SpaceBridge
Conceived and Directed by Irina Kruzhilina
In association with En Garde Arts and Visual Echo
Part of Under the Radar
SpaceBridge is a live performance that unites Russian refugee children, who fled to the US due to their families' anti-war stance and now live in NYC shelters, with American peers to build lifelong friendships while coming to terms with their differences. SpaceBridge delves into immigrants’ journeys of integrating into American society while they wrestle with questions of heritage, collective responsibility, and guilt by association. It is devised and performed by 11 young Russian refugees, aged nine to 15, alongside eight American-born participants of the same age. The play draws its inspiration from the 1983 peace mission to the USSR led by 11-year-old American activist Samantha Smith, who bridged the gap between American and Russian children during the Cold War. The performance is based on the testimonials of Russian and American participants obtained in a series of creative storytelling workshops which brought together immigrant and non-immigrant youth. That workshop program, created by Irina Kruzhilina,was designed to foster interactions between American youth and a variety of immigrant groups with the intended goal of developing a publishable curriculum, involving and training additional teaching artists, and pursuing opportunities for engaging additional refugee communities. We hope to initiate meaningful conversations about the experiences of young refugees from anywhere in the world.
Photo by Maria Baranova
Irina Kruzhilina is a New York-based director, scenographer, visual dramaturg, experience designer and educator, creating work at the intersection of visual art, live performance, and civic engagement. Her creative endeavors range from downtown theater to large scale parades, from opera to site-responsive installations. Since 2005, her work has been shown, locally and globally, at Times Square, Tokyo Disney, BAM, Prague National Theatre, the NY Philharmonic, the XXI Commonwealth Games, Barbican Center, and others. Irina is the founder of Visual Echo, a New York-based performance organization dedicated to facilitating generative dialogues among people from diverse backgrounds. Irina holds the position of associate professor at the New School of Drama, where she co-developed a new MFA program in Contemporary Theatre and Performance. She is a La MaMa resident artist and Joan D. Firestone Fund Award recipient.
SpaceBridge is a co-production between La MaMa ETC, En Garde Arts and Visual Echo and is commissioned by the Joan D. Firestone Commissioning Fund at En Garde Arts. The project is developed in collaboration with the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, which generously provided educational support to help participants acquire valuable performance skills and build their confidence and self-esteem. SpaceBridge is supported by the New School of Drama, with assistance from its students and faculty in the project's development.
La MaMa productions are supported in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, the Howard Gilman Foundation, Radio Drama Network, and The Shubert Foundation. Additional support for SpaceBridge is provided by The Richenthal Foundation.
Part of Under The Radar, the annual festival of experimental theater.
