Calgary’s first Ukrainian theatre company opens with sold-out crowds

There was a closing night in Calgary Saturday that felt like the start of something special.

Just before 8 p.m. at the West Village Theatre on Tenth Avenue, a long lineup snaked into the alley, trying to make it into the final performance of a three-night run of The Muze, the first production of Calgary’s first Ukrainian theatre company, Strum.

It was unusually hot and sultry for a September  night, and inside the theatre space, every seat was occupied, along with a number of VIP tables set up around the front of the stage that made the room feel a little bit like Saturday night at The Copacabana in Martin Scorcese’s classic Goodfellas.

For the founders of Strum, Anna Lupeko and Snizhana Gukasian-Korobeinkova, the experience was unforgettable and healing in a way, for a traumatized community.

The show featured 11 Ukrainian actors of varying degrees of stage experience who worked with director Gukasian-Korobeinkova to learn stagecraft on the fly, since they only had eight weeks from launch to opening night.

Calgary’s Workshop Theatre provided rehearsal space for the production, which told the the story of two celebrated women, Ukrainian journalist Sofia Yablonska and Bronislawa Wajs, a Polish poet of Roma origin. (Both co-founders have been working with a variety of Calgary theatre companies, including Morpheus, Scorpio, Workshop, Quest and Front Row Theatre, and have also worked closely with The Collectors Gallery of Art in Inglewood on a variety of art and performance projects.)

“There are not all professional actors in the troupe, but I was pleasantly surprised by their professional approach, hard work and devotion for the project,” said Lupeko. “They had complete trust in Snizhana – director of  The Muze who shared her own interpretation and vision of two stories about the life of two celebrated yet very different women in arts.

“In Ukrainian theatre, the director has the most important job of bringing her vision of the play to fruition,” she added, “including the script, stage setting, costume and the direction each story will go.

“In parallel with the staging of The Muze,” she said, “the actors received an express course in acting from Snizhana, which, I think, helped them a lot in embodying the characters on stage.”

The Muze at the West Village Theatre in Calgary, Sept. 7, 2024 (Photo: Snizhana Gukasian-Korobeinikova)

Stunning response from community

As far as the reaction their three-night long production received, Lupeko said it was stunning.

“To be honest, we did not expect such a stir because we were a completely new theatre,” Lupeko said, “but on Saturday, we had to deliver additional seats because there were people coming in even though they knew that we were completely sold out.”

“Of course, we were very happy and glad to see such a demand for a true Ukrainian theatre production in Calgary, and not just creating a play that is traditional and repeats our folklore, but one that is modern, smart, intellectual, and relevant.

“We have received a lot of positive feedback from both Canadians and the Ukrainian community, telling me they desire to experience or remember the Ukrainian homeland.

“I realised after our first production,” she added, “how much Calgary’s Ukrainian and artistic community is ready and eager for a new page in the history of the arts in this city.”

Lupeko said she knows of Ukrainian-language theatre companies in Edmonton and Toronto and a number of independent projects underway in Vancouver. The company has already made plans to perform in Edmonton in February and May 2025.

“This (production) is a success for Strum Theatre and a good start,” Lupeko said. “We set a high bar for intellectual, imaginative, emotional theatre.”

The cast of The Muze celebrate after a sold-out closing night show in Calgary on Sept. 7, 2024 (Photo: Stephen Hunt, CTV News)

“We strive to be an example for the local community, therefore we will continue to responsibly carry out the mission of our theater: to preserve the Ukrainian language and culture, through the means of the theater and to build a cultural bridge between Ukrainian and Canadian cultures.”

As for what Strum stands for?

“Strum in Ukrainian language means electric flow, a stream of water or air, without which life is impossible.

“Strum in English means finding a melody, the sound of a guitar.

“So in the Strum theatre,” she added, “we unite the power of words, the energy of movement and dance, the flow of music and song.”