Yara’s Theatre Projects: Forest Song
Yara Arts Group from La MaMa Experimental Theatre in New York present a series of virtual events on Lesia Ukrainka’s “Forest Song.” In 1993 Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps created an award-winning English translation of the Ukrainian verse play. Yara created several theatre pieces based on this drama. The first was a workshop at La MaMa in 1993. Then there was “Yara’s Forest Song,” a bilingual show at the Kurbas Theatre in Lviv and at La MaMa (1994.) The third was the immersive “Fire Water Night” in 2013.
Now, in June 2021 a preview of Yara's new version "Virtual Forest Song."
Virtual event, "Virtual Forest Song" (2021) program | video - virtual event
Virtual event on Lesia Ukrainka & "Forest Song" program | video - virtual event
Virtual event "Yara's Forest Song" Lviv/LaMaMa program | video - virtual event
Virtual Event "Fire Water Night" (2013) La MaMa program | video - virtual event
Virtual event on Yara's Three "Forest Songs" (in Ukrainian) | video - virtual event
Yara's Forest Song workshop (1993) at La MaMa program | photos
"Yara's Forest Song" (1994) Lviv program | photos
"Yara's Forest Song" (1994) LaMama program | photos & video
"Fire Water Night" (2013) at La MaMa program | photos & video
To read fragment from our English translation: Lesia Ukrainka
The new virtual series starts on February 11, 2021 with Yara’s Theatre Projects: “Forest Song.” This virtual event will include a short introduction on Lesia Ukrainka’s work. Then Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps will talk about their translation with Ukrainian translator Oksana Batiuk, who was at the first rehearsals in New York in 1993, as well as designer Watoku Ueno and actress Shona Tucker, who took part in the first reading of the play. They will be joined by Jude Domski and Kateryna Slipchenko, who served as literary managers in New York and Lviv. Together, they will discuss how Ukrainka’s text transformed into “Yara’s Forest Song.”
On February 18, 2021 for the second part Yara’s Theatre Projects: “Yara’s Forest Song” director Virlana Tkacz will show photographs and video from “Yara’s Forest Song” in Lviv and at La MaMa in New York in 1994. She will also talk to the actors from Yara and the Les Kurbas Theatre in Lviv who worked on the bilingual production.
On March 25 part three will be about Yara’s immersive theatre piece “Fire Water Night” which performed at La MaMa in 2013 and used parts of “Forest Song” as text. Director Virlana Tkacz will show photographs and video clips and then talk to designers Waldemart Klyuzko, Zhenya Kopiov how space was used in the production. Costume designer Keiko Obremski and choreographer Shigeko Suga will talk about their work. Then they will be joined by actors Jeremy Tardy, Jenny Leona, Marina Celander, Yarko Dobriansky, Akiko Hiroshima, Tamar Ilana, J. Moliere and Masha Pruss.
Later this year Yara also plans on creating “Virtual Forest Song.”
“Yara’s Theatre Projects ” virtual events are all free and can be viewed at an time on www.yaraartsgroup.net. They are made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, Self-Reliance (NY) FCU and friends of Yara Arts Group.
