Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Martin E. Segal Theatre Center
Thursday 23 April 2026
A lecture by Seth Baumrin:
"The Kharkiv Dramaturgy–Fortitude and Democracy in Ukrainian Modern Theatre"
Aleksandr Les Kurbas’s Berezil Theatre’s 1924-34 Activities in Kharkiv (Ukraine’s capitol 1919-34) still resound in twenty-first century theatre. Seth Baumrin's talk links Kurbas’s unique dramaturgy to its contemporary uses via three case studies: Les Kurbas’s Macbeth, 1924; Ivan Franko University in L’viv thesis project performance of the poetry of Taras Shevchenko, 2009; and the Andrei Prykhodko production of Lesya Ukrainka’s Song of the Forest, 2015.
The Berezil Theatre’s aesthetics and pedagogies were excoriated by the newly formed Soviet state. Not only censored, Kurbas and colleagues were silenced through deportation, forced labor, and assassination. Berezil Theatre’s resilient praxes survived their cultural moment to reemerge in a unique twenty-first century theatre with twentieth century modernist earmarks. Ukrainian dramatic literature and traditions have been formed under the pressure of centuries of conflict resulting in a durable drama linked to democratic urgency in the face of persistent threats of tyranny.
Seth Baumrin, author, director, and educator served as chairperson of the Department of Communications and Theatre Arts at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY from 2010-22. His work as a theatre educator ranges from teaching in detention and mental health facilities to curriculum development for undergraduate and graduate theatre programs. He is the Artistic Director of Subpoetics International and the Performing Typewriters (Paris/NYC). And founding Artistic Director of Gershom Theatre (L’viv) and Fluid Balance Dance (Ljubljana). Baumrin trained as a director with Eugenio Barba, Jacques Chwat, and Jerzy Grotowski. Author of multiple scholarly essays on theatre history and treatises on acting and directing, Baumrin has also directed over sixty productions like Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffman; Milhaud’s Médèe; Lorca’s As Five Years Pass; Calderon’s Life is a Dream; Odets Awake and Sing and Golden Boy, and McCullers’s The Member of the Wedding.
About HowlRound TV
HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based, peer-produced, open-access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world’s performing arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and develop our knowledge commons collectively. Anyone can participate in this community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our contribute content page
.
Martin E. Segal Theatre Center
Thursday 23 April 2026
A lecture by Seth Baumrin:
"The Kharkiv Dramaturgy–Fortitude and Democracy in Ukrainian Modern Theatre"
Aleksandr Les Kurbas’s Berezil Theatre’s 1924-34 Activities in Kharkiv (Ukraine’s capitol 1919-34) still resound in twenty-first century theatre. Seth Baumrin's talk links Kurbas’s unique dramaturgy to its contemporary uses via three case studies: Les Kurbas’s Macbeth, 1924; Ivan Franko University in L’viv thesis project performance of the poetry of Taras Shevchenko, 2009; and the Andrei Prykhodko production of Lesya Ukrainka’s Song of the Forest, 2015.
The Berezil Theatre’s aesthetics and pedagogies were excoriated by the newly formed Soviet state. Not only censored, Kurbas and colleagues were silenced through deportation, forced labor, and assassination. Berezil Theatre’s resilient praxes survived their cultural moment to reemerge in a unique twenty-first century theatre with twentieth century modernist earmarks. Ukrainian dramatic literature and traditions have been formed under the pressure of centuries of conflict resulting in a durable drama linked to democratic urgency in the face of persistent threats of tyranny.
Seth Baumrin, author, director, and educator served as chairperson of the Department of Communications and Theatre Arts at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY from 2010-22. His work as a theatre educator ranges from teaching in detention and mental health facilities to curriculum development for undergraduate and graduate theatre programs. He is the Artistic Director of Subpoetics International and the Performing Typewriters (Paris/NYC). And founding Artistic Director of Gershom Theatre (L’viv) and Fluid Balance Dance (Ljubljana). Baumrin trained as a director with Eugenio Barba, Jacques Chwat, and Jerzy Grotowski. Author of multiple scholarly essays on theatre history and treatises on acting and directing, Baumrin has also directed over sixty productions like Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffman; Milhaud’s Médèe; Lorca’s As Five Years Pass; Calderon’s Life is a Dream; Odets Awake and Sing and Golden Boy, and McCullers’s The Member of the Wedding.
About HowlRound TV
HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based, peer-produced, open-access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world’s performing arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and develop our knowledge commons collectively. Anyone can participate in this community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our contribute content page
.
