Timeline
Young Playwrights Ukraine began weeks after the invasion of Ukraine. The young writers met every week on Zoom and captured the unexpected and unthinkable in real time. They’ve gone on to write plays that have been performed with professional actors on Zoom, and in theaters in Sweden, New York and Kyiv.
October 2021 - Laura Cahill begins teaching a screenwriting class for teen actors in Kyiv Ukraine, on Zoom, in English.
February 6th, 2022 - The screenwriting class has its final session. It ends with the students reading scenes from their scripts. Russian forces are at the border.
February 24th, 2022 - A horrific invasion of Ukraine begins. The students flee their homes.
March 6th, 2022 - The students join Laura Cahill on Zoom to talk about playwriting as a response to war. They read Caryl Churchill’s “Mad Forest” and write their first scenes.
May 1st, 2022 - A second group of students, chosen from applications, start writing plays with Laura Cahill. Many of these students are still at home in Ukraine.
June 1st, 2022 - The two playwriting classes are combined to form Young Playwrights Ukraine.
July 24th, 2022 - Young Playwrights Ukraine’s first collection of short plays and monologues is performed for a Zoom audience on July 24th, 2022, with a cast of professional actors.
March 20th, 2023 - The collection is produced at Orion Theatre in Stockholm, Sweden and titled How Do You Feel Fear? directed by Lars Rudolfsson. It runs for thirty performances. Laura Cahill and the young writers meet in person for the first time on opening night.
April 1st, 2023 - Distinguished playwrights and directors join the YPU family to mentor the young writers.
August 20th, 2023 - Young Playwrights Ukraine Ten-Minute Play Project comes out of the mentorship project. 9 ten-minute plays are performed with a cast of professional actors, directed by mentors for a Zoom audience.
November 9th, 2023 - 6 plays from the Ten-Minute Play Project have their first live reading in the home of actor Kathleen Chalfant in Brooklyn.
January 18th, 2024 - 3 plays from the Ten-Minute Play Project, and two new plays have their first live reading in the home of actor Kathleen Chalfant in Brooklyn.
May 6th, 2024 - The Vineyard Theatre presents THIS IS NOT A DREAM: 7 Ten-Minute Plays from the Ten-Minute Play Project. The evening is directed by Jodie Markell.
May 13th, 2024 - The Segal World Voices Reading Festival presents five short plays by Young Playwrights Ukraine, directed by Grace Cahill, and company members Taya Fedorenko, and Karina Syrota.
August 30 2024 - THIS IS A CONFESSION, 4 short plays by Young Playwrights Ukraine, is presented by Ukraine Fringe at Pro English Theater in Kyiv. After more than two and a half years together, the playwrights work is heard for the first time in Ukraine.
September 13 2024 - This is Not a Dream Ten-Minute Plays by Young Playwrights Ukraine, edited by Laura Cahill, published by Smith and Kraus, goes to print.
