Belarus Free Theater Returns to New York with Show About Gay Basketball Star

Belarus Free Theater will return to La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club to open the venue’s 63rd season with KS6: Small Forward, which is set to begin previews at the Ellen Stewart Theatre September 21 ahead of an official opening night September 24. Performances are slated through October 13.

Devised for the stage by co-directors Nicolai Khalezin and Natalia Kaliada (who also founded Belarus Free Theatre), KS6: Small Forward is based on conversations with Katsiaryna (Katya) Snytsina, who competed for Team Belarus at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. She is the first and only popular sports figure in the history of Belarus to come out as gay. Snytsina came out as a lesbian when she fell in love with a longtime BFT company member. She now lives in exile as a dissident against the authoritarian Lukashenka regime.

The creators describe the piece as a “duologue” that will be performed by Snytsina in tandem with the rising clubland star DJ Blanka Barbara.

“To be free, you need to be brave,” said Kaliada in a press statement. “This is exactly what we found in Katya’s story: a woman who stood up against the dictatorship and stepped down from the national basketball team in solidarity with the Belarusian people and against violence.  On the court, she played ‘small forward,’ defending, scoring, creating open lanes and rebounding for the whole team.  Katya’s story helped us realize that ‘small forward’ is a way of being free.”

KS6: Small Forward features set design by Nicolai Khalezin, lighting design by Peter Small, video design by Dmytro Guk, choreography by Joseph Toonga, and sound design and original music by DJ Blanka Barbara.  The play is performed by Katsiaryna Snytsina, Blanka Barbara, Darya Andreyanova, Mikalai Kuprych, and Raman Shytsko.