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CURRENT PRODUCTION

FOLLOWING THE MILKY WAY

In 2015 Marina traveled to Ukraine to meet with the last speakers of Old Swedish of Gammalsvensby in Southern Ukraine. The seeds for a new show was sowed, and in the summer of 2018 Marina and Yara Arts Group/Virlana Tkacz, together with master bandura player Julian Kytasty, travelled back to Gammalsvenskby and to Estonia where the Swedish folks started their journey almost 250 years ago, on the island of Hiiumaa.

We premiered our show FOLLOWING THE MILKY WAY at the Kurbas Theatre in Kyiv, Ukraine in juli 2018, as well as have excerpt showings in Gammalsvensky, Kherson Oblast, and in Kharkiv.

Conceived, written by MARINA CELANDER

Performed by MARINA CELANDER

Directed by VIRLANA TKACZ

Music by JULIAN KYTASTY

Visual designs by WALDEMART KLYUZKO

MIRROR BUTTERFLY

My next project was performing in Afro Yaqui Music Collective's phenomenal jazzopera movement and theatre extravaganza MIRROR BUTTERFLY: THE MIGRANT LIBERATION MOVEMENT SUITE. 

We premiered this grand production at the New Hazlett Theatre in Pittsburgh, PA, October 12-13, 2018, and then toured to the Kennedy Center's Millenium Stage in Washington DC on November 23, 2018.

 

Please read more about the production following the link (red button). 

Composed by BEN BARSON

Written by RUTH MARGRAFF

Directed by CYNTHIA CROOT

Choreographed by PEGGY CHOY

Performed by Afro Yaqui Music Collective in cooperation with (in alphabetical order):
Ben Barson

Andrew Bayura

Ahmer'e Blackman

Patrick Breiner
Katharine Carlson
Marina Celander

Albert Du
Federico Garcia-De Castro

Weylin Gomez

Jason Gordon
Bernard Grobman
Morgan Hawkins
Yang Jin

Trevor C. Miles
Nejma Nefertiti

Samuel Okoh-Boateng
Ben Opie

Julian Powell

Claudia Quintana

Kelsey Robinson

Gizelxanath Rodriguez

Roger Romero

Ben Rossman

Aidana Yntykbayeva
 

"My ancestral memory of the North stirs my heart. Songs humming, embroidered runners washed and folded, sagas woven from veins and connective tissue. Memories live in my cells"

"One day after months in this snowy hell, called Vokuta, a man heard me call to mother in Swedish, “Vänta på mig, mamma!”, he stopped and turned. We froze in terror, because mama had said to never talk out loud when others were around. “Are you from Sweden?” “No, we’re from Ukraine, Gammalsvenskby, Old Swedish Village, Staroshwedski.” “So what are you doing in this camp with German spies?” We didn’t know why we were here. But soon my mother, my brother and I were sent home, home to Gammalsvenskby on the Dnipro River."

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