War, exile, resilience: New play centers voices of Minnesota Ukraine community
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For three years, since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Theatre Novi Most has been gathering stories from members of the Ukrainian diaspora living in Minnesota.
“That means anyone that's a refugee or an immigrant, even third-generation immigrants, some of them new arrivals,” says Lisa Channer, co-artistic director. “Some are also members of the Ukrainian military, soldiers who had come here briefly to get prosthetic care because they lost limbs in the war.”
Those stories are the heart of the new play “An Ocean Away,” which opens tonight and runs through Nov. 8 at the Center for Performing Arts in Minneapolis.
Theatre Novi Most, a Minneapolis theater company centered on people from Eastern Europe and the “post-Soviet diaspora,” partnered with the internationally renowned Belarusian playwright Andrei Kureichik to develop these personal stories into a documentary play. Kureichik himself fled Belarus in 2020 fearing arrest after he protested the contested election of President Alexander Lukashenko, who is widely considered a dictator.
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Channer says Kureichik, who is now based in Chicago, visited Minnesota several times to help gather people’s stories and develop the play.
“Each testimony is an inspiring example of strength and a refusal to surrender to evil. As a playwright in exile, I understand how important that is,” Kureichik said in a statement.
“‘An Ocean Away’ has been a deeply emotional journey as I worked to keep faith with the people I interviewed — to honor their grief, their humor, their stubborn hope. In their stories, I heard the music of survival and the promise of repair.”
The play features a wide spectrum of stories: people whose families have lived in Minnesota’s Ukrainian community for generations; a mother whose son lost a limb in a Russian attack; and an ex-Russian soldier who left to avoid conscription. The names attached to these stories have been removed to protect the sources.
Channer says it was a challenge to mount “An Ocean Away” because the theater was stripped of a grant earlier this year after the Trump Administration rescinded nearly almost $900,000 from Minnesota organizations in arts funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
“It's really interesting to make a play that is so much about the current moment,” Channer says. Channer says that in spite of the difficult stories, the play is uplifting.
“Anyone that knows an immigrant, which is basically everyone in America, will appreciate it,” Channer says.
All shows will be performed in English with Ukrainian supertitle captioning. The Oct. 31 performance of “An Ocean Away” is free. Kureichik will give a free lecture, “Voice of Change Reframed: Documentary Theatre for Social Impact,” at 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 31, at the Rarig Center at the University of Minnesota.
