Scot McElvany (Class of 1995)
Scot McElvany (1995) Artistic Director and Multi-Cultural Youth Workshop Leader for CommunityArts e.V. in Germany and South Eastern Europe
Pictures of Scot while he was a student at ULV.
email: scot (dot) mcelvany (at) communityarts (dot) de
website: CommunityArts e.V.
above: Sonja Kuftinec, Scot McElvany (1995), Nele Julius McElvany
Scot McElvany (1995) after graduation joined the Bretheren Volunteer Service and was assigned to Bosnia. It was there that he met his wife, Nele Julius, who is currently working on her Doctoral degree in Psychology with the Max-Planck Institute in Berlin. The two of them formed a company called CommunityArts e.V. , which designs programs and projects in Germany and South Eastern Europe focusing on issues of social justice and identity construction.
Scot's focus is still on theatre and performance, as well as the development of "performative learning" as a means towards positive social change in areas of conflict and division. In 1997 he organized special international summer theater camps that included youth from both sides of Mostar. The participants performed a collaboratively developed performance at the International Youth Theater Festival in Mostar, a first since the war divided these actors. In 2001 CommunityArts developed a combined exhibition and performance at Berlin's Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of World Cultures) that explored the beauty, chaos, and passion of Balkan identity. Most recently Scot co-directed a collabortive theater performance with Sonja Kuftinec titled There is a Field for the main-stage at the University of Minneapolis in Minnesota, assisted the filming of a documentary in Israel/Palestine, and led a workshop on "youth empowerment" in Kosovo. In November 2003 he will be developing a street-theater-event in Bucharest, Romania with 40 performers from 9 countries.
Scot currently lives in Berlin, Germany...and says he would be happy to provide you with a place to stay (as well as meals and an insiders tour of the city.)
Bringing Visions to LifeAn International Youth Theater Project in Bosnia-Hercegovina at
Mostar's 20th Annual International Youth Theater Festival
at left: Sonja Kuftinec, Scot McElvany
Bringing Visions to Life, a performance project from August 9th to 31st, 1999. Twenty participants, ages 16-20, were invited to take part in a theatrical performance that brought together the perspectives and styles of other young performers from Bosnia-Hercegovina, Germany, Great Britain, Yugoslavia and United States. Once assembled in Mostar, Bosnia-Hercegovina the group was trained and lead through various forms of theatrical development by Scot 
McElvany ('95) and Sonja Kuftinec. Twice over the last three years Mr. McElvany and Ms. Kuftinec have directed performances for the festival in Mostar, as well as various other pieces throughout Bosnia-Hercegovina. They have worked with amateur and youth theater projects in the United States, Romania, Hungary, Great Britain and Germany.
Throughout August the group engaged in discussions, workshops, and rehearsals in order to create an original performance to premier at the festival. Workshops developed around issues of Unity and Division. Mostar itself plays an important role as a symbol with overlapping meanings: War, Unity, Division, as well as representing new life and culture developement.
The group had three weeks to get to know each other, to find their own ways of expression and to get used to different forms of theatrical presentation. Games supporting group dynamics and the transfomation of individual experiences into scenes were parts of the workshops. Further on in the process, scenes dealing with cultural differences as well as perceived prejudices were added and some of them became part of the performance.
Left: Miljan Music, Katharina Osterried, Will Nedved, David (Rojas) Baldizon ('02)
Right: Ira Ninic, Dorde Jankovi, April Shenkman ('02)
Since March 1996, Scot McElvany of Upland, California, has been the second BVSer (Bretheren Volunteer Service, one of the community service options available to University of La Verne students and graduates) to work in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina, at the "Mladi Most" (Young Bridge) project, a youth/community center in this Croat-Muslim divided town known for its "Stari Most" (old bridge), which was destroyed during the Croat-Muslim war. Mladi Most offers programs, camps, trips, and courses-such as e-mail, photography, language, and music-for the town's Croatian, Muslim, and Serb youth. It also provides a safe space for youth of different nationalities to meet. Scot's focus is on theatre; he recently organized special international summer theater camps that included youth from both sides of Mostar. The participants later performed together in Mostar, a first since the war divided these actors.
Bretheren Volunteer Service in Bosnia
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