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Text Box: Yara in Old Swedish village in Kherson Following the Milky Way is new theatre piece that follows the epic journey of the last speakers of Gammalsvenska (Old Swedish) who today still live in a village in southern Ukraine. Yara artists Marina Celander, Virlana Tkacz and Waldemart Klyuzko traveled to this isolated village on the banks of the Dnipro River in the summer of 2015. Marina speaks Swedish and could communicate with the Old Swedish speakers who recounted the amazing epic journey of displacement, migration and search for the home of their ancestors. The ancestors of the villagers had come from Hiiumaa Island in the Baltic Sea. In 1781-82, they walked over 2000 kilometers to southern Ukraine and many died on the way. They grew to love their new home in the southern steppes but dreamt of their Swedish homeland which many managed to visit in 1929. Despite world events that disrupted their sanctuary, forcing them into labor camps or to flee as refugees, the people of Gammelsvenskby created their own “home” in southern Ukraine. Following the Milky Way is conceived and performed by Marina Celander, with Virlana Tkacz (director), Julian Kytasty (music) and Waldemart Klyuzko (visuals). It was shown in New York City at the Ukrainian Museum, Theatre for the New City and at La MaMa. This summer we were able to present excerpts in Ukraine in Old Swedish village, Kharkiv, Izum and Kyiv. See www.brama.com/yara for links to photos from our show and trip.

Text Box: with the upcoming animated film Mavka. You can buy it in bookstores in Kyiv or through Yara. Shona Tucker, who appeared in Yara’s A Light From the East, Yara’s Forest Song and Dark Night Bright Stars, writes: “I have gotten a Broadway show. I am in To Kill A Mockingbird which will be opening on December 13, 2018.
CONGRATULATIONS!! Erzhena Zhambalova, who appeared and composed the music for Yara’s Buryat shows, is now the director of the Buryat National Theatre. She writes: “Sayan and I now have a second granddaughter! I love my son-in-law and daughter! And I love life.”

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Text Box: Yara’s shows , is now in Ukraine as a Fulbright Scholar. Wanda Phipps, Yara’s dramaturg, is currently working with Virlana Tkacz on a book of selected poems by Serhiy Zhadan to be published by Yale University Press. Also, a poem by Wanda will be featured in the upcoming fall production Emma, Anna…Onward at the Hudson Guild Theatre. Virlana Tkacz & Wanda Phipps translated Lesia Ukrainka’s The Forest Song in 1994 for Yara’s Forest Song production in Lviv and at La MaMa. More recently it was the base for Yara’s Fire Water Night at La MaMa. Now it has been published in a bi-lingual version by Publishing Book House in Kyiv, in connection

Text Box: Kateryna Babkina, poet whose work was often performed at Yara events and co-curator of Yara’s Poetry Videos Festival at Kino Fest a few years ago, is now a writer-in-residence at the International Writing Program at Iowa University. Congrats! Sean Eden, who appeared in Yara’s first show Light From the East and the most recent one, 1917-2017:Tychyna Zhadan and the Dogs, was in New Zealand for a month this summer, appearing again in the comedy web series “High Road.” In September he will be playing concerts in the EU and U.K. with his band Luna. Andrea Odezynska, who created video for a number of

Text Box: Right: Photos from Following the Milky Way in Old Swedish Village in Kherson
Below: Cover for “The Forest Song” translated by Virlana Tkacz & Wanda Phipps