 Maxima, where are you taking me? Thank you. Welcome everybody here to the Martinis Eagle Theatre Center at the Graduate Center CUNY in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It's a sunny bright day here in New York, but it's a sad and dark, dark day for the world. We are in day 23 of the illegal military invasion of Ukraine by Russia. War crimes are committed every day. Justice Theatre was bombed as sacred space where citizens were seeking shelter. So many died. It's shocking and horrific and it is about time perhaps also for us in the New York and in the U.S. to get a little closer look. We have with us two workers of the Ukrainian Theatre, two representatives who had the time and the space to talk with us. It's Maria Bruni. She's a Ukrainian actress working in Theatre and in Cinema. And we have Golenko Maxim Goryevich with us. Maxim is a director who directs all over Kiev. They are both connected to the Wild Theatre in Kiev and many, many others. He has directed over 15, 20 places. Both of you, thank you, thank you, thank you so much for coming with us. We also have Elena Slyanko from PS1, 21 in Cherem, a Ukrainian Russian curator who is a part of the New York Theatre scene here and she will help us to translate. First, welcome to Maria and Golenko. How are you guys and where are you? What time is it? I'm in safe now. Thank you a lot for inviting. Thank you. I really appreciate it because I think it's very important now to talk about it all. So you are in Poland in Gdansk? You got out? No, not in Gdansk. I'm in Poznan. I just arrived here, yeah, from Berlin. And so I'm here. I'm in Poland now. Thank you. Elena, can you ask Maxim where he is and what time it is? Let's translate one second. Maxim is right now in Odessa. It's evening in Odessa. He happens to be near his theatre. That's where he is staying and there are even a few actors also still around and tomorrow he is hoping to actually start working. As far as we know, the Russian army is getting closer to Odessa. How do you feel? It's translate. It's from one hand, yes, your prank, it's terrifying. The army being nearby, but we also want to say how lucky we feel because thanks to tremendous sacrifice of our neighbors, the town of Nikolayev in particular, where the Ukrainian army was on the way of the approaching Russian army. And they stopped it at the town, they slowed it down. Fighting and really defending Ukraine was a great deal of sacrifice. And here in Odessa we have very cool anti-aircraft forces and every morning we start with the fact that we know how many Russian planes were killed over the sea. Each morning in Odessa we count how many Russian planes were shot down over the Black Sea. You see everywhere in town the constructed defences all over town. So if I understand right, you will be rehearsing tomorrow? Did you say there are actors in town? Did I understand right? It's really that I get so many calls from my actors. Of course a lot of them left the country, especially women who had kids, but some stayed. A lot of men from my troupe, they joined the army, but some people stayed and they are asking me to start rehearsals so that they don't completely go crazy in the circumstances. What is he rehearsing? What are you working on? Tomorrow we start the reading of Natalia Voroshbiets play. Sasha takes out the trash. It's particularly aposite and topical for this moment. It's a piece about the war. It's quite patriotic and that's what we are going to be working with with our actors tomorrow. Yeah, actually a play we read at the Segal. Natasha was visiting us with the play. We also had her on Segal talk in the time of Corona and I remember her saying for us Corona is like Christmas time. The war had to stop. We can stay at home with some kind of a more peaceful time and I tried to reach her. I've emailed her three or four times. I haven't heard from her, so I don't know what it is, but let's go to Maria. Maria, when was the moment when you said I have to leave the country? It was evening, our first day of the war because we lived with our friend, our Maxim friend, our director from our theater, Natasha Sivanenko, and we woke up with this siren and it was some kind of bank three times and after that we need to just think what we need to do. We go to shelter in our house, begin to take some stuffs on it to think what we need to do to go or to stay, but in evening I decided that we need to go and I said Natasha and I said my daughter that we need to go. We sat on my car, took the luggage and when we go from Kiev on second day it began in Kiev and after that we just ran away on villages around the cities and three days we ran to borderline and after that I broke my car and I left it in Ukraine and after that we went this borderline by foot, open air. I was with my daughter nine hours at night and Natasha 15 because I went to hospital, Polish hospital. So it was hard and scary process for us because someone was in shelters and here these banks all day and now it's continuing and we were on this open air borderline with a lot of panic people and it was really scary too. So you walked for nine hours with your daughter after your car broke down? We didn't walk, we just stayed by foot because a lot of people were very close to each other. Incredible and what are your colleagues doing? Did some stay behind, did some leave, did some like Maxime said they actually become soldiers and incredible thing to think that from stage. Is it for me a question? Yes, for me. What were you doing? What were you rehearsing? Now I'm in a new theater in Poznan because I was in Berlin for a week and I haven't done some kind of job there yet but in Poznan my colleagues proposed me to be like a resident in the theater and have some readings on Ukrainian and Polish and some kind of rehearsals maybe. So they're very nice people and very talented theater so now I'm here and I hope to make some job because without job it's really totally you you you became crazy all day you just reading this news and now I think we all need a job so I understand why Maxime with my colleagues in Odessa and I so want to be there with them but I'm here. I understand why they began to take new new new dramaturgy and new new performance. Yeah that is just a devastating situation devastating choices whatever one does is wrong there are no there's no wrong thing right to do. I know that my colleague Akata Grenda once ran was also the head of the Polish Cultural Institute here till she was forced out. She said you know they are hosting many of you so how does it work? Did you stay in the theater? Did you get distributed in apartments and how did you find shelter? I'm sorry I didn't understand your question as well. How did I... When you arrived how did you get to Poznan and how did they help you? It was just a Facebook some kind of group theater of theater people in Facebook. I watched this some kind of cast it was cast yeah it was cast and they needed Ukrainian actress for a few readings. It's a little project and I made my self-tape and I gave it, sent it to him them in theater and they liked me I hope so and they proposed after that they proposed me not only reading but a resident residence in the theater and I really appreciate them. Yeah I mean two three million people have left the Ukraine it's this most serious situation since world war two also in the time of corona nobody knows what also will happen you know with soldiers who are bad bugs who never have been fully vaccinated and people who haven't and pandemics and mass movement in wartime is a is a toxic combination. Maxim how do you feel that your actors are soldiers now? I support them fully that's what's needed now and I support them but were they trained? Were they in the army before? Were they voluntary fighting? Most of them used to serve in the army before so there was some training. Maxim what does it mean for you to do theater in wartime? There is war, I understand that there is war and you have to do something, do what you can and for some benefit of your country and I understand what you are doing, we will do it now I understand that this is a bomb shelter, we will do it under the waves but I very much want to show it to the EU and to translate it a little so that it can raise the spirit a little Firstly it's important that we all do what we know what how to do and for us it is theater it's important to be engaged it's important to continue working and it's important to be useful we think that we can lift the spirits we look forward to showing the production or the readings to the army officers to be to be close to the front and and actually continue to present our work to people who who we think will respond And that's how we demonstrate that we live and that we are not afraid and we take care of our business That's also a sign of showing that we are here we stand for our country and we are not afraid Will you go with your theater company to the front if you say or will the soldiers come to your theater? Will you go to the front or will you invite the army to your theater? A lot of the army is stationed here in Odessa so we think the front is here in our town You can also speak in Ukrainian and Elena can translate for you You should keep in mind that there is no such thing as us in the front the front is everywhere the battlefield is everywhere and it's this peculiar circumstances of this war that the front is in our towns and cities all around In each town Maxim says people don't know whether they will wake up tomorrow or not They don't know which territories they call their friends from Mariupol and ask me if we are in Ukraine or Russia We will do something like that What do you hear Maxine? Do you hear from your actors? How do you stay in contact? Through telegram channel that our theater maintains and so we follow each other very closely And people are scattered all over some are in Odessa, some are in other towns and we all follow each other some are in different countries In fact my theater is now in fact my theater now is all over the world I am trying to gather all the people after our victory And my dream is to gather everybody after our victory so that everybody is back in Odessa So you said after victory you feel that Ukraine will prevail There is no other way The truth is on our side Ukrainian citizens don't have any other choice And we are winning Maxine you directed in I think in over 40 cities in the Ukraine How does it make you feel that they are all bombed and that Maxine you worked in many cities in Ukraine How do you feel now that so many towns and different cities are now bombed? How can I feel? It is white, I know all these cities Just to give you an example I worked in 2013 in Luhansk and in 2014 that city changed irrevocably It wasn't even possible to enter the city at that point anymore I know the city of Kvituchia and Krasyvok when we came to this festival in Lipko And now I am afraid to look at it Mariupol, the gorgeous town of green lush greenery festivals We used to travel to Mariupol often So many festivals are attended Maria is from Mariupol and Mariupol is from Luhansk And the first rocket in Kyiv that fell It fell near our stage with Dovzhenko center The first rocket that fell on Kyiv was near the Dovzhenko center Where I used to work Where I used to work It's a never ending horror and pain for me Because I know intimately all of the places and towns and streets which are now under attack My mother is in Mikolayev And so many other theater colleagues are in Mikolayev And just ten minutes ago before we started this conversation with you There was yet another attack and bombing Each time I grasped my phone in the internet Because it's a 24-7 anxiety and deep pain of not knowing It's for us, we are so far away from each other It's a 24-7 anxiety and deep pain of not knowing It's for us, we are so far away from each other It's a 24-7 anxiety and deep pain It's for us, we are so far removed America in one sense It's a big country but it's still an island We are not as affected All my friends in Berlin are hosting Ukrainian refugees Poland I think has 1.5 million people who came in within two weeks Maria Maxim said you are for Mariupol Tell us a bit, what goes through your mind when you think about your city Maria, tell us about your city Yeah, I understand, yeah, that's okay I just don't know Say it in Ukrainian, we can translate Yeah, we can translate No, it's a problem not in Ukrainian Problem because I can't answer what in my mind At first time it was like It's my city, it's my first theater I walked there It was first My first father's theater And now it's like It's like my heart is bent like that But It's not problem about building We can build new building But people People and they trust in some kindness In some peace It's really horrible for me For me it's more horrible than buildings That's all Yeah, what do you hear from your colleagues Who stayed behind, Maria? Oh They are in shelters, they are in theaters They are in their flats One of our colleagues in Young theater in Kiev Was died I think yesterday It's scary and I don't know, in Europe My colleagues are very scary too Because all of them Are in some flats of some friends And they just sitting and Became crazy So I think Now I have only my profession Just my profession I haven't my home I can't do something in my theater It's in Odessa I haven't anything But I have my profession So now a lot of my colleagues Began to make some zoom Readings of Ukrainian literature And it's a piece It's a piece of peace It's a good for us now To do something in our profession Talking about theater, Maxime Since, you know, as you said We don't know, we wake up Alive tomorrow Do you feel your life in theater That it was the right thing to do To be in the world Frank, sorry Yeah, it's for him the choice to work in theater Seeing now all the atrocities I'm going to war, I'm chose military You know, how does he feel About working in the theater? Maxime, such a choice That you will work in theater Between what could be done What else to do How do you feel about your choice now? I think it's the right choice That it's evidence And who needs it Will be able to do something else But I think that We prove that We don't understand anything And that Again, I say That we are alive That we Well That in this theater You live And that it will After we can It is how we prove our own vitality But also the fact that our theater is still there And so that's That very much dictated my choice It's the work that we do And I didn't And I felt it was What we do now is important to do And I see how this city is alive And here It's very simple How everything was started in two weeks And How the shops The cafes How people When they need to sing On the streets And I understand What it is now And I see the difference With the reverse And just for two weeks Everything was closed Cafes There was no street life Now things are reopening And people sing On the streets They perform on the streets So this is what life is And proves that we are not afraid So people perform They sing a song Or they So tell us a bit What do people do on the streets? Tell us what is happening on the streets? How they sing On the instruments How they play What is happening on the streets? But you know When I see, for example, the sand for the barricade, and here the opera singers sing our anthem, and the people are happy to sing, I understand that it sounds funny, but it demonstrates that there is life and that we do not understand anything. And then you would see a group of professional singers and musicians from theatres, from the national opera, even singing national anthem of Ukraine and other music is happening in town, and that's how we prove that we are there, we are not afraid. And that's our way of saying no to fear and saying no to death. So my work on the current piece is I understand why I am doing this. I am in my motherland, I am in my theatre, I am doing what I can do, I am able to breathe, and I should do it, I think that's right. I am in my own theatre, I am in my home country, and I am practicing my craft, and that's what I feel I should be doing. Maria, we really want also to thank you for coming on the program. I wrote many mails and made calls, many actors, directors who left Ukraine did not felt they could not speak. They felt they might be accused from fellow artists or fellow Ukrainians or also they are so conflicted about it. How does it feel to be in a relatively safe space even so you have no work, you have no money coming in, but still it's a safer space. How do you deal with that situation of some of your friends and colleagues and theatre artists are there, you are now in Poznan. It's really crazy situation, it's not good feelings, you know, and so why I am here in Poznan with theatre. Now I am not an actress of the theatre, but I will be in some rehearsals and some art process, and it's important for me to be with my colleagues. Because it's an international language, it's very nice and very understandable people. So why I am here? Because without my profession, without all this, I don't know what I need in this world. And how can I help to Ukraine now because I have some volunteers job first days, but I feel that it's not enough, you know. And this feeling of fault, I began to do some work, some volunteer jobs, but it's not enough. And now I understand I need to be in my profession somehow. Because a lot of women do coffee much more better than me, and do soup for army much more better than me. But I can speak, I can act, and I think it's my war, it's my own war, and I am soldier on my field. Like Maxime, of course. Yeah, absolutely. We were both, Elena also had a demonstration here in New York in front of the Russian consulate, the New York theatre community came together, it was a small but effective one. And someone said the opposite here of war is not just freedom, it's actually creation. So be able to create, Maxime, is this changing you, is it reinforcing your work in theatre, or do you feel you will do things radically different? No, no question about it. What we are going through now will change the way I work, absolutely. I also feel that we will come out stronger with this terrible experience. Tell us a bit about Ukrainian theatre, what is, so we all do not know enough, what makes Ukrainian theatre different from let's say Polish, Romanian, Russian? What is Ukrainian theatre about? Good question, thank you. Ukrainian theatre, for example, we were doing here in Odessa, and, for example, I think it's a bit different, because all this Ukrainian theatre is still a colonial theatre, which, let's say, for centuries, we did it a little bit so that it was so beautiful, connected, without any problems, and the theatre that we are involved in... This post-colonial theatre that developed in this hundred years of kind of building a pretty picture without problems, and that was for some time the representation of Ukrainian theatre. And I think that only after 2017, after what happened, Ukrainian theatre became more social, it began to talk about some problems, it began to try to talk about it, and for me, for example, after the first, let's say, war, it was such a social obstacle, that what is now suffering, it felt that sooner or later it will get in the way, and we wanted to talk about it. It became very political, it became very aware of what was happening in the world, and that first war was really a warning to us, 2014, that theatre cannot stand on the sidelines. And I believe that after this experience in the war, Ukrainian theatre will change. And I'm very scared about what we were afraid of, and what we have experienced all these years, and it really is now getting in the way. This kind of a warning, was given a warning, and it's what we were thinking, expressing, it's now becoming a reality. Although we couldn't even imagine in our past, even experience of work, what's going to happen, the reality of it, the horror. A question for both of you, but let's start with Maria. Maria, what is your vision for theatre, what do you feel theatre is all about? Ukrainian theatre, you mean? In general, your work, you know, you decided to work, why do you do theatre? Oh, it's a hard question for me. I don't know, because I'm happy when I do it, maybe, so why? And when I don't do it, it's, I'm not happy. I think now we need to find some, maybe more freedom in theatre, because we had very provocative and very politician theatre in Ukraine with Maxim Valenko, and it was our power in it. But now, after all this, really we were like one there. You understand what I mean? Like, how do you say it, about those who prefer my future? Can you translate it for me? Elena? Say it again, Vlaska, because I'm going now. I said that all the time we were, we had foreseen this situation, and now we are faced with the fact that we have to do something new in theatre. Because we, the theme that we, well, the theme that we are not good at. We are exhausted, yes. Yes, paradoxically, we were anticipating the horrors that were to come, and so we feel like those themes, that topic has been explored, it's been covered, we now have to move to the new ground, we have to now create new theatre. And so far, it is difficult to say what kind of theatre we are going to do, what kind of themes we are going to raise. I think this is what we need to start with. But I think to answer your question, it's impossible to envision what that new theatre is going to be, what's going to come. It's too early to say that. But I think it's going to be a cleaner theatre, a cleaner theatre from Russian influence and less value, definitely. And I feel like it will be the kind of theatres that will lose its kind of subservience to more colonial, excuse me, Maria, if I'm sort of explaining a bit more, the more colonial Russian centric tradition. It will lose, that grip will be lost, finally, and we will become more... It will be more identical. It will be more authentic, full of Ukrainian expression, who we are, rather than looking back at previous traditions, especially the Russian one. Yeah, I think it was also Brecht who said, you know, what do we do when we are in dark times and he said we will sing about the dark times. Maxim, what is your vision? Why do you do theatre? What is your motivation to do it? Maxim, tell us about your motivation. Why do you do theatre? In general, it's a philosophical question. Why do you do it? Yes. How did it happen? I understand it correctly. Why now? In general, why theatre? Why is it different profession and how do you imagine why theatre is important to you? Well, it happened to me that it is for me some mega-world in which I can do, well, it is a banal answer, in which I can do my own worlds. It is a word that can be spoken. For me, it's a way of living in a larger world. It's having a specific language that I can explore the world with and what's around me. And what can I do? I do it so that people listen to me and it is the most effective and the most interesting instrument for me. If I see that people are hearing us, that they listen to what we have to say, that's the biggest reward of my work, of my being, of meaning of why I do theatre. And I understood this in my teenage years and that's how I ended up in this profession. And I never really looked back. Tell us a bit about your 40 productions. Are they plays? Do you write the work with actors? Do you look towards the western canon of plays or towards the eastern? Tell us a little bit about your work and what you are known for. Tell us a little bit more about your work. What works are interesting to you? Was it drama, western, or do you write yourself? What material do you use in your work? What are the settings that you have made in different places? I understand, but you know, I'm such a clear boy. And the last year I was very busy. I had to do this. This is western drama. This is in Lviv. We set up a play and made it like post-apocalypse. In Kyiv, there was one exhibition in Marrakech. And we came up with this country. It was on the Latin America chapter, but it was in Ukraine. And it went very far. In Kyiv, also about a year or so ago, we did a new production based on works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, where we recreated in this work as if the kind of imagined country of Latin America, but it really was Ukraine that we were exploring through this new work. The stage of the premiere was in Madej by Schaeffer in the operetta. And now, about a week is not enough for us. It should have been in Odessa. The premiere should have been on the 6th floor of Lviv. I don't understand. Lviv is a women's exhibition. But lately I pay a lot of attention to Ukrainian drama. And we work a lot with Lena Ligushonkova. She is a very cool Ukrainian drama director in Odessa. And now she is also in Poland. We worked on a few other productions with the international dramaturgy. One was a mono-spektacle, a production based on, and I couldn't catch quite, maybe Maria will help me or type in the chat what the production was. It wasn't production. It was a project, a performance that very looks like a serious, British, serious, fleabag. Fleabag, okay. Yes, but it was a performance. And now we are moving on to really engaging with Ukrainian playwrights and one in particular that we are working very closely with. Her name is Lena and the last name. Lena Ligushonkova. Ligushonkova, yes, who is based in Odessa, right? No, she is like me. She is in Kiev and in Odessa, but now she is not far from me in Poland and Bidosh. Okay. How wonderful this. She is with theatre too and she is okay, she isn't safe now. I think if everything will be good, we will work together, I will... I think it will be important for us to continue to give voice to Ukrainian playwrights and dramaturgs because this experience we are living through right now I'm sure will give a tremendous push to new writing, new ideas, new experiences in theatre. I think the world will look a little different now to look at Ukraine. And also the international world from outside of Ukraine will look differently on what is Ukraine, what our country is. Yeah, so we cannot wait to hear what we do. Maybe we can put out a book of new Ukrainian plays, post-invasion plays that will be coming out. It's a completely different world. And we will be in Maria. What are your first memories of theatre? If you call it Maria Supola, what were your happy moments? Tell us a bit about your first experiences. What were your... It was Marupo Theatre, rapey to it. And it was the smell of the theatre. And this darkness with soffits. And I lost my religion, Christ, Christ, my Christ. Cross, cross, cross. Yeah, I lost it in this stage. And after that my religion became theatre and acting. And it was very interesting for me because before theatre all things that I did was very easy to me. My mother is a painter and I began to paint and all says, said to me, oh, you're so talented. It's so good. I began to sing and all said, oh, it's so good for you. You're very talented in singing. But when I began act, my first teachers said to me, let's see what you do, mom. And it was like a little fight for me. And it was very interesting to this psychological of my characters, what I play. So it's not, I have a very big problem. Very often I feel like I'm a bori. It's very bori. But in theatre it's not bori for me. It's interesting all second, every new second it's very interesting for me. Incredible. Yeah, I hope you know that that life in theatre in the Ukraine will continue for both we hopefully in a real renaissance or in a sense of a revolution that not just what was before but maybe also in new ways. Question to both of you. What do you think, how will this conflict end as theatre artists with their eyes to the ground, maybe Maxime, do you think, what do you think, what do your theatre, what do your friends think, how will this all end? Maxime, tell me how your comrades in the theatre, you also think, how will this all end, what will this all end with? Well, I don't think, I'm sure that this is only our promise, to end and I've already said that. I'm not only saying, but I deeply believe and convince that there can only be only one way how it ends, that we will overcome. We just don't even imagine other outcomes. The big question is what blood and what price we are going to pay for that outcome. So, how specifically it all ends, we don't know. What do you think, Maria? I think only about one thing that our world became very scenic and when in one country there are a lot of murders and the people are dying right now. We are talking now and they are dying now. And another country can't close the sky for example. Another country is thinking very slowly and this murder continues to kill children. I think only about this. It's not necessary for me, buildings or cities, for me, necessary lives. And nobody in Europe, nobody everywhere, don't feel this safe because how can I be here in Poland, in Germany, in New York, LA, no matter. How can I feel my safety if I know that in another country, right now killing people and nobody can do anything. This is scary for me now. Question to both of you, what can New York theater community do, what would help you? Just connect to that. Well, America is doing so, I don't understand much about it, but there are some challenges and closing the sky and everything else, well, something like that. We are thinking more about Ukraine. Do you know how theatrical actors can do something here in New York? Well, when we can do it, we wanted you to see what wonderful exhibitions we have and see what kind of country it is and what kind of theater it is. It's the sense of solidarity from all over, particularly in the United States was palpable and incredible help from the government, but specifically, as far as theater community in New York and other places, it's more that once this whole nightmare is over, the way theater workers can help each other is to see each other's work and we would be eager to show what we do in Ukraine so that to answer your questions, theater community in New York and people who work there would come to see what is happening in Ukraine to attend plays, to attend festivals. But for now the philanthropic support has been tremendous in America and the sense of solidarity from all over the world and we are deeply grateful. And so the way individual people responded by raising money for humanitarian aid and it's important to enable Ukrainian army to fight, to raise resources. One has to remember that each cent and dollar raised, it's a Ukrainian life. Maria, what do you think? What would help you? What would make your life different? We need to be visible. That's all. We need to be visible now. So now we are talking about Ukraine and it's great, I think so. Yeah, it's incredible and we all need to be aware. We need support. We need to show our solidarity and there are so many wars going on in the world. Also the Ukrainian conflict as Natalia, when we talked to her the playwright, we said, you know, this has been going on since 16. You know, this is a war. We are already in the middle of a war. Elena, if I may ask also you, I know you have family, I guess, in Kiev. What do you hear? How are you doing? How is your mother doing? How is that for you? Do someone living in a way in another country for many decades? Yes, it's true. And suddenly it all became incredibly close to me. I spent more than half of my life living in New York, living not in Ukraine. I left at the age of 20 and I was very fully immersed in the life here and in theater here and theater in Western Europe. And then suddenly this wave and avalanche of horror, what is happening in Ukraine, it was, I would say, transformative to how I even feel now. It suddenly is all close to home. That horror, the thousands of people dying, the incredible pain that people are experiencing. I think if anything, people in the arts, what theater creates is tremendous sense of empathy for the other place, for the painful experiences and the catastrophe that is happening in Ukraine. And my mother is in Kiev, she refused to live and my uncle is in Odessa, he also refused to live and stay put. But I think apart from family members, it's more the experience of just people overall there. It brings close to home the idea of we do live in the same. Whether you're in Poland or in Berlin or you are in New York, we are very much experiencing this horror of war again. Incredible. We're coming close to an end. I really would like to thank both of you for joining the Segal Talk. It's very courageous for you, Maria, to speak up. Thank you for having left your country for you, Maxine, to speak with us. And it's a reality what he said, we don't know if we wake up tomorrow. His theater could be bombed overnight tonight. Nobody knows what will happen. Nobody knows what the outcome is. If his actors won't show up for rehearsals in the coming years, it's not because they get commercials or work and film, they might have been killed fighting. The whole idea of what is theater about is existential and it's stunning to see the resilience and that theater actually as is a part of resistance, it always has been. Also in World War I, in World War II, and we are seeing all these incredible works. So you have all our respect and our thoughts are with you, our hearts are with you. And we will try to get the word out and to support you. We are having two more talks scheduled on Monday. We have an artist based in Berlin, Greece, born in Russia. It's Julia Strauss, who is organizing grassroots effort is a very significant artist and she will talk to us what it means for her for someone in some way from the other side. She is someone who also had to leave the country early. Then we will hear from Natalia Kaliada from the Belarus Free Theater was just in Washington also, you know, she's very much involved in diplomatic mission. So it's truly a new world we live in is a new world order will happen and we will have to see it will no longer be capitalism against communism will be, you know, a democratic democratic states perhaps against authoritarian states. China or Russia will be everything will be newly mixed and and it is stunning that perhaps some say it is also the end of the world power, the view of Russia as a superpower. What we are experiencing now and then we are saddened that it's the Ukrainian who are on that front and sacrificing lives and interrupting their lives. It's a little side thing we at the Segal Center organized a film festival we have over 100 films that was theater artists did work in the time of Corona mostly at home. They are from over 50 countries. So it's called the Segal film festival.org I don't know if that's for Ukrainian artists something to look at but also in that kind of confinement in small spaces. In an expression of free speech artists found ways to communicate to direct and to do. And if we do this again we really will also of course include work from from the Ukraine. Thank you really all for being with us I want to ask, thank Elena for jumping in at the last moment to be the translator Agata Grenda and Anna Albinger in Gdansk and in Poznan who helped us to connect to all of you. And the whole round that also said Frank it's time why don't we need to do something. And we also had these talks in our mind so thank you for everybody. Tanvi Andy at the Segal Center, and I hope to hear and see you again. Maria and Maxime and I hope you will come to New York one day to a Segal audience listening in thank you for taking the time this is important. We really need our support and help and there needs to be a feeling of solidarity that they know that the Ukraine is on our mind. It is of importance and in its living in a global world and what happens there in a way does happen also to us. Join us if you can Monday with Julia Strauss and then with the free Belarus data on Wednesday, and to both of you, I don't know what to say besides I wish you all the best. I hope that all your actors come back Maxime from from the war from fighting in uniform and Maria that you find work that you can do what you say what you love makes you happy, what you chose to do in life. And it's a horrific to learn, you know, that that's work is interrupted by by real war so I'm thank you all of them and all the best from New York and from the Segal Center here at the Graduate Center. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.