A Dictionary of Emotions in a Time of War: Conversation with Ukrainian Playwrights

We are pleased to celebrate the publication of A Dictionary of Emotions in a Time of War: 20 Works by Ukrainian Playwrights by Laertes Books, an independent press in Chapel Hill, NC. The texts in the anthology were created in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and were written by the members of the Theater of Playwrights, Kyiv. The texts explore everyday upheavals, the tectonic force of language, intricacies of autochthony, and exile. We will be joined by three Ukrainian playwrights who contributed to the anthology: Andriy Bondarenko, Oksana Savchenko, and Liudmyla Tymoshenko. The conversation will be moderated by John Freedman, translator and theatre critic. Register here >>

ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS 

Andriy Bondarenko Is a playwright, screenwriter, and culturologist. 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.

Oksana Savchenko was born and raised in Kyiv. She is a screenwriter, playwright, and journalist. As a screenwriter, she has worked with television channels TRK Ukraine, Inter, and with the FILM.UA media company. As a playwright, she participated at the Heidelberger St¨uckemarkt Theater Festival (2017) in Germany, the international Telpa Daugavpils festival in Latvia (2014), and Contemporary Play Week in Kyiv. She has collaborated with Georg Genoux and Natalka Vorozhbyt’s Theater of Displaced People.

Liudmyla Tymoshenko was born in Kazakhstan and graduated in 2000 from the Faculty of Philosophy of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. She is a candidate for a degree in philosophical sciences, and she holds a doctor of philosophy degree in political sciences. She is a playwright, screenwriter, artist, and university lecturer. Her plays have been shortlisted annually for Ukrainian and foreign drama competitions and festivals. Two premieres were scheduled for February – May 2022 at theaters in Kyiv and Lviv, neither of which took place due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

John Freedman is an American writer and translator who, after working for 30 years in Russia, now resides in Greece. He lived in Moscow from 1988 to 2018, where he was the theater critic of The Moscow Times (1992–2015). His play Dancing, Not Dead (2011) was winner of the Internationalists Global Play Contest (2011) and his short play, Five Funny Tales from the Heart of Buenos Aires (2013), has been performed in New York City, Chattanooga, and Edinburgh. He has translated over 100 plays, of which productions have been mounted in five continents. He is the director of CITD’s Ukrainian Hope Initiative.