VOICES FROM UKRAINE Comes to Voyage Theater Company

Voyage Theater Company has announced the renewal of its PARTS UNKNOWN Play Reading Series residency at the 53rd Street New York Public Library with VOICES FROM UKRAINE, an evening of new short plays by Ukrainian playwrights.

VOICES FROM UKRAINE will feature staged readings of five short plays by: Oksana Grytsenko, translated by John Freedman with Nataliia Bratus; Polina Polozhentseva, translated by John Farndon; Maryna Smilianets, translated by John Freedman with Nataliia Bratus; Nina Zakhozhenko, translated by Iana Gudzenko, edited by Paulien Geerlings and John Freedman; and Oleksandr Zhuhan, translated by John Freedman with Nataliia Bratus.

VOICES FROM UKRAINE is made possible in part by a grant from The Center for International Theatre Development (CITD). Building on the success of CITD's LINKAGES programs in Poland and Hungary, LINKAGES: Ukraine was launched in 2024 to foster long-term connections between U.S. and Ukrainian playwrights. For 2025, LINKAGES: Ukraine will include VOICES FROM UKRAINE as part of a script exchange between New York City's Voyage Theater Company and Theatre na Zhukakh in Kharkiv, a city that continues to endure heavy missile attacks amid the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war.

The event is supported by the Ukrainian Institute, a state institution acting in the field of cultural diplomacy.

VOICES FROM UKRAINE is also presented in partnership with the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Reading Series, a global initiative launched by John Freedman in the wake of Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Soon after, Freedman began organizing the translation of new works by Ukrainian playwrights, many of which provided firsthand narratives of the war. CITD worked in tandem with Freedman as he recruited, encouraged, and aided hundreds of theaters around the world to mount readings of the plays.

These readings, including those of VOICES FROM UKRAINE, function as a platform for exploring Ukrainian national identity and resilience, a rallying cry of international support for Ukraine, and, specifically, an avenue for collecting donations for Ukrainian charities.

VOICES FROM UKRAINE will be presented on Thursday, May 8 at 7pm at the New York Public Library, 18 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019. In 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy established May 8 as a national holiday, celebrating Victory Day over Nazism in World War II.

RSVPs are required for this one-night-only event, as seating is limited.

The five short plays being featured in VOICES FROM UKRAINE are:

24 Hours

By Nina Zakhozhenko / Translated by Iana Gudzenko, Edited by Paulien Geerlings and John Freedman / Directed by Susanna Frazer

Featuring Lisa Anderson and Haskell King

War finally hits the small town of two young parents, who must make the ultimate choice for their family.

The Sailor

By Oksana Grytsenko / Translated by John Freedman with Nataliia Bratus / Directed by Wayne Maugans

Featuring Danny Johnson and Angela Pierce

When an injured man at a border crossing encounters a doctor, will he accept her offer of help or remain in his car enjoying his last cigar?

A Time For First Dates

By Maryna Smilianets / Translated by John Freedman with Nataliia Bratus / Directed by Matthew Pezzulich

Featuring Maddie Barkocy, Zachary Canter and Jamie Feidner

During an air raid, two 20-something friends reconnect in a loaded dialogue after one comes home for a visit from the UK -- and then a young man appears.

New York, Donetsk, Ukraine: 100° F

By Oleksandr Zhuhan / Translated by John Freedman with Nataliia Bratus/ Directed by Wayne Maugans

Featuring Nick Salem

A young gay soldier nicknamed Raccoon struggles with the contradictions and consequences of war as well as his own loneliness.

A Fan Of War

By Polina Polozhentseva / Translated by John Farndon / Directed by Rose Burnett Bonczek

Featuring Yuliya Donovan, Frank De Julio, Asta Hansen, and Jerry Goralnick

A Ukrainian refugee in the UK navigates her relationship with her French lover while trying to keep tabs on her elderly mother at home under siege.

Biographies

Oksana Grytsenko is a playwright and screenwriter. Originally from the Kherson region, she now lives in Kyiv. Her first play "Saniok" was shortlisted at the Ukrainian Contemporary Play Week in 2019, and she subsequently has written more than a dozen plays. Her short work "The Peed-Upon Armed Personnel Carrier" was performed by Wayne Maugans for the Dictionary of Ukrainian Emotions podcast (2024). Grytsenko has worked as a journalist for 20 years, covering the Russian invasion of Georgia, Ukraine's EuroMaidan Revolution, Russia's annexation of Crimea, and Russia's war against Ukraine. Grytsenko is a co-founder of Kyiv's Theater of Playwrights, and she served as one of its elected co-artistic directors from February 2024 to February 2025.

Polina Polozhentseva is a Ukrainian playwright from Zaporizhzhia. She has lived in Kyiv, Dnipro, and, currently, London. Polozhenseva's plays have been presented at such Kyiv theaters as Roof and PostPlayTheatre, as well as at the New Drama Theatre in Zaporizhzhia. Her plays include "Someone's Blood," "Don't Be Crazy," which premiered at the Wild Theatre in Kyiv in January 2022; and "Grandma and Grandpa Have Sex," which was performed in May 2023 at the Theater of Playwrights, Kyiv. In London, her play "Save the Light" premiered in July 2022 at Barons Court Theatre, and "A Fan of War" was performed at Camden People's Theatre in February 2025.

Maryna Smilianets is a dramatist, screenwriter, and journalist. She was born in Kyiv and received a Bachelor's, and subsequently Master's, degree from the Kyiv National University of Theater, Film, and Television. She has been a member of the National Union of Theater Actors of Ukraine since 2013. She won first prize in the Coronation of the Word competition for her children's play "The Country of Serious" (2015), as well as for her work "Dog House" (2018). She is the Deputy Director of the New Ukrainian Theater Arts Center. Her play "Borscht Ukrainian Soup: A Taste of Home" ran in London in March 2025. Her children's play, "Cat Refugees," written with Liudmyla Tymoshenko, has been very popular.

Nina Zakhozhenko is a playwright and theatermaker from Kyiv, currently living in Lviv. She studied literary and dramatic theory at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. She has collaborated with a number of theaters as a digital artist, cultural manager, translator, and playwright. After the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, she wrote a series of short dramas about the sensations of freedom and security in a time of war. Most of these texts were collected in a play titled "Me, War, and the Toy Grenade." Her play "I'm Fine," about the life of teenagers in a city under Russian occupation, premiered at the Kharkiv Puppet Theater and has been produced in the U.S. and U.K.

Oleksandr Zhuhan is a psychologist, actor, acting teacher, and playwright. He is an openly gay man who, until February 24, 2022, never imagined he would ever take up arms. But when Russian tanks rolled toward Kyiv, he and his partner, who is non-binary, joined the Ukrainian Territorial Defense corps. Throughout the three years of war, he has been moved around to various front lines in the south and north of Ukraine. "New York. Donetsk" is a new play precisely about these experiences. It was performed in the Theater of Veterans project at the Theater of Playwrights in Kyiv in 2025. His other plays include "The Gospel of Housewives" (2019) and "Reptiles" (2021).