HB STUDIO FOR UKRAINE an online forum
Sunday, May 15, 2022 at 1pm
Join us in learning more about what’s going on in Ukraine, and what we can do to show our support and help. Moderated by Rasa Allan Kazlas.
Please note: For clarification purposes, the money that you would donate to “tickets” above, is the entire amount that will go to a Ukrainian charity.
In February we first received the devastating news of the Russian action in Ukraine. HB Studio hosts an online forum, led by faculty member, Rasa Allan Kazlas, joined by guest speakers: Dr. Alex Motyl, Dr. Juozas Kazlas, and Igor Golyak. Our aim is to learn together–artists, actors, citizens of the world–about the history of Ukraine and the circumstances of this conflict. To dispel misinformation, come together for just action and express our solidarity with a nation under siege.
Alex Motyl will discuss the causes of the war in Ukraine, the current situation, and possible outcomes.
Juozas Kazlas will share some insights gained from his experiences during his two years as a peacekeeper in Ukraine.
At the end of the forum we will share ways of helping and supporting Ukraine. All donations received for this talk will go to support Ukraine.
PANELISTS BIOS
ALEXANDER J. MOTYL (born in New York), is a writer, painter, and professor. Nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2008 and 2013, he is the author of ten novels, among them, Who Killed Andrei Warhol, Pitun’s Last Stand and Archidea. Vanishing Points is his first collection of poetry. Worries, his second poetry collection, is slated to appear in 2022. He has done performances of his fiction at the Cornelia Street Café and the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City. His artwork has been shown in solo and group shows in New York, Philadelphia, Westport, and Toronto and is part of the permanent collection of the Ukrainian Museum in New York and the Ukrainian Cultural Centre in Winnipeg. He teaches political science at Rutgers University-Newark and is the author of seven academic books and numerous articles. He is the 2019 Laureate of the Omelian and Tatiana Antonovych Foundation. According to Academic Influence, Motyl was ranked sixth among the “Top Ten Most Influential Political Scientists Today.”
JUOZAS A. KAZLAS, Dr. Kazlas is an independent political analyst and lecturer. He received his doctorate in political science from Yale University, specializing in ethnic relations in Russia and Eastern Europe. He gives an annual lecture on minority rights for the course on “Corporate Responsibility and Human Rights” at Columbia University, as well as guest lectures at Rutgers University and the University of Notre Dame. He has presented papers at international academic conferences at Yale, Columbia, and Queretaro, Mexico. Kazlas combines broad academic knowledge of history and politics with insights gained from years of practical experience in the field. He worked as an official in the OSCE mission in Ukraine (2014-2015), the UN mission in Kosovo (1999-2009), and the OSCE mission in Bosnia (1996-1998).
RASA ALLAN KAZLAS, is an Actor and director. She has performed on Broadway and Off-Broadway. Her directing credits include plays that range from Neil Simon to Greek Tragedy. She has created and directed two poetry plays. The first, Etched in Amber, works of Lithuanian poets in English translation. It was performed in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, and the revived version played at the National Kaunas Drama Theater and the Vilnius University Theatre. Caged Visions, was based on poetry written by inmates within the New York prison system, and performed at The HB Playwrights Theater. Rasa directed Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love at the prominent Kamerni Teatar 55 in Sarajevo, which then performed throughout Bosnia. She has toured the Middle East as a Cultural Ambassador for the State Department. Rasa teaches theater at HB Studio and has a BA from Smith College.
IGOR GOLYAK is the founder and producing artistic director of Arlekin Players Theatre & Zero Gravity (zero-G) Virtual Theater Lab in Boston. A global leader in the virtual theater movement, he is currently directing The Orchard Off-Broadway, a hybrid production (both live and virtual), featuring Jessica Hecht and Mikhail Baryshnikov. During the pandemic he conceived and directed WITNESS, chekhovOS /an experimental game/ and State vs. Natasha Banina, each of which became international virtual theater sensations, receiving multiple New York Times Critic’s Picks, and garnering a 2022 Special Citation from the Boston Critic’s Association for “pushing the boundaries of digital space to create a new genre of theater”. Golyak’s work has received numerous Elliot Norton Awards for The Seagull, The Stone, and Dead Man’s Diary, including an award for Best Director. His work also received This Week In New York Pandemic Awards (WITNESS and chekhovOS) and Broadway World’s Best Director of a Streamed Production Award (chekhovOS). He directed The Merchant of Venice for Actors’ Shakespeare Project, productions at Northeastern University and Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and has taught at Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Harvard University, Lesley College, Wellesley College, New England Theater Conference, the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts/Middlesex University, Moscow Specialized Institute for the Arts, and the ARBOS Theatre Festival. Arlekin, a company of immigrants, as been invited to perform on famous stages and at world-renowned festivals all over the world, including in Ukraine, Yerevan, Armenia, New York City, Chicago, Lviv, Monaco, the US, Canada and UK, as well as the Moscow Art Theatre.
Golyak is from Ukraine, and with his team at Arlekin, has led the #Artists4Ukraine initiative, engaging artists to share messages of hope, peace and solidarity, and raising funds for humanitarian aid for Ukraine.
HB STUDIO is an international community with artists of widely differing experiences, from many different histories and places. Our interest in Ukraine is not exclusive, but arises out of humanitarian concern. We hope this forum will open a door to other conversations, and other steps toward a better world.