One year after our inaugural partnership,Voices Festival Productions joins the Arts Club of Washington to present five new Ukrainian One-Acts From the War written since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

MEET THE actors

The local event once again joins an international initiative to bear witness through theater to the horrors of Putin’s war on Ukraine. The Worldwide Readings Project (which began in 2020 in solidarity with the beleaguered Belarus theater community) presents works which bring to light the corruption and brutality of authoritarian regimes. This year’s featured Ukrainian playwrights are Andrii Bondarenko, Iryna Harets, Olena Hapieieva, Lena Lagushonkova and Kateryna Penkova.

The ensemble of Local DC actors includes Lisa Hodsoll, Rachel Manteuffel, Fatima Quander, Theodore Sapp and Sam Sherman. The plays will be directed by VFP Artistic Producing Partner, A. Lorraine Robinson, along with Vanessa Gilbert, and NY guest artists, Zoya Kachadurian and Sam Sherman. The plays are translated from the Ukrainian by Natalia Bratus and John Freedman and have been commissioned through the Center for International Theater Development and the advocacy of CITD Founding Director, Philip Arnoult.

Lisa Hodsoll (she/her) is an actress (among other creative hats) who most recently appeared in Voices Festival Production of My Calamitous Affair with the Minister of Culture & Censorship...  Other theater credits include – NEW YORK: Laura Bush Killed A Guy (The Klunch) - D.C. run, Helen Hayes nomination for Best Lead Actress.  LOCAL: The Wonderful World of Dissocia (Theater Alliance) Helen Hayes Nomination Best Supporting Actress, Edgar and Annabelle (Studio Theatre), and The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide … (Theater J) OTHER: A Fool’s Paradise (Valiant Flea) at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and Medea’s Got Some Issues in Chicago (Chicago Theater Sweatshop) and D.C. (No Rules Theatre) TV/FILM: recent appearance on Chicago Med and will soon be seen in Apple TV + production of Lady in the Lake.  She is the founder of the not for profit arts organization Open Road https://theopenroadarts.com/ and is currently working on the post production edit for the film Flight of the Crows as well as producing the second year of An Open Road Film Festival now in partnership with The Valley Place Arts Collaborative.  For more info, visit https://lisamhodsoll.com/

Theodore Sapp*(he/him) most recently appeared in Ben Butler at Washington Stage Guild. For Voices Festival Productions he appeared in the workshop presentation of Apologies to Lorraine Hansberry (You Too, August Wilson). Other theatre credits include Portland Playhouse: Bella: An American Tall Tale; The Shakespeare Theatre: The Amen Corner; Virginia Repertory Theatre: A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder; The Winnipesaukee Playhouse: The Mountaintop; SAS Performing Arts Co.: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. You can hear him on the podcasts Sugar Maple, and Not for the Masses. He can also be seen in the short film The Handler II and The Spook Who Sat by the Door. Theodore would like to extend gratitude to Aryn, family, and friends for their support on this journey. (*Member of AEA.)

Sam Sherman  (they/he) is an actor, director, and poet, born and raised in Washington D.C.  After graduating in 2020 from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts with a BFA in Acting, Sam returned to the District where he was a Core Artist in The Reclamation Project, part of Page-To-Stage residency at the Kennedy Center dedicated to providing healing for artists of historically marginalized identities. In the summer of 2021, they moved to New York City in order to complete a Kenan Fellowship with Lincoln Center Education, where they worked to develop their own approach to teaching artistry and devised theatre. His recent projects include VARIATIONS ON A BLUEPRINT, an original devised performance created in collaboration with LCE, that addressed the nature of large, well-funded cultural institutions and the equitable redistribution of their resources. Sam also recently returned to D.C. last fall to assist director Carey Perloff in workshopping HOME? OR A PALESTINIAN WOMAN'S PURSUIT OF LIFE, LIBRERTY & HAPPINESS, a new play by Hend Ayoub and produced by Voices Festival Productions, illustrating the life of a Palestinian woman and her journey to become an actor whilst facing discrimination. He is currently developing a one-person show about his grandfathers’ experience as a Jewish American combat soldier in WWII. Sam is thrilled to be working with VFP again on their Ukrainian Playwrights Reading.

Fatima Quander (she/her)’s*performing and directing credits include: University of Maryland, FRESHH Inc. Theatre Company, DC Hip Hop Theatre Festival, Rep Stage, Everyman Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage Education, Theater of the First Amendment, Folger Elizabethan Theatre, Imagination Stage, Discovery Theater, Transformation Theatre, and Howard Community College; she has also performed in house and on tour with The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Fatima is on the faculty at UMD's School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies and also works as a theatre educator with a number of programs throughout the DC area including  Everyman Theatre, Folger Shakespeare Library’s McKee Fellows and Secondary School Shakespeare Festival, FRESHH Inc.’s Griot Girls and The Vanguard, Poetry Out Loud, Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, Sitar Arts Center, Jr. Discovery at Georgetown University, and Young Playwrights’ Theater. She is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). A native Washingtonian, Fatima reveived her MFA from Actors Studio Drama School in NYC and her BA from Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin. For Voices Festival Productions she appeared in the workshop presentation of Apologies to Lorraine Hansberry (You Too, August Wilson). (*Member of AEA.)

Rachel Manteuffel (she/her) is excited to return to VFP after understudying CALAMITOUS AFFAIR in the fall. Previous roles include Nu Sass: To Fall In Love (Merryn); Bob Bartlett: The Accident Bear (Chance); 4615 Theater Company: Enron (Sloman/raptor); Pinky Swear: Blight (Cat); The Washington Rogues: The Campsite Rule (Susan); Prometheus Theater: Twelfth Night (Olivia); Doorway Arts Ensemble: Morning, Miranda (Roadhouse Floozy, Rubber Woman). In May and June she'll be in the premiere of Bob Bartlett's Love And Vinyl at KA-CHUNK! records in Annapolis. In her other life she’s a Livingston Award winning writer, mostly for The Washington Post, and a 2022 DCCAH Fellow.

MEET THE pLAYWRIGHTS

Andriy Bondarenko is a Doctor of Philosophy, playwright, screenwriter, and culturologist. He has worked primarily as a journalist, in particular as a cultural observer. He was also a researcher at the Center for Urban History of Central and Eastern Europe (Lviv). He is currently the head of the literary and dramatic department (dramaturg) at the Lviv Puppet Theater. Plays by Bondarenko, such as Interview with a Friend (2019), and Asshole (2020) were produced in Ukraine, and have appeared in shortlists of such Ukrainian festivals as Contemporary Play Week, Drama.UA, and The Festival of Drama of Love and Beaver, where they were presented in the format of readings. His play Clout (2022) premiered at the Lviv Puppet Theater. Andrii is a co-founder of Kyiv's Theatre of Playwrights.

Iryna Harets is a playwright, writer, screenwriter, director, and psychologist, and the Head of the Theater of Modern Dialogue in Poltava. She has been a finalist and winner of Ukrainian and international drama and literary competitions, and she is an experienced trainer in such fields as: "Civic Competence," "Creating social theater venues," "Non-formal education for children and adults," and "Creative thinking." She is the author and curator of social projects, and is the founder of the All-Ukrainian Library of Contemporary Drama (UkrDramaHub). She was a nominee for the Women in Arts 2021 Award, in the category "Women in Theater." She is a co-founder of the Theatre of Playwrights.

Olena Hapieieva is a member of the Theatre of Playwrights. She was born in the city of Sumy, and studied directing in Kharkiv and Moscow. As a director she has staged Natalia Vorozhbyt’s Demons, and other contemporary texts. Her own dramatic texts include: Apartment, Sisters, Passerby, Tell Мe Оnly Good Things, and Dad. These were shortlisted and presented as stage readings at the Contemporary Play Week festival. The war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine forced her and her two children, five years and one year, eight months, into exile beginning in Mykolaiv, continuing on to Odessa, Lviv, Poland, and from there to Rouen, France. She writes short texts based on her experience and considers her work a means to understanding reality.

Kateryna Penkova was born in Donetsk. She graduated as a Conversational Actor from the Kyiv State Academy of Popular and Circus Arts. Her plays have been shortlisted at DramaUa, Contemporary Play Week, and the Lyubimovka festival in Moscow. She was awarded First Prize at the Coronation of the Word competition. She was one of the winners of the drama competition of the Ukrainian Institute in the framework of Transmission.UA: Drama on the Move. Germany (2020). Productions of her works include: I Don't Remember the Name, Chernihiv Youth Theater; and A Family History, co-authored with Lena Lyagushonkova, at the Afanasyev State Academic Puppet Theater in Kharkiv.

Lena Lagushonkova was born in the village of Stanitsa Luganska in Ukraine, and she graduated from the history department of Taras Shevchenko National University in Luhansk. She debuted as a playwright in 2018 with the play BAZA, about women and prostitution. She is the playwright-in-residence at the Vasylko Theatre in Odessa. Her short plays have been presented at numerous festivals, including Ukrainian Contemporary Play Week, DramaUA, and Aurora.

MEET THE DIRECTORS

Zoya Kachadurian Recently finished directing a video of her theatrical production of Georgia and Me, by and with Sarah Ford (best solo show 2011 Midtown International Festival). At NJ REP she directed the world premier of Apple Season. She directed 6 new works for Manhattan Theatre Source's Estrogenius Festival, and others for EST’s Octoberfest. Zoya directed The Ride, an original musical; The 39 Steps, King O' the Moon, The Graduate, The Miracle Worker, Stones in his Pockets, An Inspector Calls and Stick Fly at the Majestic Theatre in West Springfield MA; The Cocktail Hour (New Century Theatre) and a critically acclaimed Stones in His Pockets (Stoneham and Gloucester MA). She is a member of the Lincoln Center and EST Directors' Labs, and LaMama's International Directors' Symposium, she is a proud member of AEA, DGA and SDC. Thanks to Ari and Loraine for including me in this important night. www.Zoyazk.com

Vanessa Gilbert (she/her) is a theatre director, performer, and creative project doula. Projects in DC include performing as the philosopher at 48 in Meet Hannah Arendt (Natsu Onoda Power/Goethe Institut), as a River/Earth Fairy in Ferry Tales (Kennedy Center RiverRun Festival) and directing Rachel Linton’s play Fandom for Robots in the 2019 Page to Stage Festival. From 1994-2011, Vanessa filled many roles at Perishable Theatre, RI’s new works theatre- directing regional and world premieres by Mac Wellman, Erik Ehn, and Christine Evans, as well as programming the Annual Women’s Playwriting Festival, an international competition of one-act plays. As a member of the Magdalena Project, Vanessa built the first ever Magdalena USA Festival, celebrating this unique network of women in contemporary theatre, hosting 37 artists from 12 countries for 10 days of theatrical exchange in Providence RI. She is grateful to join the other Voices Festival Productions artists in listening to these modern Ukrainian playwrights. www.vanessagilbert.com

A. Lorraine Robinson (she/her) is a Director, Dramaturg, as well as VFP’s Artistic Producing Director, who has worked with various DC area and regional theatres. Recent Projects include: Director for: Let Me Down Easy and Baltimore (SMCM); Apologies to Lorraine Hansberry (You Too August Wilson) and Ukrainians Under Siege I (VFP); Three Strangers Sitting Around a Backyard Firepit at Two in the Morning Listening to Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska (a site-specific play by Bob Bartlett); The Piano Lesson and Annie (Sitar Arts Center) and Dramaturg for TopDog/Underdog (Avant Bard.)  Lorraine received the Central Ohio Theatre Critics Circle Award: Best Director & Best Production for The Laramie Project (Contemporary American Theatre Company in Columbus, Ohio.) In 2017, 2018 and 2019 she received Tony Award: Excellence in Theatre Education Honorable Mention Awards for her work at Sitar Arts Center.  Previously, she was the Co-Founding/Artistic Producing Director of MuseFire Productions.  Lorraine is also a Board Member and Associated Artist with Transformation Theatre Company. Her full bio can be found on our Producing Partners page.

Following the reading, a discussion with Ukrainian-American journalist Irena Chalupa, past correspondent for Radio Free Europe, Fulbright scholar, and currently English language Editor for StopFake, a fact-checking website launched by the Kyiv Mohyla Academy. She was joined by the four directors of the reading, A. Lorraine Robinson, Vanessa Gilbert, Zoya Kachadurian, and Sam Sherman. The conversation was moderated by VFP Founding Producing Partner, Ari Roth.

Sam Sherman (they/he) is an actor, director, and poet, born and raised in Washington D.C.  After graduating in 2020 from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts with a BFA in Acting, Sam returned to the District where he was a Core Artist in The Reclamation Project, part of Page-To-Stage residency at the Kennedy Center dedicated to providing healing for artists of historically marginalized identities. In the summer of 2021, they moved to New York City in order to complete a Kenan Fellowship with Lincoln Center Education, where they worked to develop their own approach to teaching artistry and devised theatre. His recent projects include VARIATIONS ON A BLUEPRINT, an original devised performance created in collaboration with LCE, that addressed the nature of large, well-funded cultural institutions and the equitable redistribution of their resources. Sam also recently returned to D.C. last fall to assist director Carey Perloff in workshopping HOME? OR A PALESTINIAN WOMAN'S PURSUIT OF LIFE, LIBRERTY & HAPPINESS, a new play by Hend Ayoub and produced by Voices Festival Productions, illustrating the life of a Palestinian woman and her journey to become an actor whilst facing discrimination. He is currently developing a one-person show about his grandfathers’ experience as a Jewish American combat soldier in WWII. Sam is thrilled to be working with VFP again on their Ukrainian Playwrights Reading.

About the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Reading

The Worldwide Readings Project was founded in September 2020, when Belarusian playwright Andrei Kureichik asked Moscow Times Theater critic John Freedman if he would translate his play Insulted - Belarus, about the revolution in Minsk, and "perhaps arrange a few readings." Plays of resistance were indeed written and then read. Three years later, the project has supported the creation of over 250 plays, presented in over 350 different readings involving over 360 theaters in 30 countries and 22 languages, with 12,000 audience members in the US alone raising over $250,000 in donations. Moneys have gone to Ukrainian war relief aid and to benefit Ukrainian artists, theater workers, and other Ukrainians in need.

For more information, click here.

      Additional Donation Links and Info From the

Worldwide Ukrainian Play Reading Coalition:

Direct donations to writers

At the beginning of the program, the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Reading Coalition made an agreement with the writers that one-time readings could be held anywhere without payment to the writer, as long as donations were made to Ukrainian charities. However, as the war has drawn out, many writers are experiencing serious financial difficulties. As such, if you have access to PayPal, the Play Reading Coalition now makes it possible to donate all or some of the donations collected to the writers directly.

Money for writers should be sent via PayPal to:

Iryna Harets (author of Planting an Apple Tree)

garchiza40@gmail.com

Iryna is one of the writers of the Kyiv-based Theater of Playwrights and has taken it upon herself to forward payments to other writers. If you make payments to Iryna via PayPal, notify jfreed16@gmail.com of the Ukrainian Play Reading Coalition as to the amount, and writers involved! 

Please consider donating directly to organizations in Ukraine

1. Support for the Ukrainian army - UA8430000100000047330992708 (multi-currency account of the National Bank of Ukraine)

2. Make a donation to an NGO supporting the Ukrainian army

3. Support organizations that help people affected by the war (children, women)

4. Our German colleagues opened a donation account specifically for the Theatre of Playwrights in Kyiv. The site is in German, but Google translate will help you easily navigate the info and donation methods.

5. Kyiv Biennial launched an initiative to support the Ukrainian cultural and artistic community. Support is sent in queue mode. Apply at this link.