Performance of Hello, This Is Radio 477!, Berezil Theatre in Kharkiv, 1929.
Inspired by the 1929 Ukrainian avantgarde jazz musical, Radio 477! has original songs and text by New York City-based Yara Arts Group in collaboration with artists in Ukraine.
Radio 477! – In Concert, USA, Ukraine. Text: Serhiy Zhadan. Music: Anthony Coleman. Director: Virlana Tkacz. Performed by: Yara Arts Group. Cast: George Drance, Darien Fiorino, Silvana Gonzalez, Akiko Hiroshima, Susan Hwang, Maksym Lozynskyj, Jeremy Kie Vance, Lesya Verba. A live orchestra. Musicians: Anthony Coleman (piano) Hannah Dunton (base), Frank London (trumpet), Erica Mancini (accordionist), Satoshi Takeishi (drums, percussion), Francesca Ter-Berg (cello), Doug Wieselman (clarinet).
Presented at the Berezil Theatre in Kharkiv in 1929, Hello, This Is Radio 477! was the first jazz musical in Ukraine, featuring catchy songs, wild dances, dazzling set design, and fabulous costumes. Although the show captivated audiences, the Communist Party bosses did not like it and it soon disappeared from the repertoire. The musical’s text and score were assumed lost in the Stalinist purges that followed. A few years ago, Virlana Tkacz, director at the Yara Arts Group in New York, discovered the conductor’s score hidden in an archive. Now, it has inspired a new theater piece created by Yara Arts Group and Ukrainian artists.
The show features musical arrangements and compositions by Anthony Coleman, inspired by the original music by Yuliy Meitus. The text, based on the original structure of the show, is written by Serhiy Zhadan, Ukraine’s renowned poet who lives in Kharkiv. The initial work on the theater piece started during the exhibition Kurbas: New Worlds at the Mystetsky Arsenal in Kyiv (fall 2018), when Anthony Coleman recreated part of the score with 18 young musicians from Kharkiv. Waldemart Klyuzko and Zhenya Kopyov reconstructed Vadym Meller’s visually exquisite set and costumes for the event. Last fall, Yara worked with Serhiy Zhadan on a workshop of Radio 477! in Kharkiv.
Free and open to the public. Online registration through Eventbrite is required. Wearing of a face mask inside the venue is required.
The 2022 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival is dedicated to the people of Ukraine fighting for their independence. 🇺🇦 Suggested donation ($10) will be used to support Ukrainian refugees. All collected funds will be donated to People in Need, a Czech non-governmental, non-profit organization with over 20 years of experience in helping people in emergencies all over the world.
For more information about this event and the 2022 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival program, visit www.rehearsalfortruth.org.
The project is co-produced by the Polish Cultural Institute and Yara Arts Group.
ABOUT THE 2022 REHEARSAL FOR TRUTH THEATER FESTIVAL
The 2022 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival: Under Pressure is organized by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation and the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York, GOH Productions, Czech National Trust, Terezin Music Foundation, Trap Door Theatre, and Yara Arts Group.
The festival is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York, Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Ministry of Human Capacities, Hungary, and Society for the History of Czechoslovak Jews.