On April 16, 2025, at Ohio Northern University, a remarkable journey quietly began. Ukrainian theatre artist Ganna Turlo arrived in Ohio, bringing with her not only the scripts of her homeland but the living heartbeat of a country at war. For three weeks, she worked with ONU students, guiding them toward a production unlike anything they had attempted before — a staging of the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings project, April 26–27 at the Freed Center for the Performing Arts. As rehearsals unfolded, Turlo’s thoughts remained with friends and family thousands of miles away, fighting for Ukraine’s survival. Yet here, across oceans and borders, she planted something vital: a bridge between two worlds.
The Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings began in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion, when playwrights across Ukraine turned their grief, rage, and hope into stories. Through monologues and short scenes, they captured the soul of a nation fighting not only for land, but for identity, dignity, and the right to exist. With Turlo’s careful guidance, ONU’s students prepared five of these powerful pieces — windows into the daily heroism and heartbreak that news headlines too often flatten into numbers. "I want them to meet the real people behind the war," Turlo said, "and to realize how close we are, Americans and Ukrainians — closer than we think."
This year's 16th International Play Festival was about more than performance; it was a return to roots. Festival founder Nils Riess, who had deep ties to Eastern Europe, first envisioned the festival as a living exchange between cultures. After his passing in 2023, dramaturge and associate professor Joan Robbins sought to honor that legacy by bringing Ukraine’s voices to the Ohio stage. Aided by a grant from the Ohio Arts Council, Robbins and Turlo wove together an experience not only for theatre students, but for the entire community: a chance to listen, to question, to imagine.
Beyond the stage, Turlo’s presence resonated throughout campus. Between rehearsals, she visited classes, shared her story, and curated a photography exhibit contrasting Ukrainian theatres before and after the war. "Theatre is a dialogue," she reminded audiences. And in every moment — whether through a student's tentative first reading, a silent glance at a photograph, or a post-show conversation — new echoes of that dialogue began to form, linking Ohio, to Kyiv, to Kharkiv, to countless lives still unfolding under open skies.