RealTime Arts invites the public to attend “FREE OURSELVES FROM STONE: Ukrainian Voices Reclaimed,” a live performance of Ukrainian folktales and music woven with commentary from Ukrainian war veterans. The evening starts off with a full Ukrainian dinner followed by the performance, and ends with a community discussion in which the Pittsburgh public can connect with Ukrainian veterans of the current war, visiting from Ukraine. It will be held at St. Peter & St. Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Carnegie PA, a hub for the Ukrainian community, on Thursday, November 13th from 6-9 PM. Tickets are available at realtimearts.org.
“FREE OURSELVES FROM STONE” is the final event in RealTime’s year-long Ukrainian Storytelling Series, a trio of performance-based community gatherings that support development of RealTime’s upcoming large-scale music-theater work, there is a blue that only children see (working title). The source material for this unique new work, written by Molly Rice, includes conversations between Ukrainian and US veterans, input from audiences through the Storytelling Series, and elements of Ukrainian folklore. The World Premiere of there is a blue is slated for production in Fall 2026.
The current cast includes Cynthia Dallas, Lish Danielle, Kyle Haden, Hazel Leroy, and Ricardo Vila-Roger, joined by renowned writer, filmmaker and musician Oleksandr Frazé-Frazénko (City of Asylum fellow) and his wife, singer Mari Frazé-Frazénko, both from Lviv. The performance is directed by Rusty Thelin.
Ukrainian veterans in attendance will include Daria Fugalevych of the 145th Territorial Defense Battalion of the 114th Brigade, Armed Forces of Ukraine. When asked why she is participating in the project, Ms. Fugalevych says,
We want to share our stories. It’s very important to express our experiences. We have a kind of question to the world: do you know about Ukraine, that we are different from those that try to take our culture, our language? For me, I wish to connect. To say, you are a big people, we are small, but we are the same. We [need to] understand that the world cares about us.
The events in the Ukrainian Storytelling Series show just that. Attendance has been at capacity, and the shows have inspired audiences to further explore Ukrainian culture. One recent audience member reported,
The event left me open and curious...the next weekend after, I ended up spending three hours reading all about the history of Ukraine. Wow. So much to learn.
The site of the event is a great place to learn more about Ukrainian culture. On November 13, guests may wish to arrive at 5:30 to view the gorgeous Orthodox iconography in the sanctuary of St. Peter and St. Paul, and to visit the Ukrainian Museum in the fellowship hall that commemorates Carnegie’s Ukrainian roots.
For more information, please contact info@realtimearts.org or visit realtimearts.org.
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ABOUT REALTIME ARTS: RealTime connects human beings through unique theatrical experiences. Founded in 2015 in Pittsburgh by playwright Molly Rice and director/producer Rusty Thelin, we create unique theatrical works that celebrate real people and real places—works that emphasize the interconnectedness of all human beings. RealTime Arts has garnered recognition locally and nationally for our innovative productions and collaborations; in Pittsburgh, we have been honored by nominations for the Carol R. Brown Creative Achievement Award (founder Molly Rice has been nominated 3 times), the Mayor’s Award for Public Art, the Global Pittsburgh Diversity Champion Award, and many of Pittsburgh’s “Best Of” lists. Nationally, our projects have been featured by the National Endowment for the Arts, LISC, Americans for the Arts, the New Jersey Council for the Arts, Forecast Public Art, the National Association of Social Work, and Theater Communications Group (TCG). Our work has been written about by the New York Times, Vulture, American Theater Magazine, Dramatists Magazine, Play: A Journal, and others. Internationally, our play The Birth of Paper was produced in Beirut, Lebanon and subsequently published in Rusted Radishes: Beirut Literary and Art Journal. In 2024, Rice was a resident of the Bogliasco Center in Northern Italy, working with Thelin on our upcoming Ukrainian collaboration. To learn more, visit realtimearts.org.
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