LINKAGES
LINKAGES
linkages:
ukraine
about
LINKAGES:Ukraine is a multi-year program connecting U.S. and Ukrainian playwrights through sustained artistic exchange. Through reciprocal staged readings, artist conversations, and ongoing exchange, LINKAGES introduces American plays to Ukrainian audiences and Ukrainian plays to U.S. theatres. The program grew out of CITD’s Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings and its long-standing LINKAGES model of international exchange.
how LINKAGES works
Artist pods
Small groups of Ukrainian and US playwrights meet virtually to discuss artistic process and build relationships for future collaborations
artist exchange
Artists encounter each other's work and communities through travel/festivals
reciprocal readings
Ukrainian plays are presented in the U.S.; American plays are presented in Ukraine
longterm collaboration
Connections continue into translations, productions, festivals, commissions, workshops, etc
why this
work matters
Russia’s war against Ukraine is also an assault on Ukrainian culture, language, and identity. Every play staged, every script written, and every actor stepping onstage in Ukrainian pushes back against an imperial narrative that denies the existence of a distinct Ukrainian culture.
At the same time, Ukrainian playwrights are developing new theatrical languages, styles, and themes in response to a country undergoing profound change. LINKAGES brings American artists into direct exchange with this rich theatre culture, while bringing Ukrainian voices and work to audiences abroad. The exchange runs in both directions, creating relationships and artistic influence that can endure long beyond the initial encounter.
AMERICAN PLAYS IN UKRAINE
frontline cities
In cities near Ukraine's frontline, theatres are introducing audiences and artists to contemporary American plays. Readings have continued despite air raids, power outages, and the daily realities of war, often moving underground when necessary.
In 2026, for the first time in LINKAGES: Ukraine, two American plays will receive full productions at major Ukrainian theatres in Sumy and Mykolaiv.
Four readings will happen in Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, and Odesa.
Ukraine's oldest independent publishing house, Folio, will also publish an anthology of the plays, the first collection of contemporary American drama published in Ukrainian.
a Festival of American plays in Kyiv
The Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theatre located in Kyiv and one of Ukraine's most important cultural institutions, invited CITD to partner on a multi-day festival of contemporary American plays in translation.
This festival will feature staged readings of 6 major contemporary American plays, as well as lectures and artist exchanges.
relationships in action
LINKAGES brings artists and theatres together. From there, relationships evolve in their own ways, often leading somewhere unexpected.
I was reminded why we fight
Photo by R.I. Sutherland-Cohen / www.jazzexpressions.org
In May of 2025, while fighting on the frontline, Ukrainian playwright and soldier, Oleksandr Zhuhan, stayed up late to watch a livestream of his play performed through LINKAGES in NYC. It had been a difficult day for his unit and for Ukraine more broadly, but after seeing his work staged abroad, he wrote:
“For a moment, I was reminded why we fight. Watching the performance left me in deep reflection — about how we write war from within the war, how fragile and complex this task is. And also about the power of theatre: how it helps those untouched by war to feel its presence, its weight, through the words and silences of Ukrainian playwrights."
program partners
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Theatre na Zhukah, Kharkiv
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Ensemble Theatre of Chattanooga, Tennessee
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Voyage Theatre, NYC
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Kvitka-Osnovianenko Theater, Kharkiv
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Mykolaiv Academic Art Drama Theater, Mykolaiv
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Pintagon Art Club, Kharkiv
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Ukrainian Institute of America, NYC
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Rehearsal for Truth Festival, NYC
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Open Theatre, Kharkiv
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Amplify and Ignite Symposium, NYU
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Albuquerque Fringe Festival, New Mexico
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Vasylko Academic Ukrainian Music and Drama Theater of Odesa, Odesa
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Dnipro Academic Drama and Comedy Theater, Dnipro
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Magar Academic Regional Ukrainian Music and Drama Theater of Zaporizhzhia, Zaporizhizhia
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Shchepkin National Theater of Drama
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Musical ComedyBinghamton University
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KONTAKT Festival, Poland
press
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CITD’s LINKAGES Projects Help Artists Stand Strong in Difficult Times - HowlRound
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Documenting the Art of Playwriting in Times of Crisis with LINKAGES: Ukraine - HowlRound
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‘The Hamlet Syndrome’: Ukrainian artists confront war through theater - IPM News
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Creating Rules of the Game for Contemporary Ukrainian Theater - Wilson Center
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The Phenomenon of the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings - Mokslo Taikomieji Tyrimai
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The Rise of Ukrainian Drama in English-Language Podcasts - Ukrainian Drama Translations
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War Pivots and a Pinch of Snuff: Kontakt Highs in Poland - American Theatre
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Pleasure, Pride, and Fear at the Kontakt Theatre Festival - CITD Mailing
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Theatrical art unites continents and peoples: Mykolaiv residents introduced to modern dramaturgy of the US - Mykolaiv Regional News
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Mykolaiv Drama Theater surprises again: the new project united Ukraine and the United States - Mykolaiv News
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Public Readings: Acquaintance with Modern Dramaturgy of the United States - Petro Mohyla Black Seas University
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The Theater on Zhuky presented eight short contemporary American plays - Interfax Ukraine
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Building LINKAGES:Ukraine, Line by Line - Notes from the Field