Project Description
The Survivor Project is a multiyear international exchange program developed by 7 Stages Theatre in Atlanta, in conjunction with the Arts Festival of Atlanta. The project aimed to initiate a substantive dialogue around the issues of survival. In 1994, anticipating the upcoming 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, 7 Stages recognized that the city of Sarajevo had hosted one of the most warmly remembered Olympics in recent history. In the 1990s, Sarajevo was engrossed by war. Experienced at presenting companies from Central Europe, 7 Stages saw the Survivor Project as a way to focus, through theater, on this part of the world where survival is so difficult and as a way for Atlantans to relate to survival issues in this country. Starting in July 1996 and through the year 2000, artists and companies from the Balkan states will be invited to Atlanta for a series of performances, dialogues, and interaction with other artists.

During the Olympics, The Survivor Project called its sessions "The Free Zone," symbolizing a location where artists from war zone countries, as well as artists struggling for survival in the safer West, could talk openly and calmly. These conversations led to many ideas and insights. The 45 year-old Arts Festival of Atlanta closed in 1998, but the need to continue dialogue and discourse about the Balkans remains. 7 States continues the projects and will work with other organizations as appropriate.

Civic Engagement/Dialogue Activities
Informal "circle meetings" modeled after those used by Alternate Roots, a regional organization dedicated to community-based art, were begun in March of 1996 to begin to give audiences context for the two theater productions that would be presented during the 1996 summer Olympics. The circles began with friends and colleagues to share what 7 Stages had learned on multiple trips to Central Europe and to get feedback on project design. Future circles invited other artists, peace activists, educators, and representatives of refugee organizations, and others with special interest. Word of mouth increasingly broadened the base of those who participated to include refugees of war, community people, and 7 Stages audience members, with some circles reaching about thirty-five people.

Circle meeting discussions were facilitated by someone with direct experience in the Balkan states (refugees, humanitarians who had worked there, or 7 Stages staff who had spent considerable time there). Only close to the time of the Olympics were theater company members from Europe present to participate in circle meetings. Participants were guided to talk about personal reactions and responses to the crises in Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, and Herzegovenia, as well as to consider personal and social survival issues here in the United States. A key question reiterated by participants in circle meetings was "In an ever-violent world, what is the response and responsibility of artists?" This question continued to be turned back to the community as the project evolved.

Talk-backs after performances were held following two of the three companies' performances. Discussions, some facilitated by an organizer of the Belgrade Theater Festival, involved 20 to 45 people and often went on for more than two hours.

Information Sources
Information Sources: Interview, Lisa James, Survivor Project coordinator, 7 Stages.