Timeline

October 2021 - Laura Cahill begins teaching a screenwriting class for teen actors in Kyiv Ukraine, on Zoom, in English.

February 6 2022 - Laura Cahill’s screenwriting class has its final session. It ends with the students reading scenes from their scripts. Russians forces are already at the border.

February 24 2022 - A horrific invasion of Ukraine begins, forever changing lives.

March 6th 2022 - The first group from the screenwriting class joins Laura Cahill on Zoom to talk about playwriting as a response to war. They read Mad Forest and write their first scene.

May 1st, 2022 - The second group of writers chosen from applications meet for their first playwriting lesson.

June 1st 2022 - Two playwriting classes, each meeting twice a week, are combined to form Young Playwrights Ukraine

July 24 2022 - The first collection of short plays and monologues written after the start of the war is performed on Zoom on July 24th, 2022. 

March 20 2023 - The collection of shorts from July 24th is produced at Orion Theatre in Stockholm, Sweden and titled How Do You Feel Fear? directed by Lars Rudolfsson. It runs for thirty performances.

April 1 2023 - Distinguished playwrights and directors join the YPU family to mentor the young writers. They meet twice a week on Zoom for almost five months.

August 20 2023 - YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS UKRAINE: TEN-MINUTE PLAY PROJECT is performed for a Zoom audience.  

January 18 2024 and November 9 2023 - 9 ten-minute plays and two new works have their first live reading in the home of actor Kathleen Chalfant in Brooklyn. 

May 6 2024 - The Vineyard Theatre presents THIS IS NOT A DREAM: 7 Ten-Minute Plays by Young Playwrights Ukraine, directed by Jodie Markell.

May 13 2024 - The Segal Center World Voices Reading Festival presents five short plays by Young Playwrights Ukraine, directed by Grace Cahill, Taya Fedorenko, and Karina Syrota.