In the heavily segregated city of Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina, former Dartmouth education professor Andrew Garrod, who retired from the College in 2008, is challenging the country's ethnic tensions this summer by directing a theatrical production of Shakespeare's "The Tempest."
Garrod is the founder and director of the Dartmouth Volunteer Teaching Program, which sends recent Dartmouth graduates to the Marshall Islands for a year to teach adolescents and undergraduates over Winter term, Andrew Rayner '10 said in an email to the Dartmouth.
Rayner, who volunteered this past year in the Marshall Islands, is currently in Mostar for the summer.
"We are using theater to bring together youth from the different ethnic groups in Mostar, which is a city that is still very distinctly segregated between the Bosniaks [Muslims] and Croats [Croatians] and Christians, using something as timeless as Shakespeare to bring these kids together and explore the themes of vengeance and forgiveness," Rayner said.
Garrod and David Yorio GR'04 co-founded the international non-profit organization Youth Bridge Global, which facilitates youth theater productions in domestic and international developing companies, according to its website. Since directing "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in 2004, Garrod has produced a show annually in the Marshall Islands and in 2006 and 2007, the Shakespeare model was reproduced in the Balkans, according to the website.
This summer's production of "The Tempest" in Bosnia-Herzegovina will be the organization's fourth production since the multi-ethnic production of "Romeo and Juliet" in 2006, Caz Liske '04 wrote in an email to The Dartmouth from Moscow. Liske traveled to Mostar with Garrod in 2006 to conduct interviews for Garrod's extensive research on moral development in children and adolescents in the area a project Garrod began in Mostar in 1998.
After stumbling upon a building that had been the University of Mostar's library before war split the city and the university in half ethnically, Garrod and Liske were struck with the idea of staging a play there, according to Liske.
"The building was in ruins, no windows, doors or roofs, but beautiful and stately even with the hundreds of bullet holes that had been carved into it until the [Bosnian Civil War's] end in 1994," Liske said. "It had a lovely balcony, stately stairways leading up to its various entrances and a generous canopy shading it from the scorching Balkan sun."
The production's stage reminds the audience of the violence during the Bosnian Civil War, which involved Bosnians, Croatians and Serbs the three city's ethnic groups, Katie Lindsay '11 wrote in an email to The Dartmouth from Bosnia. The bilingual production of "The Tempest" is staged in the ruins of the library and put on by students from the segregated high schools in the city. Eighty percent of the play's script is written in local languages.
"The youth of former warring parties have an opportunity to unite, establish trust and build friendship through an artistic endeavor," Lindsay said.
The play's lead actors include Harun Hasanagic, a Bosniak Muslim playing the part of Prospero, and Nina Popovic, a Croat Catholic playing Ariel, according to a YBG press release.
"These kids attend different schools, learn from different curriculums, hang out in different cafes and clubs, even call their languages different [names]," Lindsay said.
Lindsay and Rayner are working with three other Dartmouth alumni and one undergraduate in Mostar this summer. Assistant directors of the production Grace Johnson '11, Peter Sutoris '11, Rayner, Lindsay and University of Essex student Alex Payne are delegated specific responsibilities including publicizing the play, designing costumes and designing the lighting and sound for the performance. Associate director Jessica Swale joined the production from London's Red Handed Theatre Company, according to the release.
"Though the war in the Balkans has been over for 16 years, Bosnia and Herzegovina, perhaps more than any of the other countries in former Yugoslavia, has had difficulty coming to terms with post-war realities," Lindsay said.
The project forces cross-cultural collaboration, Lindsay said. Mostar remains completely segregated along ethnic lines and the mission of Garrod's theatrical production is to breach the mistrust between ethnic groups, according to Lindsay, who describes the trip as "an incredible learning experience."
"I believe in this project's power to bring people from the different sides together because everyone is stepping outside of their comfort zone by performing," Lindsay said. "Ethnic tensions become irrelevant when the actors must work together to tell a story."
This year's production in Mostar has been made possible by capitalizing on the early successes of "Romeo and Juliet," "A Midsummer's Night Dream" (2007) and "Much Ado About Nothing" (2009), according to the press release. A 2010 documentary film by Steve Hemsick titled Much Ado in Mostar, detailing the 2009 production of the play, received the award for best documentary at the Bosnian and Herzegovinian film festival in New York, according to the release.
Garrod has directed more than 40 high school and community theater productions, according to the release. The Tucker Foundation recognized Garrod for his work not only with the Bosnian and Marshall Islands students but also for the Summer Enrichment at Dartmouth program, The Dartmouth previously reported.
"Professor Garrod is an incredible man with a huge heart," Rayner said. "I am honored to be working with him on work that is so important to helping create progress among the new generation of leaders here."
Garrod could not be reached for comment by press time.
