This underground theatre project was founded in 2005 as an artistic means of resisting censorship under Belarussian President Lukashenko. Playwrights Nikolai Khalezin and his wife Natalya Koliada believe counterculture is the most effective way to raise awareness and keep hope alive. They were arrested and detained after armed authorities stormed a private performance about state sanctioned disappearances.

In the country that has been called Europes last dictatorship, the Belarus Free Theatre have performed theatre pieces meant to subvert the autocracy of the presidency.

Sometimes the only safe stage has been the living room of a private apartment and the secret police have even managed to raid these discreet gatherings. The theatre groups work addresses taboo political subjects such as censorship, state-sanctioned disappearances and torture.

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The famed playwright Sir Tom Stoppard is a supporter, and presented their prize during the 2008 Freedom to Create awards ceremony. Since winning the award, the Belarus Free Theatre has started work on a worldwide documentary project. They hope to speak to artists working in politically restricted countries around the world, especially Zimbabwe, Burma and Cuba, to record stories of children's arts projects that are circumventing the censors and spreading a message of hope. They hope to interview Mr Stoppard, as well as former Czech president and celebrated political playwright Vaclav Havel, as part of their documentary work.

As for life in Belarus, Natalia Koliada who founded the theatre company with her husband, Nikolai Khalezin says that it is "always difficult". Although the publicity from the Freedom to Create Prize won them international respect and is helping drive their documentary project, it also caused Ms Koliada's father, a professor with lifetime tenure, to lose his job at the Academy of Arts and be told that he and his children are "a disgrace to the country". The work of the Belarus Free Theatre continues.