Ukrainian Teens, Refugees in NYC, Bring Their Stories to the Stage—This Weekend at the JCC Manhattan

By Wendy Blake

Danylo Boiko, 17, escaped Kyiv with his mother and sister to come to New York City in March 2022, just weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine. The world he left behind is never far from his mind: “I’m probably not going to see my grandma soon. It’s been more than two years since the war started, and she’s still hiding in the bathroom during every f***ing bomb attack. … I will never see my drama teacher because he died in Bucha protecting innocent civilians.”

In a “documentary theater” production called “Are We There Yet” (no question mark) at the Upper West Side JCC Manhattan this weekend, Danylo and nine other Ukrainian teenagers displaced and uprooted by war will tell their own stories in their own words. The play, which weaves their monologues together with various scenes and themes, is a production of Teens Ukraine Theatre, or TUT (which translates to “here”). The show premiered at the acclaimed New York Theatre Workshop last year to sold-out houses. All proceeds from this weekend’s performance will go toward humanitarian aid to Ukraine (via JCC Dnipro) as well as the continuation of the program here in New York City.

TUT is the brainchild of Anya Zicer, an Upper West Side actor and producer who in 2011 created the Lost & Found Project, which works with immigrant communities and refugee groups to create plays that are constructed in part from the participants’ own stories. After the 2022 invasion, she turned her attention to projects related to Ukraine. Zicer herself had family members who were among the hundreds of Ukrainian Jews murdered in Priluki under German occupation in the early 1940s.

Zicer is collaborating with director Dima Koan and musician/composer Masha Vasilevskaya on “Are We There Yet.” She says the show aims to “amplify the voices” of young refugees living in New York City and in Ukraine, raise awareness of the ongoing war, and provide community for young people who have undergone trauma— forced immigration, and often, the loss of or separation from family members.

She found her cast after putting up a sign-up sheet for kids aged 11 to 17 at Marks Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst (JCH), in Brooklyn, a key agency providing aid to people in Ukraine and to refugees here. There were no auditions. She wanted no barriers to entry.

With a background in educational theater, she used a unique method for doing dramatic work with nonprofessionals, especially teenagers, and especially people who’ve been through trauma. First, she set about doing traditional ensemble work with the group. “Doing voice work and body work gave them a foundation to feel part of the ensemble, and welcomed and heard.”

Then the participants started putting their stories together—in their own words. “I was not pushing them to create a piece about war, but of course, the war was a central topic for them,” Zicer says. “For them, there was life before the war—and after the war. They slowly started creating their own monologues, each had their own story to tell, and we found a way to intermix all of them.”

She recruited renowned playwrights in Ukraine, who guided the teens and offered editing feedback via Zoom.

Alex Budnitsky, the executive Director of JCH, which is funding the production, said in a statement that TUT is providing Ukrainian teens with an “opportunity to share and heal while creating a totally new positive layer in their unbearable darkness of being.” JCH says that of the millions of Ukrainians displaced by the war, nearly 20,000 have resettled in New York City, most of them women and children.

TUT has now been expanded to include young adults aged 18-25, and a new show is planned to open this summer.

The show’s title, “Are We There Yet,” comes from the recollections of a young refugee who remembers her mother saying, after they fled Ukraine only to find border after border closed, “When are we going to get there?” Zicer was reminded of the perennial question asked by kids on a long car trip: Are we there yet? “They’re asking, ‘Where are we going? When are we going to get there?’ And it’s a universal question,” says Zicer.

With the war continuing and no end in sight, Danylo has gone on to enroll in film and math at Hunter College. He said in an interview, “I didn’t think the war would last this long. I thought it was temporary.” His participation in TUT is important to him. “We will do as much as we can to help support people who are there fighting for us, and people who are still living there under terrible conditions. I don’t want people to forget.”

“Are We There Yet” will be performed on Saturday, March 16, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, March 17, at 3 p.m. at JCC Manhattan, 334 Amsterdam Ave at West 76th Street. Tickets are $36. You can purchase them — HERE.

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