Rehearsal for Truth International Theater Festival is an annual showcase of contemporary Central and Eastern European theater, established in 2017. The festival is a shared endeavor of the Václav Havel Center and the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association in partnership with numerous other cultural and performing arts organizations. The festival honors the artistic and political legacy of the Czech playwright/dissident/president Václav Havel. We support exchanges between American and European theater professionals and celebrate the power of the theater to transform our lives.

The 2024 festival, entitled Dark Dreams, runs June 12 – 23.  This year’s festival (including the May reading series) features work from Austria, Belarus, Estonia, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine.  Much of the work featured this year is surreal or dreamlike, finding ways to comment on past and present tragedies, from the legacy of the Nazi and Soviet years to the current war in Ukraine.  It explores fascism but also beauty, darkness but also laughter.

We begin with one of the oldest authors in the vein of the dark and comically surreal, Franz Kafka, on the 100th anniversary of his death.  And we continue on with not only theater but dance and music.  This year, for the first time, we also include film in our lineup, specifically film of theater and dance.  And most of our programs include discussions with either the authors, experts on some of the subjects addressed, or both.

We hope you can join.  All programs are free, though we do ask for a $10 donation if you can afford it.  It makes continuing our work possible.