“Дочка” (“The Daughter”) being read at Lyubimovka

A photo by the lovely and amazing Anna Orlandina:

Vladimir Snegurchenko, Alexey Zhiryakov, Natalya Nozdrina, Diana Rakhimova, and Alyona Ibragimova (seated).

Snegurchenko came up from Kharkiv, and directed the two other Ukrainian plays that were part of the same project as mine – “Vasimilyatsiya” and “Simeini Lyudi”. He helped move the evening along. Zhiryakov directed the reading of “The Daughter,” as well as read one of the parts (to be specific, he read the Orthodox priest – ha ha). Nozdrina had the most difficult part, in my humble opinion, even though it was a small one – she read the part of a girl who may or may not be possessed by demons. Diana Rakhimova played the priest’s slightly loopy but kind-hearted friend, Agrippina. And in the lead was the wonderful Alyona Ibragimova – a girl who came back to her native village or town (as I wrote before, our project deals with settlements that were categorized as being “in between” villages and towns in the Soviet era) to bury her alcoholic father.

I’m really grateful to the people who participated and made this thing a reality. I wrote the play in cafes in Moscow in the spring and in early summer, back before the weather turned horrendous. A lot of chain-smoking and dramatic hand gestures accompanied the process. My charred lungs were especially grateful when it all came together at the festival. It was also just gratifying to participate in a joint Russian-Ukrainian project, with all of the endearing mishaps surrounding it.

I am now officially a “promising young playwright” and someone who “needs to get off her ass and do more” – anonymous sources were quoted as saying.