A transnational project by Julie Paucker and Robert Schuster

History

Transit Europa was an attempt to develop an ensemble of projects with the means of theater, which would at the same time offer concrete aid and enable artistic intercultural exchange.

Upon the initiative of the KULA Compagnie and in cooperation with the Kunstfest Weimar, the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar, the Theater Freiburg and the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst "Ernst Busch", 5 players of the theater group AZDAR/Parwaz from Afghanistan were invited to Germany for several projects. The multi-award winning theater group has not been able to perform in Afghanistan since a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up at the premiere of their production Heart Beat - The Silence After The Explosion in 2014.

Despite intensive efforts of the KULA team until beyond the scheduled start of rehearsals of KULA - to Europe, however, the artists were not allowed to enter the country due to German entry restrictions in 2016.

Thanks to the success of the production, which addressed the history of this effort out of necessity, and the resulting publicity, it was possible to obtain entry for the Afghan colleagues a year later, so that the long-awaited artistic encounter with the European players_in the context of the follow-up play MALALAI - the Afghan Maid of Orleans could take place after all.

This joint political and artistic effort also led to the formal formation of the KULA Compagnie e.V. in Weimar on December 16th 2017.