Lesia Ukrainka: The Modernist Playwright America Has Yet to Discover With Virlana Tkacz and Rory Pelsue

In The Blue Rose, Cassandra, and more, playwright Lesia Ukrainka's dramas wrestle with gender, war, desire, power, and the dangerous cost of speaking the truth. At this event featuring conversation and live readings, stage directors Virlana Tkacz and Rory Pelsue will explore how Ukrainka might be reimagined for the contemporary stage—and why her fierce, psychologically charged plays offer such rich possibilities for directors, actors, and producers.

This event will take place in person and partially online at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library on the 7th Floor. The livestream (posted HERE day of) will feature the conversation and Q&A only, from 6:30—7 PM. 

About Lesia Ukrainka

Lesia Ukrainka (1871–1913) was a pioneering Ukrainian modernist, playwright, poet, and feminist intellectual. A contemporary of Henrik Ibsen and Anton Chekhov, she explored many of the same social and psychological tensions while offering a distinctly female perspective. Her complex heroines resist social expectations, challenge male authority, and insist on their intellectual, political, and personal freedom.

Find Lesia Ukrainka's works in NYPL's Collection here.

In person | Doors will open 30 minutes before the program begins. For free events, we generally overbook to ensure a full house. Priority will be given to those who have registered in advance, but registration does not guarantee admission. All registered seats are released shortly before start time, and seats may become available at that time. A standby line will form 30 minutes before the program.

To view the livestream | Whether you're attending in person or online, you must register with your email address. You will need a device with audio and/or video and an internet/cellular connection to view the livestream.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Virlana Tkacz is the founding director of the Yara Arts Group, a resident theatre company at the world-renowned La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York. Virlana's translation of Lesia Ukrainika’s classic verse play “The Forest Song” with African American poet Wanda Phipps won the National Theatre Translations Prize. She first staged “Yara’s Forest Song” at La MaMa in 1994. In 2013 she staged an immersive version of the show at La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theatre. In 2021, during the Covid lockdown, she created “Virtual Forest Song,” rehearsed and presented on-line, which that summer she transformed into an outdoor performance known as “A Thousand Suns.”

Rory Pelsue is an Obie-winning director of new and classic plays, operas, musicals, and live-stream performances. He is the Resident Director of Fake Friends, where he helmed The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse at the New Group, This American Wife, and Pulitzer Prize Finalist and Drama League Nominee Circle Jerk. Other recent and upcoming credits include directing Manon! at Heartbeat Opera, Other People’s Dead Dads at Dixon Place, Burn Book at Mabou Mines, Read to Me at Portland Stage, The Show on the Roof and Lizard Boy, at Boise Contemporary Theater, Deathbed Edition at Ars Nova ANT Fest, and workshops and readings at Ojai Playwrights Festival, Ars Nova, Southcoast Repertory Theater, Studio Theater, Primary Stages, CultureHub, and Mercury Store. He has served as an Assistant and Associate Director at the Metropolitan Opera, the Juilliard School, Yale Repertory Theater, McCarter Theater Center, and Yale Repertory Theater. BA: Sarah Lawrence College. MFA: Yale School of Drama.

ACCESSIBILITY NOTES

In-Person

• Assistive listening devices and/or hearing loops are available at the venue.


• ASL interpretation and real-time captioning (CART) are available upon request. Please submit your request via this form or contact SNFL at least two weeks in advance.


• This venue is fully accessible to wheelchairs.

Livestream

• ASL interpretation and real-time captioning (CART) also available (see previous).


• Captions and a transcript will be provided.

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Please submit all press inquiries to Connor Goodwin at least 48 hours before the event: email [email protected]. 

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All programs are subject to change or cancellation. All programs are subject to recording and photography.

This presentation is part of Razom for Ukraine’s 2026 Ukrainian Cultural Festival. Learn more about the Festival at ucfnyc.org.

The 7 Stories Up Series at SNFL is made possible by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).