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Theater during the Russian-Ukrainian war — includes the course of events, the reaction and reflection of the Ukrainian and world theater to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

February
On the morning of February 24, 2022, the Russian Federation launched a military invasion of Ukraine, which led to the introduction of martial law in the country. Theater institutions stopped their work in the usual mode.

Theater premises became volunteer centers, hostels in Lviv,    Kyiv (the center of the volunteer movement "Suziryachko" on the basis of the "Suzirya" theatrical art workshop), sewing workshops (in particular, Mykolaiv Art Drama Theater, Rivne Regional Academic Ukrainian Music and Drama Theater, Chernihiv Music and Drama Theater named after Taras Shevchenko,  Cherkasy Music and Drama Theater named after T. G. Shevchenko) switched to tailoring balaclavas, flags, buffs, raincoats for territorial defense and the military. In the volunteer center of the Lviv National Drama Theater named after Maria Zankovetska's camouflage net was woven from the scenery of the performance "Jesus, the son of the living God". The Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater in Mariupol became a shelter for hundreds of citizens who were left without any housing. On the basis of the Ivano-Frankivsk Music and Drama Theater, a coordination center for aid, resistance, psychological and humanitarian support was created, which received the symbolic name — the shelter "Resistance Movement — Aid Movement". A powerful volunteer center was founded by activists from the Kharkiv State Academic Puppet Theater named after V. A. Afanasyeva - "L.OB" (puppet defense) HAB, which is continuously engaged in providing the necessary civilian and military needs of Kharkiv and the region. The "Angar" volunteer headquarters, founded on the basis of the artistic center of the "HarmYder" theater, became one of the most powerful in Volyn.

In the Lviv Academic Drama Theater named after February 24, seven areas of volunteer activity were organized: shelter for internally displaced persons (developed in June 2022), curatorial work with internally displaced persons, free bus transportation across the Polish border (from March 28 to May 4, 2022, 76 buses with about 4 thousand people were sent), and humanitarian assistance. Since the end of March, each week, workers and theater workers have been visited by wounded soldiers in the hospital.

Artists and theatre workers joined both on the front and behind of the conflict. Oleksandr Pecheritsa from the famous Ukrainian show "Kryposno" joined the APU,  Oleksiy Kravchuk (80th Air Assault Brigade, call sign "Artist", "St. Nicholas"),   Andriy Snitsarchuk, Pavlo Aldoshin, Niko Lapunov,  Volodymyr Rashchuk (call sign "Artist"), actors of the Chernivtsi Academic Regional Music and Drama Theater named after Olga Kobylyanska Oleksiy Nadkernychnyi and Hryhoriy Rudenko-Kraevskyi, ballet photographer with the call sign "Sky", Volodymyr Petraniuk is the director and director of the "Dzerkalo" theater in the territorial defense of Kyiv, playwright Maksym Kurochkin (call sign "Play"), director, actress, performer, LGBTQ+ activist Antonina Romanova,    Oleksiy Tritenko, Dmytro Linartovych, ballerina of the National Opera of Ukraine Olesya Vorotniuk,   actors of the Kharkiv Puppet Theater Tetiana Tumasyants and Oleksiy Petrychenko, actor Oleksandr Mishchuk and sound engineer Svyatoslav Halas of the Lviv Academic Drama Theater named after Lesya Ukrainka. Actor of the Ukrainian Small Drama Theater Danylo Mireshkin accompanies French journalists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine. Actors Ada Rohovtseva also volunteered with many compatriots, Sergey Pavlyuk,  Anastasia Pustovit, Roman Yasinovskyi, Maryna Koshkina, Maksym Sterlik, Anastasia Kuzyk and many others.

Playwrighter Iryna Harets and her husband Andriy planted an apple orchard on their land in the first days of the Russian invasion - the tradition of "Victory Gardens" that existed in the United States, Great Britain, Canada and other countries since the First and Second World Wars.

Addressing of theatergoers
The theater community continues to appeal to Russians not to be silent, to go out into the streets. On March 3, a joint appeal was recorded by representatives of Odessa theaters, who gathered near the Odesa Opera and Ballet Theatre. The video appeal was recorded by employees of the Poltava Music and Drama Theater named after Mykola Gogol. Artists appear in social networks and on the pages of newspapers (Larysa Kadyrova, Linas Marius Zaikauskas ) on television broadcasts (Stas Zhirkov, Vitalina Bibliv, Dmytro Usov, Igor Takht, commenting on the current situation in Ukraine for foreign media (Olena Mygashko, Oleg Vergelis, Alex Borovenskyi, Serhiy Vynnychenko, Artem Svystun, Olena Apchel, Roza Sarkisian and Oksana Cherkashyna, Lena Lyagushonkova ) and many others. Playwrights Neda Nezhdana and Oleksandr Viter appealed to foreign colleagues to support them with charity events - readings of current Ukrainian plays (distributed by the media in English, French, Spanish, German and helped implement many theater projects around the world).

Condemnation of Russian aggression against Ukraine continues to appear. On March 14, on the pages of the online magazine "Gordon", Andriy Zholdak announced that he was withdrawing his name from the posters of the dramatic and opera performances he staged in Russia, and expressed the opinion that "the entire civilized world should stop cooperating with today's representatives of Russian culture, because this country today is misanthropic and dangerous for people and civilization". Dmytro Stupka expressed indignation on social networks regarding the silence about the Russian aggression of Antonina, the eldest daughter of Olga Sumska, who lives in Moscow.

The Kharkiv Opera House and Puppet Theater were damaged by shelling. The Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater (Mariupol) was completely destroyed.

Abduction of artists
In occupied Kherson, a number of public figures were abducted, in particular, the director of the Kherson Regional Puppet Theater Viktor Gavrylyuk (from March 21 to 22). general director — artistic director of the Kherson Music and Drama Theater named after Mykola Kulish of Oleksandr Knygu (from March 23 to 24). Oleksandr Knyga was followed by a team of 40 machine gunners on three armored personnel carriers and up to a dozen civilian vehicles marked with the letter "Z".

Archiving, conservation, evacuation
Part of the team of the Kharkiv Ukrainian Drama Theatre named after Tarasa Shevchenko moved to Vinnytsia.

An example of coordinated work was demonstrated by Lviv, which systematically approached the work of protecting monuments. Conservation of Kyiv theaters took place thanks to grassroots initiatives. Kharkiv activists testify about the government's obstruction of the evacuation (in particular, the archives of the "Berezil" theater).

Restoration of theatrical activity
On the 14th day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, March 9, 2022, the committee of the National Prize of Ukraine named after Taras Shevchenko announced the laureates of 2022. Thus, in the nomination "Theatrical art" the victory was won by the performance about the war in Donbas "Bad roads" of the Kyiv Academic Theatre of Drama and Comedy on the left bank of Dnieper : Tamara Trunova (stage director, co-author of the musical solution), Natalya Vorozhbyt (author of the play), Andrii Isaenko (the performer of the role of Stas), Valeriya Khodos (the performer of the role of Yulia). From this event, blogger Serhii Vynnychenko offered a countdown of the history of the modern history of Ukrainian theater.

In the cities where the evacuated child population is concentrated, puppet theaters resumed activities and began showing performances (Lviv, Rivne,  Uzhgorod, Berehove, Kalush,  Kryvyi Rih, Chernivtsi,). Shakespeare's "Hamlet" was performed in the dungeon at the Ivano-Frankivsk Drama Theater, actors of the Mykolaiv National Academic Ukrainian Theater of Drama and Musical Comedy recorded a video with poems by Vasyl Symonenko and Sviatoslav Vakarchuk to support the army.

World Theatre Day (March 27, 2022)
The National Union of Theater Actors of Ukraine published a petition for the protection of Ukrainian theater culture with a call to international theater organizations and associations with the following request: 1) to stop cooperation with Russian theater actors who have not publicly expressed their condemnation of the Russian war against Ukraine; 2) exclude them from the number of participants in international festivals, competitions, projects, etc.; 3) limit, up to a complete ban, the showing of plays and tours of Russian theaters at all theater venues. Oleksandr Tkachenko, Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, informed about the banning of cultural figures and the inclusion of Russian artists in the "black list".

The STAY UNITED project took place in Berlin's Deutsches Theater, the program of which was attended by Andrii Palatny (curator of the theater program of the GogolFest festival, Kyiv), Sofia Melnyk (animator), Anton Telbizov (artistic director of the Teatromania theater, Mariupol. The discussion took place with the participation of: Josie Dale- Jones (London), Evan Kosmidis (Athens), Madeleine Bongart (Lausanne) and Christine Dissman (Berlin). Bilingual readings of relevant Ukrainian texts took place ("The Survival Diary" by Pavlo Aryeh, "A Traveler's Guide to Donbass" by Anastasia Kosodii, "Diary from Kyiv" by Evgenia Belorusets.