COUNTING SHEEP – A STORY OF THE MAIDAN, LOVE, AND WAR
The theatre room at St. Vladimir Institute (more commonly known simply as “St. Vlads”) was full of hustle and bustle. Next to a large sheet hung on the wall, a production line of paper mache “bricks” was in full swing at one end of a long table. As I carefully made my way around the drying bricks and past a pile of multi-coloured tires, I noticed mismatched dinnerware set out at the other end of the table. A few crew members were gathered around, deliberating how the audience’s dinner table should be set in order to best emulate an authentic Ukrainian family dinner (“Blue plates or white ones, patterned bowls or plain? Can we get clay ones?”)
In comes Mark Marczyk - the director and writer of Counting Sheep - hauling in a few more tires with his brother, Dan Ihnatowycz, who is serving as the production’s head cook. “Sorry I’m late, traffic was bad,” says Marczyk, placing his newest findings onto the growing heap of tires. After he briefly consults with the dinnerware crew, he and Maria (Marichka) Kudriavtseva - Counting Sheep’s musical director and co-writer - have a seat atop of some tires, and our interview begins.
Counting Sheep is not your typical production, explains Marczyk, “It is a fully interactive play where we invite our audience to have sviata vechera, a traditional Ukrainian Christmas Eve dinner, with us, and then gradually throughout the course of the show we transform the dinner table into a barricade and tell the story of the Maidan revolution that happened last year, which we were both involved in.”
The play, which centres around the narrative of riot cop-turned-protester Vasyl and caroler-turned-activist Melanka, will unfold through traditional central and eastern Ukrainian carols, ballads, and psalms. This musical repertoire was brought over from Ukraine by Kudriavtseva, who is an ethnomusicologist and singer with the renowned folk ensemble Bozhychi. For the past 16 years she has been travelling across Ukraine, especially in the east of the country, collecting centuries-old songs and traditions. “We both decided that it would be a shame if we didn’t use the strength of that emotional connection to that region and to those people that are now subjected to war, and in some cases voluntarily defending the nation, or choosing to go the other way,” states Marczyk.
It was their firsthand experience on the Maidan and later in the ongoing Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) in eastern Ukraine, that inspired the two to co-write the play. “Marichka and I have been writing together for the past few months, since we met on the Maidan in late January,” he said. “The script incorporates much of the dialogue that we heard during our experience both on the Maidan and later on the front.” In terms of what mediums they decided to use, Marczyk notes, “We decided to use the form that is closest to both of us, and that is song, traditional Ukrainian song.” Also helping tell their story are a collection of camera phone and YouTube videos of the revolution that the pair have been collecting and editing. “We decided that the strength of the videos and people’s firsthand accounts are what’s important here, as they drive home the emotional strength and impact that [the whole experience] had on us.”
And they want to share that experience with as broad an audience as possible. “One of the goals of putting on this play is to help share the story [of the Maidan and ensuing war] with people in the broader Toronto community, and people from all over the world,” explains Marczyk. “We want to show that there are people who are trying to present this information and to share these stories with the wider community in a different way and [show them] that you can be a part of the discussion that affects change in the world.”
The Counting Sheep project will not only be helping to spread the word about important events that have taken place in Ukraine this past year, but it will also be helping to raise funds for Patriot Defence, a group that provides Improved First Aid Kits and Combat Lifesaver training to Ukrainian soldiers. “Both Marichka and I took their Combat Lifesaver training course, and we’re definitely in support of what they do. …It’s a group that is very driven to help save lives,” says Marczyk. “They donate high quality first aid kits to soldiers, medics, and volunteers that are spending most of their time in eastern Ukraine where there is heavy shelling and artillery fire. And not only that, but they are teaching these people how to properly use them to maximize their effectiveness.”
As we finish up our interview, it dawns on me that I hadn’t yet asked a somewhat obvious question – why the title Counting Sheep? “That’s something you’ll have to come to the play to understand!” says Marcyzk, smiling coyly. But he did leave me with a little hint. “On any side of any conflict there is a tendency to be drawn into mass movement. People are stronger together than they are apart – and that works on both sides of the coin. The flip side of that is that sometimes it leads to a loss of individuality or identity, much in the same way that it could lead to togetherness. Both of those things pertain to sheep in one way or another.”
To learn more about this unique production and the people behind it, check out their website at www.countingsheepkoljada.com.
The theatre room at St. Vladimir Institute (more commonly known simply as “St. Vlads”) was full of hustle and bustle. Next to a large sheet hung on the wall, a production line of paper mache “bricks” was in full swing at one end of a long table. As I carefully made my way around the drying bricks and past a pile of multi-coloured tires, I noticed mismatched dinnerware set out at the other end of the table. A few crew members were gathered around, deliberating how the audience’s dinner table should be set in order to best emulate an authentic Ukrainian family dinner (“Blue plates or white ones, patterned bowls or plain? Can we get clay ones?”)
