presented more than 150,000 artists from around the world in hundreds of different countries. Every year, La Mama theater presents over 80 productions, while it is visited by 34,000 visitors of all ages. This theater supports every individual who creates art by giving you promotion opportunities and financial support.

The show “TROJANS” produced by Zana Hoxha is based on an ancient Greek drama that fosters a favorable environment to nurture and strengthen relations between communities. It combines the life and struggle between ancient and  modern times, reflecting suffering, love, life, well-being, solidarity and cooperation. This play is based on the 2500 year old drama “Trojans” and its themes of war, displacement, violence against women, children and genocide.

The function of theater for centuries has been to find a common reason and sense of humanity to create a better world. Her staging is unique in the way actors and audience interact. The power of this special show has been proven in presentations over the past 40 years and in more than 30 nations.

“Trojans” is unique because it uses a combination of workshops, rehearsals, presentations, dialogue and community awareness.

The participation of 30 artists and activists results in a common conversation of the language of peace, love and solidarity that serves as a guide for future generations of artists and cultural activists.

Participants experiment with sound reinforcement methods and the use of pure voice during this program. Students experiment with gestures and body language. The artist(s) studies(y) the music and add songs, stories and movements from their personal experiences to the material. The partnership will be in the form of an ensemble. A conversation area will be provided about the production process, the show’s themes and connections to our daily lives.