REEEC Noontime Scholars Lecture: Andrei Kureichik, "Voices of Change Reframed. Documentary Theatre of Social Impact"
- Event Type
- Lecture
- Sponsor
- REEEC
- Location
- Lucy Ellis Lounge, Room 1080 Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics Building (707 S. Mathews St., Urbana, IL 61801)
- Date
- Feb 13, 2026 12:00 pm
- Speaker
- Andrei Kureichik (Writer, Director and Scholar, Neuebauer Fellow at University of Chicago, Yale World Fellow)
- Cost
- Free and open to the public
- Contact
- REEEC
- reec@illinois.edu
- Views
- 14
This lecture and book talk examines how social theatre and documentary theatre converge to witness, question, and catalyze change. Centering practice over theory, Andrei Kureichik maps a pathway from fieldwork to stage: designing ethical research, conducting interviews, transcribing and editing verbatim material, structuring testimony into dramatic arcs, and staging choices that care for both subjects and audiences. The talk reframes social, political and documentary theatre not merely as a vehicle for information, but as a rigorously ethical, aesthetically rich practice that can produce civic dialogue and measurable social impact. With vivid stories, brief readings, and candid process notes, Kureichik shows how testimony, music, and multilingual voices can transform a theatre into a forum, where audiences don’t just watch but answer back. Come for the craft, stay for the courage: a lecture that turns documents into drama and asks what art can do when history knocks at the door.
Andrei Kureichik is a Belarusian playwright, director, and publicist living in exile. He is the acclaimed author of over 30 plays that have been staged on prominent theater stages across Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, the USA, Poland, Lithuania, Finland, and beyond. His groundbreaking project, "Insulted.Belarus", has been performed and read over 200 times worldwide, becoming a cornerstone of the global theatre solidarity campaign supporting Belarusians in their struggle for freedom. Kureichik's works have been translated into 39 languages. In addition to his work in theater, Kureichik has written and directed more than thirty film and television screenplays. His films have achieved a cumulative box office gross of over $185 million in Eastern Europe. A recipient of numerous prestigious awards, Kureichik has been honored for the best foreign play of the season 2023 in Los Angeles, the Koura National Theater Prize of Finland, and the Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament for Freedom of Speech. He is also the first Belarusian to be named a Yale World Fellow. Currently, he was teaching "Art and Resistance" at Yale University and University of Chicago, where he also conducts research on the stigma of the Holocaust in Belarus. Kureichik remains a committed political activist, tirelessly advocating for the release of political prisoners in Belarus.