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16 OUR LIFE • November 2023 Hunger: The Play Emma Denson In February 2022, I proposed a challenge to my directing mentor, Colm Summers: Around the World in 80 Plays. I wanted to learn more about international theatre, the - atre history, and to improve my skills in pitching proposals of plays. The goal was to research a different country, through the lens of theatre, each week, pick a play by a playwright from that country, and pitch the play to my mentor. The week I proposed this project happened to be the same week that war erupted in Ukraine, so he asked me to study Ukraine as my first country. In my research on Ukrainian dra - ma, I stumbled upon an anthology of Ukrainian plays, one of which was Bohdan Boychuk’s Hunger . The play dramatized the Holodo - mor, an atrocity I had heard little about prior to reading the play. As I researched images from the Holodomor, Boychuk’s play took on even more meaning, and the war felt even more urgent. I pre - sented a pitch about how I would direct Hunger , which my mentor had not read either. I told him I wanted to find out more about the play, and about Boychuk him - self, but there seemed to be very little scholarship about this in - credibly gifted writer. Determined to find out more, I searched the Internet for anyone connected with him. Eventually, I came across his In Memoriam, penned by a Ukrainian scholar and professor at UMass Boston, Askold Melnyczuk. I emailed him to ask if he could tell me more. He replied, connecting me with Virko Baley, who composed and wrote an opera based on Hunger called Red Dawn , and Maria Rewakow - icz, who wrote the only book in English about Boychuk and a group of Ukrainian émigré poets and writers who congregated in New York City in the 1950s: The New York Group. I interviewed Virko Baley over Zoom. Maria, on the other hand, worked at the local Ukrainian Mu - seum, so I invited her for coffee in the East Village. Imagine my sur - prise when Maria’s first words to me when I asked about Boychuk were, “Well what do you want to know about him? I was mar - ried to him.” It was truly kismet to meet Maria, who would go on to become a true collaborator on this project. The goal was to stage Hunger as a fundraiser for Ukraine, but this time, the play would be bilingual. The Ukrainian language had long been endangered under Soviet oppression, and the play, original - ly written in Ukrainian, felt like it demanded to be told, at least in part, in its native tongue. Maria and I combed through the play, deciding which characters and sections of the play made the most sense in Ukrainian, and then by Bohdan Boychuk's Adapted by MAria Remakowicz and Emma Denson Hunger Ninety years after Holodomor Ukrainian lives, language, and art are once again in peril Staged reading May 4, 2023 The ukrainian museum A special thank you to A Directors Note In February 2022, the week the war broke out in Ukraine, I stumbled upon a play I'd never heard of before: Hunger. Boychuk's gripping and powerful drama about Holodomor moved me, and I quickly became obsessed with learning more about the play, its writer, and the event that inspired it. I reached out to a professor at University of Massachusetts, Boston (who had written Boychuk's In Me moriam), Askold Melnyczuk. Askold proceeded to connect me with composer Virko Baley, and scholar Maria Rewakowicz. The rest, as they say, is history. What happened after was months of research, interviews, development, and finding the right team for this project. A new community was formed around the play as Maria and I imagined bringing Boychuk's long lost gem of a play back to life, this time, as a b ilingual piece. Over a year has passed since I first read Hunger, and the heart of the piece has only grown more relevant. In Ukraine, and in America, our hope can be found in each other: we are to be the hands and feet that must be willing to help in times of crisis. It feels surreal to be performing for you today at the Ukrainian Museum. It is in this building that the collaboration between Maria an d myself was born, and it is such an honor to share our work with you today. Thank you to everyone who made this production possible. I want to especially thank The Ukrainian Museum, The Ukrainian National Women's League of America, Mississippi State University, Origin Theatre Company, Irish Arts Center, and "Our Life" Magazine for their generous support of our project. Thank you to this incredible cas t, for your hard work and dedication, my producer Aislinn, designer Stephanie, and especially to Maria, for working by my side on this from day one. Finally, thank you for coming. I hope you enjoy today's reading. Emma Denson Director/Co-Adapter Photo: Emma Denson The cast of Hunger performs a read - ing at the Irish Arts Center, January 2023. Photo: Mary Claire McDaniel The cast and crew of Hunger out - side the Irish Arts Center, January 2023 (l-r): Aislinn Cain, Maryna Vogtsberger, Emma Denson, Julian Abelskamp, Isaiah Dodo-Williams, Alvin Christmas, Anne Guadagnino, Una Clancy. Julian Abelskamp, Maryna Vogst - berger, Anne Guadagnino, and Kath - leen Ritter (l-r) perform a reading of Hunger at The Ukrainian Museum, May 2023.
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