Beyond the Yalla Dog

28.6.2011

Natalya – part of the NYU Florence season at La Pietra

Natalya

The Natalya Piece is a story – a play in progress – (a potential film for the future?) – about two human rights activists who became involved in writing against the Chechnya War of Separation and the atrocities perpetrated since 1997 upon anyone who stood in the way of either side in the conflict.

Both women – Natayla Estemirova, a Chechna history teacher and Anna Politkovska, a well known writer and journalist were murdered for their work.

This powerful piece – which has been in development by the Continuum Company over the past two years – was performed by three actors Mia Barron, who is also a playwright of the piece, Cherise Boothe and Hannah Cabell.

The collaborative authors of this work, Mia Barron, Carson Kreitzer and Mona Mansour are all writers in residence with the Continuum Company at La Pietra this summer. The piece has been in development between three writers over the past two years

Postscript

In February 2010 an anonymous source in the Russian law enforcement bodies claimed that investigators knew Estemirova’s murderer. Yet, the murderer wasn’t caught, and the organizer of the crime was not identified.