About the Playwright
Oksana Grytsenko (Оксана Гриценко) is a Ukrainian playwright and screenwriter. She wrote her first play, Saniok, in 2019 following completion of courses in dramatic writing conducted by Maksym Kurochkin and Anastasiia Kosodii. This play was shortlisted at the Ukrainian Contemporary Play Week in 2019, and had a staged reading at Lesia Ukrainka Drama Theater in Lviv. Her second play, Don Juan from Zhashkiv, was shortlisted at Contemporary Play Week in 2020. Based on this play, Grytsenko created a screenplay for a feature film with the same name. The film was produced by Kristi Films and was funded by Ukraine’s State Film Agency. The release of the film was scheduled for December 2022. Grytsenko is a co-founder of Kyiv’s Theater of Playwrights. Before starting her artistic career, Grytsenko worked as a journalist for about 20 years, covering the Russian invasion of Georgia, Ukraine’s EuroMaidan Revolution, Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and Russia’s war against Ukraine. She has worked for Ukrainian and foreign publications, including the Kyiv Post, AFP, the Guardian, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Marie Claire, Ukraine Verstehen, Huck Magazine, Nikkei and the Wall Street Journal.
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Sofiia Shulha (SHE) is a student from Kyiv studying psychology at Trinity College Dublin. Her goal is to become a psychotherapist and help Ukrainians and other people with the mental health consequences of the war.
"I am honoured to be a part of the Ukrainian play readings, and I hope we can spread awareness and gather support for our heroes by doing so. "
Софія - студентка з Києва, вивчає психологію в Триніті-коледжі. Її мета - стати психотерапевтом і допомагати українцям та іншим людям з впливом війни на психічне здоров'я.
"Для мене велика честь бути частиною читань українських творів, і я сподіваюся, що таким чином ми зможемо поширити інформацію та залучити підтримку нашим героям".
Michaela Králová (Míša) (HE/Director) 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).