Lydia Krushelnytsky's drama troupe prepares new production (02/25/01)

Lydia Krushelnytsky's drama troupe prepares new production

by Helen Smindak

NEW YORK - The Ukrainian Stage Ensemble, the amateur dramatic troupe that has been bringing Ukrainian classical and folk theater to New York audiences for over three decades, is readying another exciting production for the stage.

On March 4 the ensemble will present "Five Scenes of the Year 2000," a poetic-philosophical work by the New York poet, prose writer and literary critic Bohdan Boychuk. Through Mr. Boychuk's script, combined with movements and dances conceived by dancer/choreographer Katja Kolcio of New York, the actors will breathe life into "Five Scenes" at Pace Downtown Theater in lower Manhattan. Excerpts from Myroslav Skoryk's unforgettable compositions - the score for "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" and "Carpathian Concerto" will provide musical accompaniment. Adding luster to the performance will be the work of the esteemed professional film and stage actor Ivan Bernatsky.

Staged in five ongoing scenes, the montage projects different states of man's being in poetic and philosophical terms. The first scene presents the state of birth and early discovery of the world. The following scenes proceed through love, with a sweet or bitter taste, through doubts and uncertainties, through metaphysical introspection, into human relationships, and finally to God, terminating in prayers and illumination.

"Five Scenes of the Year 2000" is directed by the enthusiastic, tireless diva of Ukrainian theater in New York, Lydia Krushelnytsky, who has been teaching and coaching students and young professionals for 36 years. Her dedication and hard work have inspired hundreds of young people from the New York area, helping them to improve their Ukrainian diction and pronunciation, raising their self-esteem and enabling ambitious young actors like Stefa Nazarkewicz to try their wings in other theatrical companies.

All the actors in the 20-member troupe have equal roles in "Five Scenes." Typical of the dedicated young professionals who appear in the production are Ivan Makar, 28, a Columbia University graduate with two master's degrees in counseling psychology. He rarely misses a rehearsal, despite the demands of his work as a counselor and professor at Pace University and advisor to the newly created Ukrainian Club at Pace, and the countless hours he puts in as president of the New York branch of the Ukrainian American Youth Association (SUM).

Involved as a youngster in Ukrainian folk dancing, violin and bandura recitals, reciting poetry and acting in holiday plays presented by the SUM Ukrainian Saturday School, he also appeared in a few episodes of the children's TV show "Sesame Street." Mr. Makar has been a member of the Ukrainian Stage Ensemble since 1988 and played the leading male role of Lukash in Lesia Ukrainka's "Lisova Pisnia" a few years ago.

Melanie Sonevytsky, 35, always eager to perform, recite, dance and sing, has been associated with the ensemble since age 6 and has portrayed such memorable roles as Lesia Ukrainka's Kassandra and Kylyna in "Lisova Pisnia," Smeraldina in Goldoni's "Servant of Two Masters" and Zinka in Kulish's "Patetychna Sonata."

A graduate of Marymount Manhattan College with a master's degree from Iona College, the schoolteacher says her passion for acting "probably comes from being surrounded by music, talk of music, theater and the arts from early childhood." Her father, Ihor Sonevytsky, is a prominent composer, musicologist, conductor and teacher; her mother is a research librarian who headed Barnard College's Reference Department for 40 years (the two recently co-edited the first English-language dictionary of Ukrainian composers). Paternal grandmother Olha Sonevytsky ran an art gallery in the East Village and presided over the Ukrainian Literary-Art Club for years.

At a recent rehearsal, most of the actors were in everyday casual attire, their sweaters, jeans and sneakers a far cry from the all-white costumes they will wear on stage next weekend. Visualizing themselves in an all-white setting backed by five grandiose arches, trying to keep in mind the flight of steps they will be working on in the actual performance, they moved about the auditorium singly and in groups, declaiming the words they had committed to memory.

Mrs. Krushelnytsky, seated at a table with the script before her, followed the action closely, waving her hands orchestra-conductor fashion to indicate the proper tempo for the drama. "Slower, slower," she urged one actor in Ukrainian. "Louder, please, you won't be heard in the auditorium," she called out to another. Then, sternly, to the whole company: "Don't wait! You must speak your lines as soon as the others have finished theirs." At one point, she read lines for an actress absent because of an important exam; at another, she moved briskly across the room to rearrange a few chairs standing in for steps.

Following the run-through, the actors huddled with the director to select the next rehearsal date. With the performance just weeks away, it was decided to hold another rehearsal then and there. It was "Places again!" for a second practice session, another go at entrances and exits, at timing, at remembering lines and heeding the director's instructions to speak slowly, at giving the right inflection to words and phrases.

Mr. Boychuk, who had been sitting on the sidelines for his first look at "Five Scenes" in action, got up to add words of encouragement to the actors when the rehearsal was over. Then Mrs. Krushelnytsky called out to her flock "Don't leave yet - the dressmaker's here to take your measurements." There was a flurry of activity for some 20 minutes before everyone disappeared, one by one, into the chilly night.

Mrs. Krushelnytsky, a native of Kuty in Western Ukraine, has had a long career as a stage star, drama teacher, theater director, and opera singer. She performed with the Ukrainian theaters in Stanyslaviv, Vienna and Salzburg, sang major roles with the Lviv Opera and performed in concerts in Salzburg's Mozarteum.

On her arrival in the United States in 1949, she joined the Joseph Hirniak and Olympia Dobrowolsky Theater Group and starred in numerous leading roles. Since 1965, when she became director of the drama school established by Ms. Dobrowolsky, Mrs. Krushelnytsky has directed over 30 artistic performances, including the popular folk opera "Oy ne Khody Hrytsiu," Eugene Skrip's "Glass of Water," Volodymyr Vynnychenko's "Black Panther, White Bear," a montage of excerpts from the works of Lesia Ukrainka titled "Woman Through the Ages," and many concerts, seminars and literary evenings.

She was honored in 1989 with an achievement award presented by the Ukrainian Institute of America and in 1997 was co-recipient with choreographer and prima ballerina Roma Pryma Bohachevsky of The Washington Group's "Friend of Ukraine" award.

Mr. Boychuk, a resident of New York born in Bertnyky, Ukraine, is the author of seven books of poetry and two plays in Ukrainian. A former editor of the Ukrainian literary magazine Svito-Vyd, he is co-editor with Bohdan Rubchak of "Koordynaty" (Coordinates, 1969), a two-volume anthology of modern Ukrainian poetry. His work in English includes the critically acclaimed book "Memories of Love" and numerous poems which have appeared in such journals as Grand Street, 2PLUS2, Translation, Agni and Partisan Review. He has also translated (into Ukrainian) Samuel Beckett, E.E. Cummings and many contemporary American poets, among them Stanley Kunitz and David Ignatov, as well as selected poems by Bohdan Ihor Antonych and Ivan Drach (into English).

The unique choreography of Katja Kolcio, a first-generation Ukrainian American interested in exploring her Ukrainian heritage within a modern American context, has been presented to diverse audiences in New York City, upstate New York, Ohio, Georgia and Michigan. Ms. Kolcio, a former member of the Syzokryli Ukrainian Dancers and the CORE Concert Dance Company, is currently teaching dance in New York City and directing a series of choreographic workshop/events (The Kolo Project) in community settings that offer a rare glimpse into a magical world steeped in tradition and communal celebration. She is also completing a book of oral histories - "Branching Out: Oral Histories of the Founding of Six Dance Organizations."

Mr. Bernatsky, named a National Artist of Ukraine in 1991, has performed over 100 roles during his 30 years as a theater and film actor. He began his stage career as a leading actor of the Shevchenko Music-Drama Theater in Lutsk, Volyn Oblast, and later joined the Zankovetska Theater in Lviv. Noted for playing historical and literary figures, he has been associated since 1976 with the Dovzhenko and Ukrnaukfilm film studios in Kyiv. He assists the Ukrainian Stage Ensemble as an actor, choreographer and stage manager.

"Five Scenes of the Year 2000" will be performed on March 4 at 2:30 p.m. at Pace Downtown Theater, 3 Spruce St. (between Park Row and Gold Street), behind Pace University, which faces City Hall.

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