- September 16, 2026
- 11:13 pm
- World News
On October 8, 2026, the sixth meeting of the third season of the project “THEATROTHERAPY” will take place at the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Tel Aviv. This time, participants will discuss the development of modern Ukrainian theater — from the first years of independence to the stage that changed after the Maidan and the full-scale Russian invasion.
Author: Anton Pshydynskyi
The meeting is organized by MAK_UA / Ukrainian Art Amateur Forge in Israel. The event will take place on October 8, 2026, at 20:00 at the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Tel Aviv, located at 22 Yermiyahu St.. Participation fee — 50 shekels.
The previous meeting of the project was dedicated to the “Executed Renaissance” — Ukrainian directors, playwrights, and actors whose work was targeted by Soviet repressions. Now the organizers propose to look at what happened next: how Ukrainian theater gradually regained its independence and its own language.
After the declaration of Ukraine’s independence in 1991, theatrical life no longer had to exist solely within the framework of the Soviet state system. Independent groups, new directing schools, and forms of work emerged that were previously either almost absent or existed on the periphery of the official stage.
At the meeting, they plan to talk about documentary theater, performance, physical theater, and verbatim. The latter term may not be very familiar to the Israeli audience: it is a form of documentary theater where the play is built on real people’s speech — interviews, testimonies, and recorded conversations, with authors striving to preserve the features of live speech.
A separate topic is Maidan, meaning the events of the Revolution of Dignity in 2013–2014. For Ukrainian culture, it turned out to be not only a political turning point. Theater became one of the spaces where war, identity, social trauma, memory, and responsibility were discussed.
This process changed even more after February 24, 2022. War literally entered Ukrainian theater: performances based on the testimonies of soldiers and refugees appeared, productions about destroyed cities, occupation, emigration, and the lives of families divided by borders.
But the meeting in Tel Aviv is not intended as an academic lecture.
Participants will be offered theatrical exercises, improvisation, work with voice, body, and emotions. The organizers promise experiments and live communication — an opportunity not only to hear about modern theater but also to try some of its tools on oneself.
That is why the name “Theatrotherapy” should be understood more broadly than a regular theater club. It is a space where theater is used simultaneously as a way of getting acquainted with culture, communication, and exploring one’s own reactions.
For the Ukrainian community in Israel, such meetings have another meaning. The culture, which after February 2022 was physically scattered between Kyiv, Lviv, Warsaw, Berlin, Tel Aviv, and dozens of other cities, continues to exist far beyond Ukraine. NANews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency regularly reports on such Ukrainian cultural initiatives in Israel precisely because today it is already a noticeable part of the local cultural life.
The organizers emphasize: theatrical experience is not required for participants. All that is needed is an interest in the topic and a willingness to step outside the usual format of “lecturer speaks — audience listens” for a few hours.
The main question of the evening sounds much broader than the history of individual theaters or directors: what is Ukrainian theater today — and what can it become tomorrow?
As stated in the event announcement, the meeting is held with the support of the Embassy of Ukraine in the State of Israel.
When: October 8, 2026, 20:00
Where: Ukrainian Cultural Center in Tel Aviv, 22 Yermiyahu St.
Cost: 50 shekels
Organizer: MAK_UA / Ukrainian Art Amateur Forge in Israel
Event page: Facebook Events
