Festival of Contemporary Drama

We are sure that more than once you have felt the urge to re-read or re-watch something for a second or third time. We feel the same. That is why the theme of our Sixth Festival of Contemporary Drama is the re-reading of texts we have previously presented. Some have already been staged in various theaters, others are still waiting for their directors, but each resonates with who we are today. We truly hope they will resonate with you too.

Our colleagues from the Ivan Franko National Dramatic Theatre, our partner this year, supported this idea. They invited their directors and participants of the "Franko-Practicum" to select texts for performative readings.

This festival could have been called a "summary" or a "curatorial" selection; it could have lasted a week. But for us, it is an "incomplete selection," because there are far more texts we wish to re-read. It will last 3 days. Just readings, just discussions—simply what we want to share.

Here, you will meet Uncle Misha passing by and Paraskeva, who lived almost a century. Here, monuments come to life, and a ghost from Brody helps others feel alive. Here, the grazhda (traditional Hutsul farmstead) is both a fortress and a prison, and Rusanivski Gardens are the capital of cheating. There will be dramas, comedies, and even a hip-hop ballad.

The program features texts by Andriy Bondarenko, Yulia Gonchar, Oksana Grytsenko, Olga Matsiupa, Oleg Mikhailov, and Liuda Tymoshenko, written during the NSTDU Playwriting Laboratories (2020, 2023, 2024).

Special Event: A reading of the new play by Lena Liagushonkova, "The Queen from Gardariki," directed by David Petrosyan.