ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Andriy Bondarenko is a Doctor of Philosophy, playwright, screenwriter, and culturologist. He has worked primarily as a journalist, in particular as a cultural observer. He was also a researcher at the Center for Urban History of Central and Eastern Europe (Lviv). He is currently the head of the literary and dramatic department (dramaturg) at the Lviv Puppet Theater. Plays by Bondarenko, such as Interview with a Friend (2019), and Asshole (2020) were produced in Ukraine, and have appeared in shortlists of such Ukrainian festivals as Contemporary Play Week, Drama.UA, and The Festival of Drama of Love and Beaver, where they were presented in the format of readings. His play Clout (2022) premiered at the Lviv Puppet Theater. Andrii is a co-founder of Kyiv's Theatre of Playwrights.
Recorded Live Performance
CAST
Michaela Králová (Míša) is a theatre-maker, poet, translator, and researcher from Prague, the Czech Republic. Michaela introduced the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings initiative to Ireland with a reading of four plays in the Samuel Beckett Theatre at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, on June 1st, 2022, together with Ema Vyroubalová and Elina Herasymchuk. Michaela was a curator for the event, a director, a performer, a production and stage manager, booked the venues, managed the social media and graphic design to promote the event, organized the volunteers, and connected to various newspapers in Ireland in both 2022 and 2023. Medias which features the event afterwards include District Magazine and Trinity News. Michaela’s interview citation was published on the ‘20 short works by Ukrainian playwrights’ by Egret Publishing, which can be purchased here: https://www.laertesbooks.org/egret-acting-editions. Her other directing and play-writing credits include a feminist and war-oriented retelling of (and theatre-adaptation-inspired-by) the Czech novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being (directed along with Roísín Daly) in DU Players. Her theatre-acting credits include The Ballad of Reading Gaol in the Samuel Beckett Theatre, The Bad Bitch Manifesto (DU Players), Stuck Somewhere New (DU Players), Sitting Ducks (DU Players). Michaela is currently obtaining her M.Phil. in Literary Translation at the Trinity Center for Literary and Cultural Translation. She also works as a research assistant at TCD. Michaela volunteers for the human rights organization Amnesty International, and teaches English for refugees and asylum seekers through the Universities of Sanctuary Project. Her research focuses on non-binary identities in literary translation, on global theatre adaptations, on translation/adaptation as decolonization, and on Central and Eastern European identities. Michaela’s own poetry, play-wrighting, and translations deal with queer sexualities, alienation in immigration, and sexual violence. Michaela is very grateful that the project is growing and for all the people who have joined this year. Updates of her poetry readings and theatre projects can be found @kralova_m__ (Instagram), or @MaKrlov2 (Twitter).