Performance of Hello, This Is Radio 477!, Berezil Theatre in Kharkiv, 1929.
Inspired by the 1929 Ukrainian avantgarde jazz musical, Radio 477! has original songs and text by New York City-based Yara Arts Group in collaboration with artists in Ukraine.
Radio 477! – In Concert, USA, Ukraine. Text: Serhiy Zhadan. Music: Anthony Coleman. Director: Virlana Tkacz. Performed by: Yara Arts Group. Cast: George Drance, Darien Fiorino, Silvana Gonzalez, Akiko Hiroshima, Susan Hwang, Maksym Lozynskyj, Jeremy Kie Vance, Lesya Verba. A live orchestra. Musicians: Anthony Coleman (piano) Hannah Dunton (base), Frank London (trumpet), Erica Mancini (accordionist), Satoshi Takeishi (drums, percussion), Francesca Ter-Berg (cello), Doug Wieselman (clarinet).
Presented at the Berezil Theatre in Kharkiv in 1929, Hello, This Is Radio 477! was the first jazz musical in Ukraine, featuring catchy songs, wild dances, dazzling set design, and fabulous costumes. Although the show captivated audiences, the Communist Party bosses did not like it and it soon disappeared from the repertoire. The musical’s text and score were assumed lost in the Stalinist purges that followed. A few years ago, Virlana Tkacz, director at the Yara Arts Group in New York, discovered the conductor’s score hidden in an archive. Now, it has inspired a new theater piece created by Yara Arts Group and Ukrainian artists.
The show features musical arrangements and compositions by Anthony Coleman, inspired by the original music by Yuliy Meitus. The text, based on the original structure of the show, is written by Serhiy Zhadan, Ukraine’s renowned poet who lives in Kharkiv. The initial work on the theater piece started during the exhibition Kurbas: New Worlds at the Mystetsky Arsenal in Kyiv (fall 2018), when Anthony Coleman recreated part of the score with 18 young musicians from Kharkiv. Waldemart Klyuzko and Zhenya Kopyov reconstructed Vadym Meller’s visually exquisite set and costumes for the event. Last fall, Yara worked with Serhiy Zhadan on a workshop of Radio 477! in Kharkiv.
Free and open to the public. Online registration through Eventbrite is required. Masks are required inside the venue.
The 2022 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival s is dedicated to the people of Ukraine fighting for their independence. 🇺🇦 Suggested donation ($10) will be used to support Ukrainian refugees. All collected funds will be donated to People in Need, a Czech non-governmental, non-profit organization with over 20 years of experience in helping people in emergencies all over the world.
The project is co-produced by the Polish Cultural Institute and Yara Arts Group.
ABOUT
VIRLANA TKACZ heads the Yara Arts Group and has directed almost forty original shows at La MaMa in New York that also performed in Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Bishkek, Ulaanbaatar, and Ulan Ude. She received an NEA Poetry Translation Fellowship for her work with Wanda Phipps on Serhiy Zhadan’s poetry. Her production of 1917-2017: Tychyna Zhadan & the Dogs” won the 2018 New York Innovative Theatre Awards for best musical. She is the author of Three Wooden Trunks, a book of poetry.
YARA ARTS GROUP was established in 1990 and is a resident company at La MaMa, the acclaimed experimental theater in New York. Yara has created thirty-seven theatre pieces based on extensive research in Eastern Europe, Siberia and Asia, in Yara’s signature style of multilingual dialogue and songs supported by evocative visuals.
CAST
GEORGE DRANCE has performed and directed in over 25 countries on five continents. He is Artistic Director of the critically acclaimed Magis Theatre Company. Theatre credits include: Metropolitan Opera, The Public, ImprovBoston, American Repertory Theatre, and La MaMa ETC, including The Trojan Women Project and as a close collaborator of Ellen Stewart. Television credits include: The Daily Show, and Blacklist. He is an Artist-in Residence at Fordham Lincoln Center.
DARIEN FIORINO is an actor and a recent graduate of Harvard University. He was in Yara’s Winter Songs on Mars and 1917/2017: Tychyna, Zhadan, and the Dogs at La MaMa. Virtual Forest Song and A Thousand Suns. Other notable roles include Hank Williams in Leigh Fondakowski’s Spill and Iachimo in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline.
SILVANA GONZALEZ is a Mexican actress and classical ballet dancer who graduated from NYU Tisch with a Founders Day Award and BFA in Theater. Her theater credits include Ondine in A Thousand Suns with Yara Arts at La MaMa, Hera in FauxBia! The Musical at Carnegie Hall, Milenia at The Lucille Lortel, Hermia in A Midsummer Night´s Dream, Cynthia in WarLovers at Theater Row, and Louise Overbee in Love/Sick. Her film credits include Dr. Esperanza Haddid in Call the Sandman, Maria in Disconnect by Ryo Jaegger, and Irene in IL by Xupeng Feng. Silvana is a member of the NYC based theater company Something From Abroad and honored to be working with Yara again.
AKIKO HIROSHIMA This is her 9th show with Yara! Theatre: Miss Saigon (Kim); Tea (Teruko); Fishing for Wives (Ihara); A Thousand Cranes (Sadako); You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown (Peppermint Patty); Warrior Sisters (SiehKingKing); Jesus Christ Superstar; Pippin. Ads/VO: Intel, GE, Sprint, Amstel Beer, Audible, Ralph Lauren, MoMA, Chicago Tourism, and Japanese textbooks. Music: Elena Moon Park and Friends and happyfunsmile (ACL, Lincoln Center, 92nd St Y, BAM, Asia Society, Wolf Trap, BBG, DC Sakura Fest., Carnegie, and Midori & Friends).
SUSAN HWANG is a singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who has toured internationally performing music and theater. She is the founder and director of the Bushwick Book Club – an international musical/literary crossover event and podcast. Lusterlit is her musical duo with songwriter/producer Charlie Nieland, and they refuse to play anything but songs about books. Susan plays accordions because they are pretty and lighter than pianos (barely). She plays drums because it's healthy for a girl to hit things.
MAKSYM LOZYNSKYJ is a singer, songwriter, producer, and actor. His music is available on iTunes and Spotify under the name, Maksym Loz. He starred in the Ukrainian major motion picture musical romantic comedy, Hutsulka Ksenia. He is set to graduate from Berklee College of Music with a Master Degree in music production.
JEREMY VANCE is a singer, actor, dancer and a recent grad from AMDA-NY. His most recent stage credits include Young Ben in Follies by Stephen Sondheim, Laurie Lawrence in My Jo by Rob Lauer, and u/s Melchior & Moritz in Spring Awakening by Frank Wedenkind. This is Jeremy’s first production with La MaMa and he is very grateful to be working and be surrounded by such an incredible group of artists.
LESYA VERBA is from Odesa, Ukraine and sings traditional music, jazz and her own compositions. She plays a traditional Ukrainian instrument called the bandura and has been involved in reviving the rituals of southern Ukraine for 30 years. Her visual art has been exhibited at international exhibitions and museums. She arrived in New York last year and has worked as an actress with the Anomalous Co. Last summer she worked with Yara last summer on A Thousand Suns at La Plaza Cultural and at several poetry events this spring.
ARTIST
SERHIY ZHADAN was born in the Luhansk Region of Ukraine and educated in Kharkiv where he lives today. He is the author of twelve books of poetry. His prose works: Voroshilovgrad, Mesopotamia and The Orphanage were awarded the Angelus Central European Literature Award, the BBC Ukrainian Book of the Year Award, and the Brücke Berlin Prize. He is the front man for the band Zhadan & the Dogs and has collaborated with Yara Arts Group since 2002. Yale University Press published his selected poems as What We Live For/What We Die For translated by Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps in 2019.
ANTHONY COLEMAN (composer and pianist) is one of the key figures of the New York music scene. His work bridges the gap between Composition and Improvisation, Uptown and Downtown, and spanning Free Improvisation, Jazz, Jewish music, and Contemporary Chamber Music. After earning a MA in Composition from Yale School of Music, Coleman immersed himself in New York’s Downtown Scene. Coleman has recorded 15 CDs and has played on more than 150. He’s on the faculty of the New England Conservatory.
WANDA PHIPPS (co-translator) is a founding member of Yara and has been translating Ukrainian poetry with Virlana Tkacz since 1989. Together they have received the Agni Review Poetry Award and the National Theatre Translation Award for their translation of The Forest Song, as well as several grants from the New York State Council on the Arts.
SHIGEKO SARA SUGA (movement) has been with Yara Arts Group since "Blind Sight" 1993. She has served as an actor/movement coach/choreographer for numerous Yara Arts productions. Shigeko has worked with The Great Jones Rep of Ellen Stewart since 1988, Pan Asian Repertory of Tisa Chang since 1986 among other companies and films. Praying for our friends and the nation of Ukraine.
KEIKO OBREMSKI (costumes) is originally from Japan. She performed with Tokyo Kid Brothers at La Mama. She has worked with Yara Arts since Scythian Stones. Her recent design credits are: Fire Water Night, Capt. John Smith Goes to Ukraine, Winter Light, Hitting Bedrock. 1917-2017 Tychyna, Zhadan & the Dogs, Winter Songs on Mars, Virtual Forest Songs, A Thousand Suns and Scythian Slap! She works as a dresser for Broadway shows and is also a Kimono dresser.
WALDEMART KLYUZKO (design/graphics) is an artist from Kyiv who has collaborated with Yara Arts Group since 2010, most recently creating the set for Opera GAZ.. He co-curated the Kurbas in Kyiv, Kurbas in Kharkiv and the Kurbas: New Worlds exhibition at the Mystetsky Arsenal in Kyiv.
YULA DEGLINA (stage manager) has worked with Yara since 2018. She is a Ukrainian Jewish film director, screenwriter, and producer. She graduated from Kyiv National University of Theater & Film with MFA in film directing. Her latest short “HOMO DEUS. Divine human” was funded by the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation and won awards at: Tokyo International Film Festiva, Kyiv International Social Short Film Festival and New York International Film Festival.
ABOUT THE 2022 REHEARSAL FOR TRUTH THEATER FESTIVAL
The 2022 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival: Under Pressure is organized by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation and the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York, GOH Productions, Czech National Trust, Terezin Music Foundation, Trap Door Theatre, and Yara Arts Group.
The festival is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York, Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Ministry of Human Capacities, Hungary, and Society for the History of Czechoslovak Jews.