DAH SAYS: "In today’s world, we can oppose destruction and violence with the creation of meaning "
The Economist Magazine's Intelligence Unit places, Serbia, and Singapore, among the 46 countries that are considered Flawed Democracies along with United States of America.
As our three countries grow more alike in surprising ways, it felt like the right moment to revisit two powerful episodes featuring activist artists from Serbia and Singapore.
First up is our 2022 Change the Story Change the World with conversation with Dijana Milosevic, the Director of Belgrade’s Dah Teatar.
Imagine mounting a guerrilla theater performance in a bombed-out city square, in the middle of war, while armed soldiers look on—and still holding on to your art, your convictions, and your humanity. That is the story of Dah Teatar, a theater collective from Belgrade that has survived war, sanctions, shifting regimes, and censorship—and kept creating powerful, justice-driven work.
In this episode of ART IS CHANGE, we dive back into the history and present of Dah Teatar through a rich conversation with co‑founder Dijana Milošević. We revisit their 1992 This Babylonian Confusion street performance, and then catch up on how the company has restructured, relocated, responded to climate concerns, and carried forward their practice of “being with” communities. Along the way, Dijana shares stories of bus‑based public theater, performances among trees, and how art continues to navigate complexity, contradiction, and resistance in Serbia today.
You’ll hear:
- How Dah anchored themselves in relationship and material constraints during the war years, moving from classic theater into street performance in real time.
- The evolution of the company from ensemble-based actors to a more horizontal, administrative structure that can sustain creative risk.
- Their project Invisible City, performed inside buses, bringing stories rooted in neighborhood life to ordinary passengers—not just theatergoers.
- Their more recent project Dancing Trees, where trees become collaborators, audiences move into the forest, and performance becomes site, sound, memory, and activism.
- Reflections on censorship, environmental struggle, national narratives, cross‑community healing, and the role of artists in turbulent times.
Tune in to follow Dah’s journey across decades of upheaval and resilience—and be inspired by how a theater company, rooted in place and poetic defiance, continues to bridge divides between people and environment.
Change the Story Collection
Be sure to check out our CHANGE THE STORY COLLECTION OF ARCHIVED EPISODES on: Justice Arts, Art & Healing, Cultural Organizing, Arts Ed./Children & Youth, Community Arts Training, Music for Change, Theater for Change, Change Making Media. BIO
Dijana Milošević is an award-winning theater director, writer and lecturer. She co-founded the DAH Theater Research Center in Belgrade, and has been its lead director for over 25 years.
Dijana has served as the artistic director of theater festivals, the president of the Association of Independent Theaters, the president of the board of BITEF Theater, and a member of the board of directors of the national International Theater Institute (ITI). She has been involved with several peacebuilding initiatives and collaborates with feminist-activist groups.
DAH Theater has performed nationally and internationally under Dijana’s directing. She has also directed plays by other theater companies around the world.
She is a well-known lecturer, who has taught at world-famous universities. She writes articles and essays about theater as well as society. She has won prestigious scholarships such as Fulbright and Arts Link. She is a professor at the Institute for Artistic Play in Belgrade.
Notable Mentions
Dah Teatar Research Center for Culture and Social Change: DAH Theatre is an independent, professional, contemporary theatre troupe and artistic collective that uses modern theatre techniques to create engaging art and initiate positive social change, both locally and globally. Mission: In today’s world, we can oppose destruction and violence with the creation of meaning.” Through dedicated teamwork, we create bold dramatic art to provoke, inspire, and incite personal and social transformation.
Art and Upheaval - Artists on the World’s Frontlines: Author William Cleveland shares remarkable stories from Northern Ireland, Cambodia, South Africa, United States (Watts, Los Angeles), aboriginal Australia, and Serbia, about artists who resolve conflict, heal unspeakable trauma, give voice to the forgotten and disappeared, and restitch the cultural fabric of their communities.
This Babylonian Confusion: The Dah Teatar project “This Babylonian Confusion” is a result of a montage of the actors’ materials and the songs of Bertold Brecht. This performance was created from the need of the artists to place themselves in their duty- as artists in “dark times.” Four actors using the characters of Angels say their share against war, nationalism and destruction. [1992]
Slobodan Milošivić: was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who served as the president of Serbia within Yugoslavia from 1989 to 1997. Formerly a high-ranking member of the League of Communists of Serbia (SKS) during the 1980s, he led the Socialist Party of Serbia from its foundation in 1990 until 2003. After Milošević's death, the ICTY and the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals found that he was a part of a joint criminal enterprise which used violence to remove Croats, Bosniaks, and Albanians from large parts of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo.
Bertolt Brecht: was one of the most influential playwrights of the 20th century. His works include The Threepenny Opera (1928) with composer Kurt Weill, Mother Courage and Her Children (1941), The Good Person of Szechwan (1943), and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1958). A member of the Independent Social Democratic Party, Brecht wrote theater criticism for a Socialist newspaper from 1919 to 1921. His plays were banned in Germany in the 1930s, and in 1933, he went into exile, first in Denmark and then Finland. He moved to Santa Monica, California, in 1941, hoping to write for Hollywood, but he drew the attention of the House Un-American Activities Committee.
The Story of Tea: The central theme of the performance is the train that will finally take three sisters to the place of their dreams- Moscow, or missed opportunities and gambled chances, inspired and provoked by the other important themes of DAH Theater’s ‘three sisters.’
Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov is a play by the Russian author and playwright Anton Chekhov. It was written in 1900 and first performed in 1901 at the Moscow Art Theatre. The play is sometimes included on the short list of Chekhov's outstanding plays, along with The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull and Uncle Vanya.[1]
Rio Tinto: Rio Tinto Group is an Anglo-Australian multinational company that is the world's second-largest metals and mining corporation (behind BHP).[5][6] In May 2020, to expand the Brockman 4 mine,
Rio Tinto has been widely criticised by environmental groups as well as the government of Norway for the environmental impacts of its mining activities: claims of severe environmental damages related to Rio Tinto's engagement in the Grasberg mine in Indonesia led the Government Pension Fund of Norway to exclude Rio Tinto from its investment portfolio.[15]
Academic observers have also expressed concern regarding Rio Tinto's operations in Papua New Guinea, which they allege were one catalyst of the Bougainville separatist crisis.[16] There have also been concerns over corruption: in July 2017 the UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announced the launch of a fraud and corruption investigation into the company's business practices in Guinea.[17]
Ana Brnabić: born 28 September 1975) is a Serbian politician serving as the prime minister of Serbia since 2017. She is the first woman and first openly gay person to hold the office.[1]
Women in Black: Women in Black is a world-wide network of women committed to peace with justice and actively opposed to injustice, war, militarism and other forms of violence. As women experiencing these things in different ways in different regions of the world, we support each other’s movements. An important focus is challenging the militarist policies of our own governments. We are not an organisation, but a means of communicating and a formula for action.
Explorez Festival: Theater, dance, music and visual arts with a social impact in an international perspective. Since 2016, ZID has been organizing the international crossover festival ExploreZ where the city of Amsterdam is a stage for the city’s residents, artists and (inter) national theater makers. Each festival has its own theme, which is current for the makers and for social developments both locally and internationally.
25 Glasses of Wine: A lecture-performance featuring DAH Theater’s director, using autobiographical texts to discuss the work of a theater troupe and their adventures in the historical-political context of ‘a country which no longer exists
Dennis Barnett (Coe College): With an interest in works in translation, Professor Barnett has edited two collections of essays about theatre in Eastern Europe including one devoted to DAH Theatre in Belgrade, Serbia. He leads May Term in Serbia giving students an opportunity to train with the group of artist-activists.
Invisible City: A Dah performance in the city bus system, and on-going project, ‘In/visible City’ is meant to render visible both the cultural richness of ethnic diversity and the multi-ethnic structure of Serbian cities.
Dancing Trees: Dah’s Dancing Trees is a site-specific dance theatre show created in collaboration with the Belgrade Dance Institute. This visually poetic performance explores the importance of trees preservation and includes wider scope of action connecting climate changes and arts.
Creative Europe: The Creative Europe programme 2021-2027 has a budget of € 2.44 billion. Creative Europe invests in actions that reinforce cultural diversity and respond to the needs and challenges of the cultural and creative sectors.
Erasmus+ is the EU's programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe that has, in some cases provided support for sport related arts programs.
The Hidden Life of Trees: In The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben shares his deep love of woods and forests and explains the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration he has observed in the woodland and the amazing scientific processes behind the wonders of which we are blissfully unaware. (from Goodreads)
ITAC: International Teaching Artists Collaborative: The first world wide network of artists who work in community and educational settings.
Students Park: Actually, its proper name is Academic Park, but Belgrade slang has been successfully neglecting the fact since the 1970s….
Conundrum of the Revolution: Rosa Luxembourg – ‘Red Rosa’ is an inspiration for revolt, against everything inhuman, violent, and exploitative, still today when revolt is not readily visible. Rosa presents us with the question- where is rebellion, is it possible?
The Wedding Community Play: The Wedding Community Play Project is an ingeniously crafted, thought-provoking and highly enjoyable piece of work, described by its producers as "the most unusual play structure ever performed in Belfast". The Wedding actually appropriates the most familiar and popular form of drama of the late 20th century - soap opera - and brings it to life by setting its story in the homes, streets and public spaces of the city. (Irish Times)
The Troubles: The Troubles (
