 I am not quite sure what they are talking about. I don't understand a thing. But I think she is asking him, are you gay? And they are arguing about who is going to start the play. But actually I am going to start the play. With this now, just like Alistair used to do it. Actually today, we are going live streams. So, YouTube. A show from Kosovo. And we are aware that maybe you won't understand the context of the show. That's why we brought you some books outside. A short history of Kosovo. It's a small book, only 3,000 pages. So, enjoy the show. Thank you. A short history of Kosovo. And 5 years, it will go from a curious new road to have GDP growth. That you only can see in Pescara, in Italy. Or Keisachlauten, in Germany. Come in! No, Adriano. Miss Sigmeta, I am delighted to meet you in person. Then I give her a lot of compliments. I notice they don't compliment women here. She enjoys it and she puts on some lipstick. I am putting on lipstick. Oh, he is so sweet. Then I ask him kindly. Oh, Mr Adriano, how can I help you? It's an honor to serve you. I face the typewriter on the stage. The gate is on the roller, but I insert it a little bit deeper so I can demonstrate to the client I am ready to work in his notice. I am sitting in Ekmeta's office. I sit and listen and just keep still. I have imagined this moment hundreds of times, but never exactly as it is happening now in reality. I look at the various folders, the vase of flowers, the typewriter, the certificate already in the room. We are getting married. So we need the marriage certificate. She starts to laugh. A marriage requires a couple, husband and a wife. Yes, of course, son. Shame. Then I start laughing and laughing. I didn't laugh like this in ages. I laugh too. What else can I do? I look out the window. What a shame we are on the first floor. Otherwise I would have thrown myself out the window and died. Ekmeta just sneers. That's all I did to get married, yes. I realize she must have missed it. So I explain again. I sit down, I get up, I sit down, I get up again. Listen, Ekmeta, perhaps I wasn't kidding. Maybe my boyfriend married me and I have decided to get married, and so we need a marriage certificate. I take my hand and hold me closer. I tremble. I feel nauseous. The anxiety makes me vomit. Lately I vomit in the vase of flowers. On this desk. What do you mean? What marriage? Men with men? Do you understand I feel pain by those words? Where does this happen? Haven't you embarrassed us enough with that condom factory? Haven't you embarrassed us enough with that condom factory? Haven't you embarrassed us enough with that condom factory? I wanted to ask him, but of course. I collect myself and I say nothing. Because I have to appear civilized in front of foreigners. I just let it all out. Water in my face. I just hope it's just a bad truth. Marriage between two people in same gender is permitted in your constitution. We love each other and this is permitted by our constitution. It leaks through the different plots. Harry, the constitution of our country is the same gender. And then she opens the gap. She rips out the page and puts it in her mouth. Without blinking she starts to chew it. Shame, such a handsome man. All these beautiful ladies in town and you choose each other. Well, your documentations aren't ready yet. You need... Essential. Of course! I am Hikmete's typewriter. I like it when Hikmete uses me. I love her soft fingers, I love the faint smell of her breath and the sound of the soap she washes with every morning. We typewriters can sense when someone loves us, when someone treats us tenderly and with respect. Using my keys, Hikmete has a type decision. Licenses, complaints, contracts, lawsuits, requests and endless other documents. Hikmete works conscientiously and she treats everyone the same, lovingly. Dia, because we, as a nation, we don't read. I'm sure that our prime minister just signed that constitution without reading it at all. Any books have you read those last 30 years? None. But I do read on the Internet. But it's not the same. Yes it is! For example, I read on the Internet that yesterday the German parliament voted a law which allows marriage between the same gender. Yesterday? Yes! They only did it yesterday. But we, we have this thing in our constitution for the last 10 years and still the European journalist portrays us as primitive. As people who beat our woman. As people who keeps our guns under the pillow. While we pee, we don't wash our hands. As people who do human trafficking. As people who control European drug trafficking. Angela Merkel opposed it. Shame on you. You want to destroy everything that our fathers built so many years. If you continue with this law, Germans will not have children anymore. And Turks will keep popping trend till 15 of them. In a few years, Germany will have more Turks than Germans. This is what a leader who loves her own country says. A visionary leader. Mr. Mayor, what should we do? Well, why don't you try to massage my lower muscles a bit? And then I will write the prime minister and I will request assistance. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. People suffered many wars. Many misfortunes, many foray applications. But all our wounds were healed just when we were running in tradition. The value enabled us to keep our head high with pride and dignity. We always lie down and never, never on our feet. Jumping on your part. Tony Perkins. Yeah. Rush Limbo. Sarah Palin. Mitch McConnell. Sean Hannity. Liberty University. Westboro Baptist Church. And Carter. And Donald Trump. In this town, I feel it's surrounded by 500 homes. The Bible and God says so. It's between a man and a woman. And the Supreme Court has no authority to even redefine it, even talk about it. This has said, married life is such a beautiful thing. It says gauge in homosexuality. Not only that. But in full view of everybody. So that was another crime. In me broding the public table. Boom. To start with us. Two shot it humanitarian. You choose the size that suits you, that makes your organ nice and snug, before using it, you should test it on them, take it out of the plastic and roll to see if it has air, if it's nice you can put it on slowly. Well, before you leave it on, you have to ensure that your organ is primed in a proper state. Various experts recommend exercises, simple physical exercises to warm up the muscles. Okay, once you're done and once you've checked the condom, you're ready to go. Does anyone have any questions? Yes. There are no questions. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for taking part in this workshop for three days for safe sex and condom use which Don Bosco organized. This course was generously financed by the European Union and all of you will receive a certificate which I'm sure that it will be of good use to you someday. ... ... ... No way I called you here. No I don't. Well, I'll be brief then. Tell me, Marilyn, when did you discover that you were like this? Like what? Well, like this, that you like men and not women. Well, since I was a child, I always hung out with the girls and not the boys. And did you never try to grab a girl's pits or her butt? No, I felt safe with a girl. And did you ever try sex with a girl? No, did you ever try sex with a crocodile? Excuse me? Yesterday in Mexico, I called Victor La Pida from San Pedro, when I was about to get married to a crocodile. Oh, don't you try sleeping with a woman. Let the medicine handle that. One third of the time. Oh, I'm coming here. Okay, alright, maybe not much, but there are a lot. Only I know like 40,000 to 50,000 women. Oh, what? No, I cannot believe it. Oh! Excuse me? I'll give you money as much as you want. I won't even find you a good girl who will love you. You just gave up this bad habit. Can't you see that we have become a tabloid story? I don't need your money. All I ever wanted was someone who loves me, that way I have it, and I want to marry him. Break your bones. Burn your skin. Your whole town is suffering. Because you couldn't find one of your own, but you had to choose an Italian. Because you wanted to embarrass us as much as you could. Shame on you. Get out. Get out, before I fuck you myself. Get out! When I was 20 years old, my parents kept putting pressure on me to get married and start a family. It was always the same story quite every evening. As soon as supper was ready, my mother would start so... Marilyn, is there any news? Have you met any girl? We'll talk about other questions like this. So one night, while we were eating dinner, I decided to tell them the truth. I'm gay, I told them. I like boys and not girls. My father had a heart attack, and my mother burned her tongue on the hot bean soup we were eating. And for the next two weeks, she just muttered, How could you? How could you? How could you? And then after that, she never spoke again. I'm going to reward Luz of you who were so convincing and play your parts so effectively in the presence of the EU commissioner. The two officials who were kissing each other get a double bonus. The two parents in Lula's office that sang welcome, welcome commissioner will receive two additional rations plus a bigger cage. And Hikmete, who spontaneously kissed the commissioner on the lips, which was not in the plane, will receive the bonuses and additional work for four weekends a month. And for scrubbing in the corridor, I will receive four bonuses. The decision enters into force immediately. Congratulations. I love this machine, I mean it. The pastels are really cool, really cool. Really cool. I am going to give it a try with this machine. It's in the tank that it doesn't work out, it's in the tank that it doesn't work out, it's in the tank that it doesn't work out. After that we are going to go to the town of Zürich, to the town of Sardinia. Kemisielo, the town of Tierra, certified in the family, Pre-sim. Pre-sim, the past is pre-sim. My abuse. Puffemi, puffemi giato. I have been so rich. Patrochito. Nagendo group, we're pulling in with the dead, we're sweet as a little boy. For Pete and Tabartas, for Crechka, boys, let's show him your op, the box. You're our commander. I'm the commander of the most dedicated service. I want you to help me. I want to be a commander for your service. Get out of here. Get out of here. Get out of here. You're not allowed to go. Get out of here, you bastard. Get out of here, you bastard. I don't like Adriano, but he seems straight, so I didn't get much hope in the race. But one night, when he was drunk, he pissed. Anyway, and then we started to go out together, I was so happy. When he said he loved me I was scared because I couldn't believe that I wanted to truly that day that he proposed me. I was overjoyed. I remember before saying yes to him I left him and I ran, ran, ran and then I collapsed in the road as if that and I started to leave. I order you to cut every tree in our town. Don't make me mad please. Palm trees just to distract people's attention. Let them accuse us of being crazy. Just I don't want them to call us the town of the buck hawkers you know. Cut those trees immediately. Come on. Oh what a humiliating end for an old tree like me. They are going to build our town. Merely a wealth of people so much to see but my tears won't matter. Farewell. Yamun. Bomba Helsi. Taniamar Bomba, they joined the Roman and Dany Institute. Bomba exploded on the moored BM Pertock. Delft on the local and international faggots. Have homosexuals? Here women marry men and men marry women. Manas goes with plus and plus goes with minus. These are the only combinations. European experiments in our country on our youth will be dealt like this red mouse. Neymin Bodrom, a kisha parandiesi descatil montandolta. No kedikujam palo ampertolka. Pobonim sex pasai da giugnye. Bum. Murecham Bodromin bulot kapliuri pasai mundom da je telefonin. Editham, comandandis. Alo alozonia, comandanta imin rezikon vermelli. Ni lutom dergani le kopter naspatoi. It's shocked by the grenade attack on two members of gay community in Tashane. It's unacceptable and in contrary to european spirits and values. We will warn you that if just one hair on the head of these two has been harmed, you will be punished. The town's electricity supply will be cut off. The officials of the town will be put on the blacklist of the american president. We will withdraw all of your investments. And that means halting construction on the condom factory and the ice skating stadium. Not a single european circus will be allowed to visit your town. Your life! Mr. Mayor, should I continue with Bond? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I told you to frighten them. You almost killed them. I kept my promise. We will go to the Norwegian and prepare a report. If you understand much better, this new species of people will be killed. I am not a Cuban or a Nazi or a Nazi or a Nazi. But I am a non-Titian. I am a Jewish. I am not a Wabelian. I am a Jew. I am a Jew. I am a Jew. I am a Jew. I am a Jew. I am a Jew. I am a Jew. I am a Jew. I am a Jew. Mr. Mayor, the fight has been fought against the municipality office. Approve that he, men, men, men, and women, marry women. All the ministers are even obliged to participate in those gay weddings. Look at what this administrative instructional director, Prime Minister, says. All the ministers are obliged to participate in those gay weddings in Montenegro. Those ministers who are on official pre-truth, those ministers who are sick, can bring a note which is stamped and authorized by a notary. Thank you. I know English. On the advent of Lesbos, the Greeks started with us. I will describe the atmosphere as concerning. In the middle of the club, there is a horizontal pole. An opportunity may be served. The others are clarifying and giving it money. I'm alarmed I want to be sick. I've seen in our Caucasian women dancing like this in front of members that I've never seen anything like this in all my life. If I can make a political comment that I would say that this debauchery is the result of Greece's financial crisis. Look at what has happened to the right streets of home. Oh, over there I even can see. I mean, it's not a fucky. Oh, my God, this little woman. Who knows. In this case, it could be a man, too. Like, were you assembled? We're about to go. Because of the scene, everything here is very foggy but very much like you see. Everything here is foggy. They're all old men. They're all naked. They're all washing each other. They respect each other, kissing each other. Oh, my God, it's so hot. I'm afraid I'm going to pass out. I wake up in the park. I don't know how I'm changing it. My whole body hurts, especially my foot. Oh, Lord, I hope I'm small and you didn't take any liberties. In the morning, something huge is happening in the municipal building. They are holding a meeting that began about 10 hours ago. Like the meetings of the Politburo once upon a time. Tonight, I would rather be anything but a typewriter. The Prime Minister is very tough. Listen to how he yells at them. Shame on you. Why couldn't you manage the situation? Oh, Minister, hi, it's me, Ikmita. Please, don't blame the mayor. It's not his fault. I mean, it's my fault. Punish me. Do anything you want to me. Stone me, Mr. Kill me, rape me if you want to. Do anything you want to. Ikmita, please, go and massage his lower muscles. Please, come on, go, go, go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now it is six in the morning. The decision is made. It's difficult. Everyone cries, even the mayor. The Prime Minister proposes they sing the terrible song. The one the girls used to sing when they were raped. Oh, you're not much. I'm a lotan. Look, Radal, decide and don't waste my time anymore. I take him as husband. You make me sick. All of these beautiful girls are down and you choose each other. You are a primitive society with the customs of the mountains and caves. Don't trash your baguette. Do you take this person as your wife? Or you don't? Yes, I will take him. Good. Then one of you read the back of the oath and get locked. First you sign it, then get locked. Read it, Marilyn. I vow that I will remain faithful to this man for the first month at least of the marriage. I swear that what we are doing is a sin. I swear that we're getting married just to win some European donations. Where on earth did you get this text? Oh, what a brilliant text. Thank you, Mrs. Sigmund. You knew a fantastic job. I admire you. If we had more people like you, it would become like Japan in 12 months. Thank you, Mr. Adela. Do you also sign it? Of course, I'll sign it. You know I won't sign it at all. There's no need to rush. Let's enjoy it because marriage brings obligation. Sign it, Adela. Sign it, Adela. Sign it, Adela. What an awful dreamer. I must have slapped with my head on a typewriter. It's a rough night. This is a terrible and disturbing sign, which touches the heart and walls of the spirit. I'm just like you. You are a child. I see your face. I see your face. I'm just like you. I see your face. I'm just like you. I see your face. I see your face. I see your face. You are a child. heart and woes the spirit. It will make you all ponder the tragic fate of all these beautiful girls that you have in Sadeh. We are here. Hello, hello. Well normally we would start, but since it's live stream we need the mic. Can you hear me? With the mic or no? One, two, oh yes, yes. Wonderful. Well first of all thank you for coming to see the show here at La Mama and the cold and rainy day on a Sunday in New York and thanks to La Mama Theatre and Mia for putting on a show once again that shows us how big the world is and how complex the world is, how complicated and also how beautiful and to see a play like this from Kosovo is quite extraordinary. So thank you for putting this up. Great congratulation I think to the Gentria Multimedia Theatre from Kosovo and the director. So first and to the acting, so please a big applause for their work. And I have Blair Tanezrai here with me and so she put this all together and I think it's quite the next ordinary work that of course reflects history in all the countries of the world or wherever they are at the moment. We at the Siegel Theatre just hosted a place from South Korea but the very, very first time out of 30 Asian countries a government put a little logo behind readings that dealt with LGBT questions. So something is happening in the world and the way how do we share this experience, how do we share knowledge, how do we share and how do we give meaning to the times we live in and I think theatre is one of the fantastic ways to truly create understanding or where understanding can take place. But let's go right away to the work. Tell us how did this all come about? Thank you. Well we as a company it's been like 10 years now that we are producing a place that is a theatre coming out of necessity. So every year we have one or two production that we do and it needs to come out of our context in the region, the problems that we are facing every day. Like you were mentioning you were saying that it's part of your history but it's for us it's nowadays history. So having to put on stage this play and dealing with a question of LGBT in Kosovo it's not a simple topic I would say because it's completely a different world from here. Like while we start the show we say it's normal to be gay in America but in Kosovo it's not normal to be gay. Like I would say that we have to be the other mouth in order to talk about them because we are not experts in the LGBT question but we needed to talk about them and the good thing is that we got support from them and we are happy to have done this performance. I have to mention that one month after we did this show we had the first gay parade in Kosovo. So it's like a year and a half ago we had the first gay parade. So you can imagine in what kind of context we are in Kosovo. So this is one of the first plays that deals with the theme and put on stage? Yes, in this level I would say we are talking directly and where we are pushing boundaries a little bit further. We are actually trying to talk in this show more about the policies that are made around the community and maybe we are using hard words and not being politically correct but we thought that we should go really far away to be extreme in the sense that how people and how our government treats the LGBT community. There are no gay bars there. I mean nobody goes out in a way to talk about the issue and now they are starting a little bit. I'm not saying it's because of the performance obviously not. They need to gain their rights but it's quite important for our organization and for all our group to talk about the issue and maybe try to start a conversation on the question. So tell us about opening night and the first performance. What happened? What were the reactions? So obviously in the opening nights we usually have our friends, people who support us but we had to call the police because we got threats before head because having a picture of the two main actors kissing each other and so we needed to make sure everything is going well. So it went well actually. Very good reaction from the LGBT community. Sometimes we didn't get the best reaction from the other communities but we were happy to have their support. Then we toured with this performance because maybe Pristina is a little bit more open minded, the capital city but the other part of Kosovo is not the case but they just accepted it and we are very happy for that. Recently in the last show we had in Pristina we got what we considered a little bit more of a serious threat by an official of Ministry of Justice. What's a serious, more serious threat? Well by threatening us for cutting our heads and putting out with a sword and putting that in our bottom if I may say. So the story continues by us informing the police and everything ended happily by having this person finally for 48 hours stopped by the police and we got a lot of support from the whole community, the artistic community coming to see the show at a theater in Pristina. Well that's a very truly courageous work I think you are doing. Perhaps a bit easier for us. I think La Mama will host a festival 50 years ago with Stonewall. It was also complex times, violent times, a big struggle. And it's also not so long ago as one of things. Before we come to the actors and again thank you for coming and joining. Congratulations on your work here in New York and bringing your show. On the theoretical work I think also beautifully done. Often message plays or plays with agenda are just people think it's enough to do the words and everybody knows everything. But I hear we saw beautiful lighting, we saw characters taking over different roles, opposite roles. There was kind of a Greek like chorus, songs, kind of references to folk songs, church songs and also the stage design with the triangle and all of it. I thought it is quite a sophisticated also production. So tell us about rehearsal and what was your concept, what did you change? What did you find when you rehearsed? What was your surprises? Yeah, so it's a quite difficult play because it has got 55 scenes in total and actually doesn't have a classical dramaturgical structure. So having five actors and then having a musician on stage and having characters as a typewriter or tree, we could easily go into children's theater. So we had to think with the group because all this is working in progress. Like we meet and we discuss together and then we come to the show. So it took a while to think of the nature of the show we will do and then together with a stage designer and who is the costume designer as well. We decided actually to have a space where it can be everywhere like it can be in a gay club and we will use everything that is in there. And all the characters should be in the room in order to be playful and not taking it seriously what they are doing. Just telling the text, pushing the emotion forward, having to do a grotesque or less. So I think all this lightning which is not dimmable and I'm sorry if somebody sometimes in some spaces can have a problem with like the eyes might hurt. Well, the actors, I will have a talk show. Yeah, because sometimes they tell me that it's very hard to stay there. Yeah, they are polite sometimes. So it's things that you can find everywhere in every space to get them. We are not a big company. So you're an ensemble that works together all year and you work two, three months or five weeks? Two months in total, yes. And we tend as an organization to invite stage designers, choreographers, composers from out of Kosovo. Because when we are working with our group of actors we tend to have obviously our internal jokes. And in order to universalize the concept and the work that we are doing knowing that we tour with our shows, we need to have close to us people who are not Kosovo Albanian. And that helps a lot in creating such environments. Yeah, no, I think it is quite remarkable. So just to remind the audience, Kosovo and the Balkans, what happened in the history not so long ago, how devastating the civil wars, the wars between the countries and that this is now that struggle somehow is over. We hope the tensions are done, but this is an ongoing struggle and for the company also to focus on this. But all that in the background which you could feel the seriousness of it and that lives in a way at risk again. And that the European Union, not as the big Brexit fears of the present day, actually we feel as progressive justice. I think good is coming in. So I think it gives us also a glimpse of a feeling of change and that theater is part of it. It's somehow mirroring it that at the same time the parade will happen or happened, you had put on the play. We also show that represent a manifest with bodies on stage and reinforce I think what we of course think is the right way and progressive justice and that should have of course happened a long time ago and there's an ongoing struggle. But in any country in the world you will find the towns where threats would be put up. Fantastic creative work that shows really the complexity of the life. And we only know a little bit of what it really means for you to create this, to put this on stage, to have gone through. I don't know what your childhood memories really are. Maybe you talk about the way you have behind you to say now we fight for this. I think it's incredibly courageous, creative. But let's go to the actors and let's ask them first of all how does it feel to perform it in New York on the stage at La Maman? Great, I mean this play like when you're an actor and you like a play like everywhere is the same play but it's like the energy changes and now here we can notice that people like certain things more and certain things less. What are the differences? I mean not really that much. We just, I think that people here, they really, they are really appreciating stuff more because like we tend to be like more, because we know each other and it's like sometimes it feels like people know what you're going to do and here it's like people are, oh my God, because it is a hard play to do. It's like almost two hours you're on your feet dancing and singing and everything. So I feel really great and it's not that it is a difference playing in New York or somewhere. It feels better. So why did you give me that? Why? So I'm Tristan, I survived during the war. No, I'm joking. No, I'm even not from Kosovo, I'm from Albania but it's okay, it's cool. You survived communism. Yeah, I survived communism. It was a very hard communism when I was very young, no. We did this play like in many other countries and the differences are like sometimes like Al-Qaeda said, the different moments, they react like in different moments. Like when we play it in most in the region, they can react more in some local jokes that we have, that because they understand it more, it's stuff like that. But now when we played it in Czechoslovakia, Czech Republic. And it was like kind of the same vibe that we had here. And it's nice, it's nice, it's nice to play it here in La Mama in New York and New York is a very nice city. Cool. So tell us a bit about your actors' training, where do you come from and also how does leader work? What do you do? How do you get into theater in Kosovo? In Pristina we have no agents. Straight to the point. We just go to auditions and a lot of actors, they just don't go to auditions anymore because they feel like everybody knows everybody so everything is corrupted and directors will take actors. Nobody's changing like lately. If he needs me, he'll call me. Chandra Multimedia, what I like is that for example National Theater works with texts like Shakespeare and stuff like very classical stuff and I think that we should be more honest with art and I think that Chandra Multimedia does this plays that they are talking about our social life more and they are somehow reflecting our everyday struggles like with different themes and different plays and it feels really nice to work to know that you're doing something that it's ongoing. You're living that reality and you're somehow mirroring it and also trying to tell people that we are aware and we're conscious about everything like all these social problems like EU coming in our place and treating us like little children. It's really fun and also it was a great process. We learned a lot. Look what I can do. I started with films with an American director called Joshua Marston, maybe you know him the one that did Maria Full of Grace the movie and completely unknown now. We did this movie The Forgiveness of Blood. He did it in Scotland in my hometown in 2010, 2011, something like that. Then I started to, I went, I met this actor during the movie because when we did the movie I was like in the last year of high school then the one who played my father he was an acting teacher from Macedonia and Albanian from Macedonia so he asked me, so I went to his school I started in Tatovo in Macedonia like four years then after that I moved to Pristina because in the Albanian my opinion is that in the Albanian talking countries in the Balkans that is like Albania, Kosovo and half Macedonia and stuff like that. It's the same language, Albania and Kosovo. There are a lot of differences. Pristina is kind of the best for an actor to work in the theater scene and movies too. Again a question also for the actors. Do you participate in creating the text and how personal does it feel? I mean you represent current history but also of course history before but how does it connect to your lives and to your own experiences? I really like the fact that this play is not like talking about LGBT community because for marginalized groups they always have the tendencies to make them look like victims and I think that how they live is more complex. With this play we are always pushing the idea of talking about more in a larger sense, to see things more outside of the Balkans not just okay, LGBT community are victims and it is hard. I was raised with gay men all my life and it is really really hard and it sucks but I feel part of the community. I'm always trying to fight these stereotypes and always with art I think we should put these boundaries and talk about how it's hard to live also like in every community because it's getting worse every day and it was really nice to work in a process where everybody was kind of conscious about this and we were trying to escape these stereotypes and fight them as more as we could. And about the creative part, as Berta said we worked like two months in multimedia for this play and in the beginning we didn't have a very complete text from Yeton but he came and we had like some kind of, I don't remember it well but it was like that and then Yeton talked with us and we shared opinions and stuff about how can we create those characters and what to do and it was nice, it was fun. And some of the characters didn't made it, I feel so sad about it. So what was the most complicated to do for you and what surprised you during the rehearsal? What did you find? There's somebody. What surprised us? Well like the moment of looking at the man doing the striptease for me that was really beautiful. Like it was a moment of surprise when one of the people in our group did the striptease for us and showing us all these moves and it was very touching to see how at one point the whole crew, the whole group was really into the issue. They were really going for the question and they were willing to give everything from their own experience in order that we come to this show. Because usually we have the group coming in the room, everybody is doing only their work and we just go away obviously. But seeing everyone engaged so much that is something magic and surprising at the same time in the positive sense I would say. So yeah I started from there to come to this work. For me the musicality of the play was something that, like Alketa said before, if you're used to working in the national or other theatres other than multimedia you're going to get more probabilities to make a traditional play theatre. And in multimedia it's very nice because you always have professionals from other countries and it gives you a lot of nice and even shared with you very cultural experiences. Before we come to audience questions and we will come to it also, we have some time for it. I know Jayton also, he did the one flew over, Kosovo, the Eiffel Tower project, whatever. But what's up next? What is the company planning? What is the next project? The next project we're planning to start in mid-August, it's about the workers' right. So we still don't have any line of the story and I will have to wait until June normally to get like five pages maybe of the story and then to the cast and all the other, what comes next? That's the thing we're doing. But meanwhile as a company we have a literature festival going on and we are touring with this show more and we have other shows with which we go in Europe and yeah. So we have a great audience here at Lamama, I saw some familiar faces. So let's go up here. Do we have a microphone for the audience? Yes, so you're going to bring it up. So maybe shorty say your name, what you do if you want and short statement or question or observation and here we go. My name is Siobhan Peterson. I'm an actor and Nanny based here in New York. I was just wondering in Kosovo and in Eastern Europe in general are the police the people that the queer people trust to go to when they feel danger? Because like to hear you say oh yeah we would go to the police I'm like that sounds completely foreign to me as a queer person and as a black person in America I'm like I would never go to the police like that just looks like trouble to me. Yeah it's kind of the same there too I think. It was for the opening night. Yeah in our company I mean in the group there are no people from the LGBT community. So for us it was easy to go to the police and ask for help in this case. But for the LGBT community it can be tough to go and ask for help unless you're I don't know somebody who everyone knows and because of European presence, US presence in the country the government needs to take care of all this. We're talking about theater like it's a national theater inviting the police and it's like it goes through this protocol but if you are like women also get beaten by like domestic violence it's like going on and also the community like society is very violent with LGBT community and police are too. So yes it's the same like police is very very not the place that you go when you get beaten by and I know what you mean because it's sad. Just as a question why weren't members of LGBT community part of the production? Why they weren't? Because we weren't seeking for experts on the question. We were seeking for collaborators that we would like to do the show. That's all professional people. I'm not saying that there are no professional people from the LGBT community but in this case we have our group with whom we're working so we wanted to work with them. And we thought that it's not necessary to have somebody from the LGBT community just in order to say that now we have somebody close to us so you cannot judge us. It's not necessary. It wasn't necessary and we don't feel like it's necessary to have someone. I think that sexuality with being part of a community is a totally different thing because I feel like I am part of the community and I think that's my sexual orientation. It doesn't decide if I'm part of the community because love is love at the end of the day. I cannot say for myself that I'm straight and I will be all my life. It's stupid. I guess in New York in this production would be members, would be included I think in the creative process but also on stage because it's also about the theme so just as a thought and in general as you might talk to workers, you know when you do about workers' rights but it came to a great... Obviously before doing the show we do research. We have this all this phase of research so we're not just entering like, I don't know, one would enter in a forest or else but I cannot say because I don't want to be judged in that direction that I'm an expert in the issue and I didn't feel like I should have from the community but I have a lot of friends who are part of the community and it's completely fine. Of course and this is a great production. Some other comments? Hi, congratulations by the way. I think a lot of people in the audience found a parallel to this story with what happened in America a few years ago in Kentucky where gay marriage was legalized in all 50 states but then there was a county clerk who just outright refused to marry a couple that came for a marriage license and so I want to know is this based on a true story or partially based on a true story? It's actually partly based on a true story because we heard that there was a request in one of the towns in Kosovo but the thing is that we are unsure of that. We are unsure like 100% that it really happened but we heard on the newspaper that there was a request but then the other facts around this story then most of them are based on a true story actually. Like the constitution allows it and a family law forbids it. We have issues that you cannot get married in fact and by the constitution it's a totally messed up story and it's very frustrating if you go through all of these issues with the law because we are still like a country in a making, we're still after the war. It's been 11 years we have declared our independence so it's quite a new country. I mean you won't find the books of 3,000 pages outside unfortunately but yeah it's a story like that that takes so many pages to explain but yeah there are so many true stories. So just for those of us who don't know is Kosovo predominantly Christian or predominantly Muslim or half and half or? Muslim, 96% of the population is Muslim. 96%? Yes. So that's where the family law that you spoke of may come into place? It was, the family law was before because I think that after the war people started to go more to take it more serious. It was this transition, it was really weird. Actually a transition happened in our countries these late years like 50 years. Like what Al-Qaeda is trying to say is that this family law doesn't allow it. But Kosovo after the issue of the traditional Islam what we would call in our country and then after the country, the war was finished many organizations came to Kosovo and many people started to get more into not the tradition of Islam anymore so it has changed with the years. So maybe you wanted to say that, the family extreme if we may call even though, yeah. Like now you can see more people actually practicing the religion while before it wasn't the case. Yes. But it was more of a tradition thing and now it's not like people have started to get religion more serious and it's really sad. I understand that actually you have, there are problems right now between the old-fashioned Islam, the way it was lived in Kosovo and who are really threatened by the new Islam coming in and there are a lot of fights, right? Yes. Good. Any other? Another? Can we up there, Paulie? As a veteran of gay movement in New York and in the states I know that there's always conflict amongst our ranks about what issues important, which issues to, you know, generations change, what they focus on different groups. I'm just wondering, you know, here in your production marriage was sort of like a central element of the drama, of the action and then we also saw these like, you know, this untenable violence committed against people and institutions and I wonder if there's struggle within the forming of strategy. Do we protect ourselves and our health and try to keep housing and jobs before we advocate for marriage or is it just this one great sweep of freedom from and freedom to issues? You understand what I'm saying? How, how is it, this might be beyond, but how is it that you selected the issues of marriage? The issue of marriage and the issues of, how is this the central? Because we actually started, the idea of doing the show was actually like the coming out and we got this story of two people willing to get married and it was no way they could so that's where we started to develop the whole story and so yeah, it is central actually and in our show we make it possible but it's, I'm not very confident that it can happen I don't know in how many years from now. I don't know if I'm responding to your question. You think that maybe this looks a bit exotic for the problems that actually you, that you saw during the play like from Kosovo a lot of violence and stuff and you're doing a play about gay rights, right? But it's a problem these two and this is not the only play that multimedia is doing or we are playing so this is one of the subjects that we treated for this play I think and it's cool. Maybe one last comment or question or something on your minds. Yeah, all the way over there. First of all, thanks. You guys did a great job. The last time I was in a theater was actually in the National Theater in Pristina when I was watching a play there. Not very much, thanks. I just wanted to say it's refreshing to see something like this come from Kosovo. There are a lot of problems, societal, governmental and just in the way that your country is becoming a country in the world but I just wanted to say congratulations and I'm really happy to see something like this come out. I hope to see more. Thank you. Thank you. Wonderful. I think this is a great comment and I really would also underline a congratulation to all of you for picking this, putting it on stage, creating 55 scenes around and then taking it on the road and being there with your buddies on stage is a significant theme and it's also beautifully done and created. So well done. Congratulations. I would say another applause for the actor and the director and welcome. Thank you. So thank you for coming and I think the moment we'll put on a festival 50 years of Stonewall Mia. When does that happen in July? In June, so please come back and it will also be an additional comment on this. So thank you for coming and have a good day. Thank you.