Skip to content
Call Us Today! 212-533-4646 | MON-FRI 12PM - 4PM (EST)
DONATE
SUBSCRIBE
Search for:
About Us
UNWLA 100
Publications
FAQ
Annual Report 2023
Annual Report 2022
Annual Report 2021
Initiatives
Advocate
Educate
Cultivate
Care
News
Newsletters
Sign Up For Our Newsletter
Join UNWLA
Become a Member
Volunteer With Us
Donate to UNWLA
Members Portal
Calendar
Shop to Support Ukraine
Search for:
Print
Print Page
Download
Download Page
Download Right Page
Open
1
2-3
4-5
6-7
8-9
10-11
12-13
14-15
16-17
18-19
20-21
22-23
24-25
26-27
28-29
30-31
32-33
34-35
36-37
38-39
40
Halyna Stefanova and Oleh Drach reading “Conduct of Life” in Kyiv (photo byVitali Horbonos) Through its presentations, kolo nas has made quite a name for itself among the young literary crowd in Kyiv. Recently, kolo nas has also started staging readings of new Ukrainian translations of American experimental drama. While teaching at Karpenko-Karyi, I realized how little my students knew about the best of American culture. It was a shock to see that their textbook on world theatre was printed in Moscow in 1979 and included ridiculous opinions about American theatre presented as fact. When I tried to have my students go to the source to form their own opinions, they told me that there were only seven translations of American plays in Ukrainian and most were out of print. Since it is very imporatant that these future theatre critics and historians be able to place Ukrainian theatre in a world context, I decided to take a step towards remedying the situation by organizing translations of American drama and presenting public play readings. Last January kolo nas presented a reading of 49, a Native American play by Hanay Geiogo- mah, which I translated with Oksana Batiuk. Over fifty attended, including writer Oksana Zabuzhko, a number of theatre artists, and my students from the Theatre Institute. The play’s theme about preserving the essential of an embattled culture really rang bells in Kyiv and provoked a a very lively discussion afterwards. The audience loved it. This spring, kolo nas events continued to present readings of new Ukrainian translations of American plays. The first offering was a translation of Sam Shepard’s play Angel City, a comedic and horrified take on LA’s film business. Reading the parts of the three main characters were Victor Morozov, Oleh Drach, and Serhiy Zhadan. The gallery was packed, with many people sitting on the floor. The response was enthusiastic, with the audience clamoring for more. One of those attending the event was Valentyna Kyrylovna, the editor of Osnovy Books, which had recently agreed to publish a book with our translations. American Experimental Drama will be the first anthology of American drama in Ukrainian translation. Containing twelve plays, it will include a wide range of works from the earliest experimental works by such great American authors as Eugene O’Neill in the 1920s to Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer-winning play of 2002. The core of the book will be formed by theatre pieces from the 1970s through the 1990s, the heyday of American experimental drama. The anthology seeks to present both the depth and diversity of American experimental theatre to Ukrainian theatre artists, students, and audiences. In order to create translations that will breathe life on stage, I chose to collaborate with translators familiar with the performing arts. A number of the translations will be by Oksana Batiuk, the foremost translator of American films into Ukrainian. The other translators on the project are Sofia Riabchuk, who has worked on theatre productions with Yara; Mykola Shkaraban, an actor who translates theatre theory; and Serhiy Zhadan, Ukraine’s best young poet, who has also written scripts for a Kharkiv theatre. At the end of May, kolo nas presented another reading of a play, Maria Irene Fomes’ Conduct of Life, which I translated with Sofia Riabchuk. The play, read by Oleh Drach, Halyna Stefanova, and Maria Korotchenko, is set in a Latin American country. RA Gallery was again filled with an appreciative audience that listened to the short but very intense script about the choices we make in how we conduct our lives and the repercussions these daily choices have on the lives of other people. Afterwards there was a spirited discussion about ethic and politics. This fall, kolo nas plans to continue pre senting readings of both poetic and dramatic texts in translation. If you would like to read more about Yara’s kolo nas series, please visit our website www.brama.com/yara If you would like to be in formed of our next event in Kyiv send us an e-mail vara@prodigy.net Virlana Tkacz/Yara Arts Group “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ВЕРЕСЕНЬ 2004 19
Page load link
Go to Top
1 
2-3 
4-5 
6-7 
8-9 
10-11 
12-13 
14-15 
16-17 
18-19 
20-21 
22-23 
24-25 
26-27 
28-29 
30-31 
32-33 
34-35 
36-37 
38-39 
40 
