The Clear Blue Skies: Diaries from Ukraine
May 3, 2023
Performance
Policy Discussion
Actors Mike Magliocca, Kyle Cameron, Raquel Chavez, Alexandra Templer Waldon, Masha Makutonina, and Jennifer Mogbock performed the new theater project The Clear Blue Skies: Diaries from Ukraine, created by Scott Illingworth and Oleksandra Oliinyk.
Within days of the start of the war in 2022, a group of Ukrainian children and teenagers began recording interviews and audio diaries in English to share their stories with the world. They have become a remarkable chronicle of young people plunged into war and crisis—from becoming refugees across Europe to living under Russian occupation and recording from behind enemy lines.
The Clear Blue Skies uses excerpts from these gripping recordings, listened to live by actors on stage and performed using a real-time in-ear verbatim technique. The result is an urgent and intimate transmission about the trauma of war and the resilience and humor of young people in the digital age facing an unknown future for their country.
The evening included a performance followed by a discussion with policy experts about the current war in Ukraine.
Content Warning: Tonight's performance contained descriptions of and references to violence, war crimes, and sexual assault.
Panelists
David Bonior
Gillian Huebner
Ambassador William B. Taylor
Katya Pavlevych
Michael Feldman
Performers
Scott Illingworth
Olexsandra (Alex) Oliinyk
Kyle Cameron
Raquel Chavez
Mike Magliocca
Masha Makutonina
Jennifer Mogbock
Alexandra Templer
This program is supported by a grant from the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities. This performance was also made possible with support from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Dean Allyson Green, the Tisch Initiative for Creative Research, and support extended by the Global Research Initiatives, Office of the Provost.