John Freedman
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johnfreedman100.bsky.social
John Freedman
@johnfreedman100.bsky.social
Writer, translator, founder/curator of the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings and the Insulted. Belarus Worldwide Readings Project
Dmitry Bykov's powerful, unorthodox book about Volodymyr Zelenskyy, his place in history, and his battles with Vladimir Putin, is now published by @openletterbooks.bsky.social. It was a pleasure and honor to translate this important, provocative study.
June 11, 2025 at 3:37 AM
Dmytro Ternovyi on Ukrainian radio where he talked about his work with Center for International Theatre Development, Voyage Theater Company and Ensemble Theatre of Chattanooga via the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings and LINKAGES: Ukraine. Eng subs available.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0en...
May 31, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Today in SF. Helena Petrovska's Fish Don't Cry, about the catastrophe at Marioupol.
From the producers: "The show will be held at the JCC San Francisco. Entrance to the auditorium at Fisher Family Hall in the foyer. Parking on the street or in underground parking lot."
May 31, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Hanna Komar on The Reckoning by Josephine Burton and Anastasiia Kosodii for Dash Arts at the Arcola Theatre in London. In rep to the end of June.
"I went to The Reckoning. The play lets us experience conversations & questions familiar to those who are following events in Ukraine. I recommend it!"
May 31, 2025 at 1:20 PM
June 6, 7 and 9 in NYC at the Tank: Laura Cahill's Young Playwrights Ukraine present new plays by Asia Pschenychna and Karina Syrota.
May 31, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Voyage Theater hosts readings of works by Nina Zakhozhenko, Oksana Grytsenko, Marina Smilianets, Oleksandr Zhuhan & Polina Polozhentseva - May 8, 7 p.m. @ NY Public Library: Center for International Theatre Development (CITD) & Ukrainian Institute, Kyiv, w/ aid of Teatr na Zhukakh, Kharkiv.
April 10, 2025 at 10:31 AM
April 26 & 27 - Ohio Northern University. Ukrainian director Anna Turlo directs short works by Oksana Savchenko, Oksana Grytsenko, Nina Zakhozhenko Olha Matsiupa and Maksym Kurochkin. Organized by Joan Robbins
April 10, 2025 at 10:24 AM
Dmitry Bykov's incendiary book about Volodymyr Zelenskyy has gone to the printers in my translation. Dmitry's dissection of Putinism, Russian society and patriotism is explosive. His mini-chapters on feces and kholodets (jellied meat) in Russian culture are hilarious, disturbing and stunning.
March 26, 2025 at 7:52 AM
Center for International Theatre Development (CITD)'s LINKAGES: Ukraine/Theatrical Windows project - podcast reading of Anna Halas's play "Chronicles" + interview w/ Anna. Thanks: Garry Lee Posey, Ensemble Theatre of Chattanooga and their Lights Up! project!
Listen here:
shows.acast.com/etclightsup
March 11, 2025 at 8:33 AM
Ira Kifa directs "Borscht" by Maryna Smilianets at Drayton Arms Theatre in London, March 18 to 22.
March 11, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Kateryna Penkova has been voted the new artistic director of The Theater of Playwrights in Kyiv.
March 11, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Necessity as the Mother of Invention | TDR | Cambridge Core
My retelling of my work on my two international play reading projects: Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings and Insulted. Belarus Worldwide Readings Project.
- www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
March 4, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Join the Center for International Theatre Development (CITD) mailing list and keep up on all the projects we are doing with Ukrainian, Polish and Hungarian artists and more. Art and sanity - two goals and two tools of CITD.
mailchi.mp/def7bb9ab316...
February 27, 2025 at 12:19 AM
Oleksandra Basko was one of the first Ukrainian writers to approach me after the full-scale invasion began 3 years ago. But she wrote faster than I could translate. Natasha Ramer stepped in to create a filmscript that she produced and filmed with husband Ray White. It has won 34 awards at festivals.
February 25, 2025 at 9:17 AM
А brilliant Zoom chat 3 days ago about strategies for writing in times of crisis in the LINKAGES: Ukraine project of the Center for International Theatre Development (CITD). Smart, talented, curious, generous people - how can you go wrong?! Nina Zakhezhenko, Dave White, Carolyn Dunn, Taya Fedorenko.
February 17, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Rachel Vigour just days ago finished her co-translation - with author Volodymyr Serdiuk - of Volodymyr's play "Let the Children In" and she has already arranged a reading of the piece at the Playwrights' Lab of the Live Arts Theater in Charlottesville, VA. This will take place tomorrow, Feb. 17.
February 17, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Jan. 29 CITD wrapped "Pod One," the first experimental LINKAGES: Ukraine Zoom conversations bringing together Ukrainian playwright Olena Astasieva, American playwrights Nilan Johnson and Ali Viterbi, plus up-and-coming playwright Karina Syrota who acted as translator.
January 30, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Coming soon, in February: "Borscht Recipes for Survival" by Marina Smilianets in London. Exact dates, venue to come... But it's happening! To be directed by David Adeane. Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings...
January 4, 2025 at 7:52 AM
Ukrainian texts for Towson University Theatre Lab and Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings Dec. 6. Dave White writes:
"The event was very well received! Everyone connected with the material in profound, emotional ways. Topol Missile, the final piece of the eve, struck a particularly emotional chord.
December 13, 2024 at 4:29 PM
"Bad Roads" by Natalka Vorozhbyt at Gotenburg City Theatre named one of best shows of 2024 by Dagens Nyheter.
"...insane theatrical play, absurd comedy and surreal direction. Three hyper-current and well-invested theater hours at Gothenburg's city theatre." Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings.
December 11, 2024 at 10:57 AM
Photos from the readings of Andrii Bondarenko's Ghost Land on Dec. 6-8 at the Nakano Actor's Studio in Tokyo. To be published in Japanese by Japanese Center of the International Theatre Institute (ITI) & National Noh Theatre.
December 10, 2024 at 10:32 AM
Ema Vyroubalova of Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, spreading the word about the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings in Kaunas, Lithuania. If you would like to know more yourself, you know where to find me...
December 5, 2024 at 1:41 PM
Playwright David White hosts a Dec. 6 public reading of four Ukrainian texts at Towson University near Baltimore. The texts by Kateryna Penkova, Ihor Bilyts, Olena Hapieieva and Lena Lagushonkova are drawn from the award-winning book, A Dictionary of Emotions in a Time of War, Laertes Press, 2023.
December 3, 2024 at 7:42 AM
Rahi Rahul has joined the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings. He's now rehearsing "Perfect Material" by Taya Fedorenko. A reading will take place soon in Siri, West Bengal, India. It is our 1st event in India, and the 33rd country that WUPR has collaborated with.
November 28, 2024 at 10:15 PM
Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings: Ensemble Theatre of Chattanooga meets Ukrainian playwrights. With a grant from Center for International Theatre Development (CITD) and as part of the LINKAGES: Ukraine program. Chattanooga hosts readings of Anna Halas' Chronicles and Dmytro Ternovyi's One the Eve.
November 28, 2024 at 8:57 AM