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Velvet Play & Party at Dupont Underground!

Category: Event Calendar

Date and Time for this Past Event

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Alliance for New Music-Theatre, Embassy of the Czech Republic, and Dupont Underground invite you to a Velvet Play & Party!

First, enjoy a screening of a short documentary My Freedom, followed by the main stage theatrical performance of the Alliance’s Vaněk Unleashed, and concluding with a Velvet Party featuring DJ Alyaz from Prague. The party and performances commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, a movement that restored freedom and democracy to the Czech people. Head to DC’s hottest hidden venue, right underneath Dupont Circle, for an unforgettable night of theatre, music, and the arts!

Doors open at 6:15 | Prelude screening at 6:30 pm

The event is also a part of the Mutual Inspirations Festival 2019.

VELVET REVOLUTION: Historical Background

On November 17, 1989, a student march in Prague marked the 50th anniversary of International Students’ Day, the day a young student was killed by the Nazis during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939. As the students moved towards the center of the city, the riot police brutally attacked them. In response, hundreds of thousands of citizens found the courage to take to the streets to protest the suppression as well as the ruling communist regime itself. As the mass demonstration grew with each day and spread throughout the country, the stage for the dissident political movement Civic Forum was set. The communist regime fell and democracy was reinstated. The courageous dissident, prisoner of conscience, and talented playwright Václav Havel became the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and later the first President of the Czech Republic.