Seth Baumrin: “The Kharkiv Dramaturgy - Fortitude and Democracy in Ukrainian Modern Theatre"

Theatre talk by Seth Baumrin:

“The Kharkiv Dramaturgy - Fortitude and Democracy in Ukrainian Modern Theatre"

Aleksandr Les Kurbas’s Berezil Theatre’s 1924-34 activities in Kharkiv (Ukraine’s capitol 1919-34) still resound in 21^st Century theatre. Seth Baumrin's talk links Kurbas’s unique dramaturgy to its contemporary uses via three case studies: Les Kurbas’s Macbeth, 1924; Ivan Franko University in L’viv thesis project performance of the poetry of Taras Shevchenko, 2009; and the Andrei Prykhodko production of Lesya Ukrainka’s Song of the Forest, 2015. The Berezil Theatre’s aesthetics and pedagogies were excoriated by the newly formed Soviet state. Not only censored, Kurbas and colleagues were silenced through deportation, forced labor, and assassination. Berezil Theatre’s resilient praxes survived their cultural moment to reemerge in a unique 21^st Theatre with 20^th Century Modernist earmarks. Ukrainian dramatic literature and traditions have been formed under the pressure of centuries of conflict resulting in a durable drama linked to democratic urgency in the face of persistent threats of tyranny. There will be an open discussion after Baumrin's presentation before the reading of CASSANDRA A Dramatic Poem, by Lesya Ukrainka.

Introduced by Manfred Philipp, Co-Ombuds and Professor emeritus.

Co-presented by CUNY Academy for the Humanities and Sciences.

Seth Baumrin, author, director, and educator served as chairperson of the Department of Communications and Theatre Arts at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY from 2010-22. His work as a theatre educator ranges from teaching in detention and mental health facilities to curriculum development for undergraduate and graduate theatre programs. He is the Artistic Director of Subpoetics International and the Performing Typewriters (Paris/NYC). And founding Artistic Director of Gershom Theatre (L’viv) and Fluid Balance Dance (Ljubljana). Baumrin trained as a director with Eugenio Barba, Jacques Chwat, and Jerzy Grotowski. Author of multiple scholarly essays on theatre history and treatises on acting and directing, Baumrin has also directed over sixty productions like Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffman; Milhaud’s Médèe; Lorca’s As Five Years Pass; Calderon’s Life is a Dream; Odets Awake and Sing and Golden Boy, and McCullers’s The Member of the Wedding.

Photo courtesy of Seth Baumrin