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The Washington Square News wrote: “This is not an easy piece, but a journey that lingers, sings and then turns the lights up, leaving the aud ience dizzy and breathless... Waterfalls/Reflections searches traditionally coded women’s metaphors and different ways in which women come to knowledge.” Writing in the Ukrainian Herald, Thaya Salamacha called Waterfall/Reflections “a powerful piece which reaches deep into the audiences feeling, memories and reveries of their cultures... This performance was Yara’s most impressionistic work yet, and one which should not be missed.” The audiences loved the production. People often mentioned they felt transported into another world or enchanted by the songs. The Ukrainian American Busi ness and Professional came as a group one night and the artists had wonderful discussion with them after wards. We were especially proud that Yuri Shcherbak, Ukraine’s Ambassador to America and Anatoly Zlenko, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the UN were able to attend one of our shows. Our closing night party was a very said affair. No one wanted to part. Afterwards we were more deter mined than ever to raise the funds for our trip to Kyyiv. We spent a crazy two months fundraising and writing grant proposals. Finally, through the generosity of many individuals in the Ukrainian American community and several American foundations, we had the opportunity to perform our show for Ukrainian audiences at the Berezillia Arts Festival of Experimental Theatre. Whenever we travel to Ukraine we always make sure that we can share our skills and experiences with Ukrainian artists and students. This time we were invited to teach at the University of the Kyyiv-Mohyla Academy. The Kyyiv-Mohyla Academy is Ukraine’s most presti gious private university, which in recent years has been reestablished as the leading center of higher education in Ukraine. I arrived in Kyyiv April 1st, and that after noon presented a lecture with slides which introduced the students to the ideas of experimental theatre and the work of the Yara Arts Group. I also outlined Yara’s various co-productions with Ukrainian artists and des cribed the workshops that we had conducted with stu dents throughout America, Canada and Ukraine. Valery Bilchenko, the director of the Kyyiv Experimental Thea tre, which is currently in residence at the Kyyiv-Mohyla Academy, attended the initial lecture. He suggested that the theatre workshops I was to conduct at Mohyla include his actors and be held in the space used by his group. This proved to be convenient for everyone. Our workshops were held in one of the 18th century rbuildings on campus. One day, Andrea Odezynska, who was my assistant, turned to me and said: “Тут ходив Сковорода ” (Here walked Skovoroda). She was quoting a line from poem by Pavlo Tychyna we included in Yara’s first production, A Light From the East. Yes, indeed, Skovoroda, the great 18th century poet and phi losopher, had walked here. His portrait watched over us. It was breath-taking to look up the faces on walls of the library room where we rehearsed. All those great thinkers — their presence could be felt in the room. Andrea knew the line because in 1990 she had shot a documentary film about Yara’s first project. Now she was film director living in California. Her film Dora is Dysfunctional, was one of the finalists in the short sub ject category at the Academy Awards last year. I was very happy to have her with us in Ukraine. She screened Dora Is Dysfunctional for the students of the Mohyla Academy one evening. In addition to an article on Yara Arts Group, Kino-Teatr a journal published by the Kyyiv-Mohyla Academy, will be printing a separate fea ture article Andrea’s work in film. Andrea’s film was also screened at the Berezillia Festival, at a separate private screening for foreign journalists in Kyyiv and for the film students at Kyyiv’s Film Institute. In return for the theatre workshops we conducted, the Kyyiv-Mohyla Academy provided the Yara Arts Group with an adjoining space for rehearsals. There we re hearsed the version of Waterfall/Reflections, which we presented at the Experimental Theatre Festival. We de cided to add several Ukrainian actresses and create a more bilingual version of the show. We invited Kyyiv actresses Larysa Nedin, Natalka Shevchenko and Olya Radchuk (all of whom had worked with us previously) to work on this project. Oksana Batiuk, a poet from Kyyiv, worked with me to create the Ukrainian text for the show. During the rehearsals in Kyyiv we reshaped the scenes so the show would flow smoothly as a bilingual piece. The most extensive work was done on the final scene of the show in which each actress brings the old est thing in her house and tells its story. At La Mama this scene was created in rehearsal. In Ukraine we totally reworked the scene so that Larysa’s, Natalka’s and Olya’s own stories could be included in an organic manner. The festival at which Yara presented Waterfall/Re flections, the Fourth Artistic Berezillia International Theatre Festival, was the best showcase of experimental theatre in Ukraine to date. It was produced by Sergei Proskurnia of the Budmo Theatre in Kyyiv and was presented in cooperation with the Center of Contemporary Experimental Drama. In 32 days 46 theaters groups from England, Germany, Lithua nia, Italy, Russia, Switzerland, USA and most major cit ies of Ukraine performed to sold-out auditoriums. 1,500 theatre professionals appeared in 16 venues and 3 out door events for the audience of over 18,000. Members of the Yara Arts Group were able to see a number of the presentation at the festival which included stunning productions by the world renown theatre di rector Eimuntas Nekrosius, who presented Chekhov’s Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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