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GRiT (Graduate Research in Theatre) Seminar #1: Ukrainian Documentary Theatre in the Context of War - Ielizaveta Oliinyk & Molly Flynn

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Venue: Online

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In the years between Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution in 2013-14 and the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of the country in 2022, Ukrainian theatre-makers revolutionized their country’s culture of performance practice. In response to Russia’s illegal occupation of Crimea and the start of the war in Donbas in 2014, theatre artists began seeking out new ways to use their craft as a form of civic activism. Among the most distinct expressions of Ukraine’s re-envisioning of its national theatre practice during these years, was an increased interest in documentary theatre forms. Our collaborative research analyzes the significance of documentary theatre forms in Ukraine both before and after Russia’s full-scale invasion and illustrates how this type of performance practice came to constitute an important form of anti-colonial resistance that has made an important contribution to the country’s remarkable culture of defiance and resilience in the face of Russian aggression.

Ielizaveta Oliinyk is a PhD student at the University of Salzburg and Mozarteum. Her primary research interests include documentary theater, cultural trauma, and memory studies. She has studied journalism and theatre studies in Ukraine and Germany and worked as a journalist for Ukrainian media outlets and in the non-profit sector. She also worked as an intern at the Cologne Opera and an assistant to various directors at Ballhaus Ost, the Maxim Gorki Theatre and Badischen Staatstheater Karlsruhe. In Ukraine, she has directed documentary theatre productions, some of which involved collaboration with internally displaced people and a soldier who served as a paramedic in the war zone in Eastern Ukraine.

Molly Flynn is a Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance at Birkbeck, University of London. Her current research analyzes socially engaged theatre practice as it has developed since the Euromaidan Revolution in 2013/14. She is the author Witness onstage: Documentary theatre in twenty-first-century Russia (Manchester University Press, 2020). In addition to her work as researcher and a teacher, Molly is also a translator, producer, and performer of documentary theatre and a co-founder of the US-based experimental theatre collective the New York Neo Futurists.

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Speakers
  • Dr Molly Flynn -

    Molly Flynn is a Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance at Birkbeck, University of London. Her current research analyzes socially engaged theatre practice as it has developed since the Euromaidan Revolution in 2013/14. She is the author Witness onstage: Documentary theatre in twenty-first-century Russia (Manchester University Press, 2020). In addition to her work as researcher and a teacher, Molly is also a translator, producer, and performer of documentary theatre and a co-founder of the US-based experimental theatre collective the New York Neo Futurists.