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DEVELOPING AND PRODUCING ORIGINAL WORKS OF MUSIC-THEATRE,
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Changing the Conversation Through the Arts
The TRUMPETER in Theater News
by Inna Goncharova
in an English translation by John Farndon.
Alliance for New Music-Theatre’s production of The Trumpeter has been Helen Hayes Recommended by Theatre Washington.
Staged in the bunker-like tunnel of Dupont Underground, our production of Inna Goncharova’s play about the siege and bombing of Mariupol during the first year of the Russian invasion of Ukraine was a categorical success.
This was a total immersive experience!
Directed by world-celebrated Hungarian director János Szász, who was joined by two of DC’s finest actors – Michael Kevin Darnall and Lise Bruneau, this production resonated with haunting music by trumpeter Kevin McKee. A refugee-led Ukrainian Men’s Vocal Ensemble enhanced the vivid storytelling in Inna Goncharova’s new play of survival against all odds by the last surviving member of a Ukrainian military band.
Our fully-staged experience is the latest event in our ongoing commitment to the writings of Ukrainian playwrights, bringing the far-away suffering of the Ukrainians up close during the fourth year of the Russian invasion.
We were gratified by the response of our partners in United Help Ukraine and Ukraine House, which both spearheaded excellent and moving complementary photo exhibits in Dupont Underground, preparing audiences for their own immersion into the play, by showing glimpses of life in Ukraine before and now four long years of war later, the human suffering, the heroism and resilience of the Ukrainian people.
“The Trumpeter is an outstanding and deeply meaningful performance reminding us that Mariupol and Ukraine matter, and that freedom, democracy and human dignity are worth defending for all of us in this unsafe world.”
Amb. Oksana Markarova, Chair of the Board of Ukraine House
“United Help Ukraine was proud to partner with the Alliance for New Music Theater on The Trumpeter in Washington, DC. It was a wonderful opportunity to bring Ukrainian stories to American audiences through live theater, connecting the power of storytelling with our mission on the ground.”
Maryna Baydyuk, Executive Director, United Help Ukraine
We will continue our partnerships with Ukraine House and United Help Ukraine and are planning to take this important work to different venues. To recreate the substantive role of the bunker-like setting, we are looking to identify venues such as found spaces with similarly evocative possibilities for an immersive experience.
From the DC Theatre Arts Review:
“Rarely does a show’s sound design set the scene so specifically and viscerally as it does in the cavernous Dupont Underground during the performance of The Trumpeter. He wants to write, he says earnestly, A Symphony of War — to make sense of senseless conflict and to find harmony in war’s chaos.
Could there be a more apt metaphor for the vulnerable and maybe delusional will to live free and survive?
This is the link to the full review-
János Szász is joined by two of DC’s finest actors – Michael Kevin Darnall and Lise Bruneau - with trumpeter Kevin McKee as they explore the authentic bunker-like tunnels spatially and acoustically. The Ukrainian Men’s Vocal Ensemble is led by Ruslan Bondar, a Ukrainian conductor of secular and sacred choral music. The Trumpeter promises to be an unforgettable event.
WHY THIS MATTERS NOW. Read more HERE.
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We started the Ukrainian Project in 2022. Following the successful presentations in May at Dumbarton UMC and in July at the DC Capital Fringe, Alliance for New Music-Theatre presented two public readings of selected short works by Ukrainian playwrights in September at the Lyceum in Alexandria, Virginia and at the Kay Spiritual Life Center on the campus of American University.
In this project, Alliance for New Music-Theatre joined in solidarity with the Center for International Theatre Development (CITD), which commissioned over several dozen plays since Putin’s army invaded Ukraine, calling their endeavor the Ukrainian Hope Initiative, and with John Freedman, translator and friend of so many of the country’s leading theatre artists. We applaud their efforts to support playwrights in war-torn Ukraine.
Jacqueline Schwab, best known for her work with Ken Burns and featured in several of his television documentaries, joined the project as Lead Collaborator and Musician. She has drawn inspiration for the piano music she has arranged for this presentation from her Ukrainian heritage.
Local composer, musician, and Alliance company member Andrew E Simpson was also featured on the accordion.
Cast members included Gyöngyvér Bognár, film and theater superstar from Hungary, who, newly immigrated with her husband Janos Szász, has made her DC debut in this project, along with their ten-year old son Jakob. Lise Bruneau, Karina Hilleard, Michael Kevin Darnell, and Matty Griffiths, round out the exceptional cast.
We presented six works, woven together in one seamless evening of shared storytelling, including monologues and plays, all commissioned by CITD and written in 2022 by Ukrainian playwrights.
Artistic Director Susan Galbraith and Matty Griffiths selected and co-directed the six short plays from the series, and that were presented in English translations.
