SWAN (2003)
discovering the mythical in the everyday
PRESS
"Swan, a new creation from the collaborative Yara Arts Group (La MaMa E.T.C., June), theatricalized a work by contemporary Ukrainian poet and dissident Oleh Lysheha. Andrew Colteaux's vibrant performance as the poem's voice integrated speaking and movement, charting a landscape of loneliness, yearning, and ultimate surrender between Lysheha's opening and closing lines, "God, I'm slipping" and "God, I'm falling." Although mixing text, music, song, dance, and video, this modest production, clocking in under one hour, did not compete with or overwhelm its source. Cooler in look and tone than some of Yara's previous works of cultural celebration and folklore- Circle and Howling, for instance- Swan does not aim to bowl you over. Small seductions-Soomi Kim and Colteaux's efficient yet expressive acting and imaginative movement, a simple set by Watoku Ueno, and spare, warm notes bowed and plucked from composer Paul Brantley's cello, the sole instrument played live-allowed true feeling to permeate the action."
Eva Yaa Asantewaa Village Voice, August 6, 2003
"Director Virlana Tkacz, known for her seminal work in translations and interpretation of poetry written in Ukrainian and Buryat, synthesizes multiple cultures into singular streams of motion and emotion. Actor Andrew Colteaux superbly engages the viewer in an energetically physical interpretation of Ukrainian poet Oleh Lysheha's Swan. "
Hanya Krill Brama.com, June 15, 2003
Other Yara shows using text by Oleh Lysheha:
Dream Bridge 2012
Raven 2011
Virtual Souls 1997
And Virtual events on Yara's Lysheha Shows
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created by Yara Arts Group
based on the poetry of Oleh Lysheha
directed by Virlana Tkacz
designed by Watoku Ueno
music by Paul Brantley
with vocals by Meredith Wright
video by Andrea Odezynska
translated by Virlana Tkacz & Wanda Phipps
with Andrew Colteaux, Soomi Kim
Paul Brantley on cello
and Ukrainian voice by Olga Shuhan
June 12 - 29 2003
La MaMa ETC 74A East 4th St New York
Friday July 11, 2003
Lowell Hall, Harvard University READ poem in English
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"Yara Arts Group, directed by Virlana Tkacz who always comes up with original projects, is now showing Swan ,a theatre piece based on Oleh Lysheha's poem, which V. Tkacz translated with Wanda Phipps. Extraordinary performances by Andrew Colteaux and Soomi Kim and the musical accompaniment by cellist Paul Brantley captivate the audience. Once again, our belief in V. Tkacz's exceptional talent is confirmed and this time she displays it in her direction, translation and approach to the topic."
Reviewed by Olha Kuzmovych Ukrainian BRAMA page, June 19, 2003
June 12 to 29 the Yara Arts Group led by artistic director Virlana Tkacz very successfully premiered a new musical theatre piece, Swan, at the La MaMa Experimental Theatre in New York. The piece was created on the basis of a poem by Oleh Lysheha, a Ukrainian poet who lives and works in Tysemytsia, in the Ivano-Frankivsk Region, but who is better known in America and Canada. Harvard University Press, which published Lysheha's book of English translations of his poetry that won the PEN Translation Prize, wrote: "Oleh Lysheha is considered the 'poet's poet'' of contemporary Ukraine." The American critic and author James Carroll has written that Lysheha's poetry "offers American readers not just a new voice, but even in translation, a new language, a new way of seeing."
So what prompted Yara Arts Group, which is always so selective about its repertoire to turn to this author from a provincial town, who is totally indifferent to worldly matters (much less globalism), and to present his work to the American audience? "We take pride in the fact that over many years we have managed to present to our audience the best in art, music and literature," said Virlana Tkacz in her interview with this paper. I think that Oleh Lysheha's work is unique, unlike anything else written in Ukrainian. This poetry is not built on the melody of language, but on the power of its images, giving it an eastern feel and that is influenced by ancient Chinese poetry. Oleh Lysheha, himself, is an unusual, almost legendary person. He studied American Literature in Lviv University, from which he was expelled in 1972 for publishing translations in the dissident journal, "Chest." He was taken into the Army and served in Siberia, where he became interested in Eastern philosophy and art."
The New York production of Swan by the Tysmenytsia poet is performed in a translation by Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps by actors Andrew Colteaux and Soomi Kim who are accompanied by cellist Paul Brantley. The success of this show, as that of every other theatre piece by Yara Arts Group - is undeniable.
Kateryna Kindras Meest Newspaper (Linden, NJ and Toronto) July 3, 2003
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The success of this show is Virlana Tkacz's achievement. She understood the originality and depth of Oleh Lysheha's poetry and now, together with her actors, designers and musicians, created a very successful theatre piece. Thanks to the wonderful performance of the leading role by actor Andrew Colteaux, we as an audience can experience this poem and be amazed and awed by its creative power. Composer and cellist Paul Brantley contributed a great deal to the success of the piece with his melodic accompaniment to the action, as did the vocalist Meredith Wright. Everything in this unusual poem by a Ukrainian poet who learned English and gathered admirers in the US, was brought forth with great sensitivity and understanding. Here director Virlana Tkacz undoubtedly played a leading role. Once again she was able to deliver a Ukrainian artistic work in her original style, which allows an international audience to understand the work and gain a better understanding of the Ukrainian worldview.
Olha Kuzmovych Svoboda Newspaper (Jersey City, NJ) July 11, 2003
La MaMa Theatre and Virlana Tkacz have once again astounded their American audiences. Swan based on a poem by Oleh Lysheha of the same title, was certainly an Event at Harvard, where it was much bigger and weightier, than just another cultural event at the Summer School… Judging from the reaction of the audience, we can confidently state that Oleh Lysheha’s poetry easily overcame national and cultural boundaries or more precisely, did not need to overcome them because they simple did not exist… The production of Swan is a virtuoso translation of Lysheha’s text – it is not simply a literary translation into English, but rather a translation of poetry into the languages of music, light, image, movement of the human body, human voice (that can sound sharp, hoarse, strained, tired, lonely), and of course, stage space. The result is polyphonic; various voices are united so that each has its place and is heard… Cellist (Paul Brantley), listens to the modulation of a soprano as pure as silver (Meredith Wright), he listens to the human voice (of Andrew Colteaux). The poetry interweaves with music, Ukrainian becomes an echo of the English, dance becomes an extension of the voice, and bodies continue to speak as the voice grows silent. What the voice cannot say, the man and woman say with their dance. This is what art should be like – in the glare of the stage lights you suddenly see the essence. But you can only catch a glimpse , just as you can only glimpse the swan in this show.
Dzvinka Matiash Harvard Summer School Yearbook, 2003
& Komentar (Kyiv) November 2003
Virtual Event in 2020 about Yara's production of the "Swan" video
RAVEN (2011)
Exploring the unknowable boundaries
PRESS:
Raven incites this ensemble to glorious flight…. Complimenting the vivid imagery of Lysheha’s words and the translation by creator / director Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps is the set, bare with the exception of a screen on wheels designed by Watoku Ueno/Aki-ology. Corrugated plastic on one side and sleek, shiny sheets of plastic on the other, it acts as a rich textural landing for the vibrant video projections of designer Mikhail Shraga and alternately splits the space, rotates to generate a spiraling sense of confusion. The path flown by Raven is, by turns, intoxicating in both its simplicity and complexity. I encourage you to follow where it leads.
Amy Lee Pearsall nytheatre.com, April 9, 2011
Julian Kytasty played a melodic solo on the bundura that was like an incantation to call the raven. Mr. Colteaux plays the man who meets the raven and Sean Eden plays Ivan, a friend. Maren Bush plays a woman painting a wall that may never be finished. There are two extreme moments of the tension in the piece: the appearance of the raven and the death of the Ivan’s wife…. There is a translucent wall in the middle of the stage. Ivan and his wife find themselves caught on two sides of the wall unable to reach one another as the wall spins.
Waldemart Klyuzko and Mikhail Shraga’s projections, which included floral and forest imagery, helped to create a natural atmosphere. The projections were especially effective when projected on the raven’s white dress. The movement created by Shigeko Suga worked especially well to create the character of the raven played by Kat Yew as the raven moved together with Colteaux to portray a bind between bird and man. In Yara’s “Raven,” the boundaries between nature and humans were explored through spoken word, music, and movement.
Olena Jennings, The Ukrainian Weekly, April 24, 2011
Video of apple scene from "Raven" in Lviv with Andrew Colteaux and Larysa Rusnak
Other Yara shows using text by Oleh Lysheha:
Dream Bridge 2012
Swan 2003
Flight of the White Bird 1999
Virtual Souls 1997
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Performance inspired by the poetry of Oleh Lysheha
created by Virlana Tkacz
with Yara Arts Group and Ukrainian artists
with: Andrew Colteaux, Maren Bush, Sean Eden
and Kat Yew music Alla Zagaykevych,
songs: Aurelia Shrenker & Eva Salina Primack (Ash)
sound Tim Schellenbaum, movement: Shigeko Suga,
projections: Waldemart Klyuzko & Mikhail Shraga
April 8-24, 2011 premiere La MaMa ETC, New York
March 10-14, 2011 workshop: Pasika Theatre Center, Kyiv
with Andrew Colteaux, Larysa Rusnak, Victoria Kudriavtsev
and Mykola Shkaraban | photos
June 22-23, 2011 Kurbas Theatre in Lviv | photos
Nominated for Innovative Projection Design
for New York Innovative Theatre Award
photographs by Lee Wexler
Read more about Oleh Lysheha and see the translation of his poem "Raven"
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At certain moments we hear a voice repeat certain phrases in Ukrainian; this is wonderfully performed by Olga Shuhan, a veteran of Yara shows. There are also traditional and sacred songs performed by Ash/AE. There are brilliant projections by Waldemart Klyuzko and Mykhail Shraga that bring a lot of color to the performance: a branch with peaches, the light lavender of the iris, the lush tree branches in the forest, the tall yellow trunks of the pines and the beautiful stagnant lake… The projections of Ivan’s wife on video over the image of the forest and on Kat Yew’s dress are great. This is a show you can and want to watch many times. Each time you discover something new, as I can testify.
Lydia Korsun Chas I Podii, April 27, 2011
The simplicity of the presentation is what caused my wonderment.… This goes back to an even deeper, genetic imprint that we all possess - of sitting in the dark, maybe around a campfire, listening to a story being told, mesmerized by the flame and the tone of the teller. Pure, simple – and very powerful! It was this change, from the ordinary to the extraordinary, from the real to the altered state, almost instantaneously, and then just as suddenly back to the ordinary, which made me wonder what I had just experienced.
“Raven” is artistic director Virlana Tkacz’s twenty-first production with the Yara Arts Group. Each is a veritable witness of the directorial talents of Virlana Tkacz, of her style and her ability to take the Yara Arts Group and create a magical event that captures you and does not let you go.
Ihor Slabicky, America, May 14, 2011
The performance piece relies heavily on imagery to tell the story. The projections by Waldemart Klyuzko and Mikhail Shraga create a natural atmosphere with floral and forest photography. In the center of the stage there is a translucent wall where the shadow of the raven first appears to actors Andrew Colteaux and Sean Eden, a man searching for meaning in nature and his friend Ivan... The wall is later illuminated with many different projections that alienate the actors in their search for the raven and for one another. The raven, played by Kat Yew, wears a white dress that also acts as a surface for the projections and makes the raven seem unattainable. The face of a woman played by Maren Bush also appears as a projection throughout the space. Choreography by Shigeko Suga turns the actors’ bodies into part of nature. There is an especially striking scene when the raven moves fluidly with Colteaux.
Olena Jennings, Nth Word, April 14, 2011
Poet Oleh Lysheha and director Virlana Tkacz are a duo of like-minded artists. Both are uniquely talented, with original world views and styles, both are representative of a modern world culture that extends beyond national borders. At the same time, both introduce Ukrainian culture to the world.
Lidia Korsun, Svoboda, May 6, 2011
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PRESS IN UKRAINE
Perhaps the most amazing thing about Raven is the magical and masterful way the poetry has been transformed into stage reality. If I had to provide examples of the most organic translations from one form of art into another, Virlana Tkacz’s theatrical “re-readings” of modern poetry would certainly be on that list.
Virlana Tkacz is interested in the deepest and most universal elements of folklore -- what unites traditions that at first glance seem totally unrelated. Often, this involves attempts by various cultures in their own unique ways (with their own particular sounds, rhythms and melodies of language) to approach the essential existential questions -- the meaning of life, the secrets of love, hate, death and birth. These questions resound in each culture, although of course, no culture has the ultimate answer. I would venture to suggest that what draws Virlana Tkacz to Lysheha is his orchestration of the “archaic.” This production of Raven must be seen since it is impossible to describe in words this theatre piece where the play of light, shadows, music and movement are so essential.
Roksoliana Sviato, Kinoteatr (Kyiv) No 3, 2011
A philosophical work, full of images, Raven intertwines music (electronic music and music on traditional instruments), folklore (prayers, American chants, Ukrainian folk songs and children’s rhymes), movement, and incredibly beautiful projected images that include live video. By creating across the borders of languages and cultures, between the borders of the contemporary and the archaic, Virlana ultimately presents a diverse range of images. Raven speaks to our desire to explore the unknown. Sharply delineated details from everyday life transform to reveal the true nature of reality. Birds, trees and fruit bear messages for the careful observer. The forest protects the secrets of the invisible path. Oleh Lysheha speaks in very simple, but deep images.
Lviv doesn’t often see the type of theatrical experiment shown by Virlana Tkacz and her Yara Arts Group. They are definitely worth seeing – don’t miss them the next time this theatre comes to town.
Natalia Dudko, Ratusha (Lviv) June