THE 2025 REHEARSAL FOR TRUTH INTERNATIONAL THEATER FESTIVAL: Perseverance

may 26-June 15, 2025

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 2025 festival, entitled Perseverance, runs May 26 – June 15.  This year’s festival (including the reading series) features work from Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, Estonia, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine.  We live in a difficult time, a time when war has returned to Eastern Europe, and democracies across the world are more at threat than they have been in decades. Havel’s once said that the answer lies “in the human heart”, and his example shows us how we can persevere through even the most trying of circumstances.  The theater we present tackles that subject, using love and humor as two of our greatest tools, as we work to persevere.

The program will be primarily theater, including full productions coming from Europe, American productions of foreign works, puppetry, clown, music, opera on film, a livestream from Salzburg, and more. For the first time we will have one show with multiple performances: the play Blood, Sweat, and Queers, a new play by Tomáš Dianiška (winner of Best Czech Play at the Czech Theatre Critic’s Awards) that was featured as a reading in last year’s festival.  The play tells the true story of Zdenek Koubek, a Czech runner from the 1930’s who won the world’s record in women’s track and then was one of the first people to transition to male. Blood, Sweat, and Queers will be $20/ticket, and for all other programs we ask for a $15 donation if you can afford it ($10 for our film and livestream).  It makes continuing our work possible.

Please go through our program and find some shows that appeal.  We look forward to seeing you.

“The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and human responsibility.”

— Vaclav Havel

Organizers

The Vaclav Havel Center

Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association

CO-PRODUCERS

Austrian Cultural Forum

Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York

Czech Center New York

Divadlo DPM

EUNIC

Hungarian House

Hura Collective

Romanian Cultural Institute

Untitled Theater Company No. 61

PROMOTION PARTNERS

Consulate General of the Republic of Bulgaria

Consulate General of Slovakia in New York

Polish Cultural Institute

FUNDERS

The Henderson Fund

New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council

New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature

FESTIVAL TEAM

Edward Einhorn | Artistic Director

Berit Johnson | Production Manager

D Henry Hanson | Assistant Production Manager

Nu Ave Art | Web Master/Marketing

Marek Soltis | Technical Manager & Sound

Jiri Mirovsky | Technician

Steve Prue | Photography

Katarina Mirovsky | Accounting

Everyman Agency | Publicity

Victoria Blass, Julia Purdy, Sravya Sarawatula | Productions Interns

KADS New York, Katerina Kyselica | Brochure Design

VENUE

Bohemian National Hall, New York City

Hungarian House, New York City