“When you don’t have all the facts, you realize there’s often a gap between what really happened and what people remember. And if you choose to add a touch of fiction to create a fuller picture in a documentary theatre performance — how can it still feel true?”
Endri Çela – director, actor, and playwright – will share his experience in creating and directing “Flower Sajza”, a play that explores one of the darkest and most hidden parts of Albania’s communist history. With access to only a few official facts, he will explain how he managed to combine these limited truths with personal testimonies from those who lived through that period, along with collected stories and elements of his own imagination. The result is an emotional and thought-provoking performance that examines truth, memory, and identity.
“Flower Sajza” has toured across Albanian-speaking regions in the Balkans and was featured in the Albania/Kosovo Showcase 2024, where it received critical acclaim as a work that authentically captures Albanian history and identity.

BIO

Endri Çela is a theatre director, actor and playwright from Tirana, Albania. He graduated in Theatre Directing from the University of Arts in Tirana in 2010 and has since built a career across national stages, exploring both classical and contemporary works. 

Since 2010, Endri has directed over thirty productions, ranging from children’s musicals to experimental dramas, collaborating mainly with the National Experimental Theatre “Kujtim Spahivogli”, the National Children’s Theatre and the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet.

In his early career, Endri worked to make theatre more accessible, particularly to underserved communities. He was involved with the Traveling Theatre, playing a key role in building new audiences through performances and workshops in various cities across Albania. 

Endri’s artistic vision is rooted in dreams and the complexity of the human spirit. He is particularly drawn to stories that expose internal conflicts, societal constraints, and the absence of freedom—often weaving contemporary socio-political themes with historical narratives. His work seeks to connect the past with the present, illuminating how history shapes identity and collective memory.

His most notable recent works include “Zullulandia” (2025), “Flower Sajza” (2024), and “The woman destroyed” (2023), which reflect his distinctive approach that merges social themes with poetic imagination, giving voice to both the untold stories of his country and the universal emotions of the human heart. 

There has been a certain tendency of literalism in documentary theatre whereby theatrical performance has customarily tended to honour the truthfulness of factual events. In this session I would like to consider the notion of ‘counterpoint’ between text and performance as a form of productive resistance for engaging the audience in a meaning-making process. I approach the notion of ‘counterpoint’ not as a musicologist but as a theatre and performance researcher and dramaturg.

There are three levels in which we will consider ‘counterpoint’ on this occasion:
Counterpoint as a compositional device;
Counterpoint as a means of an artist’s response to their political reality, (and also to a pre-existing body of work, established conventions and traditions);
Counterpoint as an affective critical attitude that can be generated in the audience in response to live performance.

The session will refer to a number of works that form what I define as the trend of ‘post-verbatim’ theatre, studied as part of the research project website www.auralia.space.

ΒΙΟ

Duška Radosavljević is a writer, dramaturg, researcher and teacher. She is Professorial Research Fellow at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London and currently teaches at the University of Lund, Sweden. Apart from Central where she also led a course in performance-making, she has taught at the Universities of Kent, Bristol, Warwick and Newcastle and has worked as the Dramaturg at Northern Stage Newcastle and in the education department of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her books include Aural/Oral Dramaturgies: Theatre in the Digital Age (2023), Theatre Criticism: Changing Landscapes (2016), The Mums and Babies Ensemble: A Manual (2015), The Contemporary Ensemble (2013), and Theatre-Making: Interplay Between Text and Performance in the 21st Century (2013). She has written about theatre for The Stage, Exeunt, The Theatre Times and SEEStage. In 2020-21 she held an AHRC Leadership Fellowship during which she led a team of collaborators in creating the award-winning online repository www.auralia.space.

This workshop invites participants to explore the personal and social dimensions of what we choose to hide from others — the stories, objects, and memories we conceal to avoid judgment or rejection. Through the tools of documentary theatre, we will examine how these hidden elements, once shared, can become bridges of empathy and connection rather than sources of isolation.
The session begins with a simple yet revealing exercise: each participant will show what they carry in their wallet. Together, we will discuss which of these objects spark curiosity and why. From there, participants will be invited to share a personal story connected to one of the items.
In the final phase, small groups will transform their stories and objects into collective presentations — a visual collage or “vision board,” a sculptural tableau using their bodies, a performative protest banner, or another creative form that embodies shared experience.
The workshop encourages authenticity, vulnerability, and a recognition that our hidden things often reveal our deepest connections.

ΒΙΟS

Blagoy Boychev is an actor and director based in Sofia – Bulgaria. He graduated from the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts in Sofia in 2009 with a degree in acting. He completed a specialization in directing and holds a master’s degree in philosophy from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski.”
In 2011, he co-founded the independent theater “Replica.” He has a strong interest in documentary theater and extensive experience as an actor and director of documentary performances. In 2014, together with the Replica Theater troupe, he won the Stoyan Kambarev Award for Excellence in the Arts.
For his performances “Kalunya Kalya”, “Hit of the Season,” “The Earth is Flat,” and “Love in the Oncoming Lane,” he has received awards in various categories, including for directing and best performance, from the MONODRAMA Festival in Gabrovo and the “Scene, Palette, Word” Festival in Plovdiv. He was nominated for an IKAR award for his role as Jürgen in “Hedda Gabler,” directed by Chris Sharkov.

Boryana Yovcheva is an actress born in Shumen, Bulgaria. She is a member of the Replica Theater, mother of three children, keen traveller and human rights activist. Boryana is a graduate from Krastyo Sarafov, National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts and she has also studied Acting for Drama Theatre. Some of her creative work includes: “Viva Bulgaria” performed at the Center for Contemporary Arts “Toplocentrala”, “The Christmas Tree at the Ivanovs,” a crime drama by A. Vvedensky, and “We Are the Trash of Eastern Europe,” an original performance by Georg Genoux and the actors of Replica Theater.