Irina Kruzhilina's SPACEBRIDGE to be Presented at LaMaMa

La MaMa in association with En Garde Arts will present SpaceBridge, conceived and directed by Irina Kruzhilina, at the Ellen Stewart Theatre at La MaMa ETC on June 6th, 2024.

Tickets are pay what you can (minimum $10) and are available for advance purchase at https://www.lamama.org/shows/spacebridge-2024.  The performance will run approximately 90 minutes, with no intermission.  Performance begins at 7 p.m.
 
SpaceBridge is a workshop program and a live theater piece created and directed by Irina Kruzhilina (En Garde Arts’ A Dozen Dreams), which brings refugee children from Russia together with their American counterparts to build lifelong friendships while coming to terms with their differences.
 
The performance tracks the struggles of children, now living in New York’s shelter system, whose families were forced to escape Russia and enter the US through Mexico because of their antiwar views.
 
SpaceBridge draws its inspiration from two significant historical events: the 1983 peace mission to the USSR led by 12-year-old American activist Samantha Smith, who bridged the gap between American and Russian children during the Cold War; and the satellite-mediated "citizens' debates,'' known as “spacebridges'' between the US and the USSR, which prompted unfiltered and uncensored conversations between ordinary people from both cultures
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SpaceBridge is devised and performed by 11 young Russian refugees, aged nine to 14, alongside eight American-born participants of the same age. On stage they're accompanied by Ellen Lauren from Siti Company, who plays an imagined, grown-up version of Samantha Smith, who actually died at the age of 13 in a tragic plane crash not far from her home in Maine. 
 
Our hope is to inspire audiences by showing them the kindness, generosity, and creativity of children who see beyond bias, prejudice, borders, and superficial differences.
 
The SpaceBridge project is designed to foster interactions between American youth and a variety of immigrant groups. Our goal is to pursue opportunities for engaging additional refugee communities in the future. This will enable us to initiate meaningful conversations about the experiences of young refugees from anywhere in the world and to build new SpaceBridges.
 
Creator Irina Kruzhilina says, “I want to believe that Samantha Smith, who once suggested Soviet Union leader Yuri Andropov and President Ronald Reagan exchange granddaughters to bridge nations,  would advocate enthusiastically for these creative and empathetic young individuals.”
 
En Garde Arts Executive Artistic Director Anne Hamburger praises Kruzhilina: “Irina, John Eisner and I created one of New York’s first live performance pieces after the pandemic, A Dozen Dreams Irina  has a totally unique voice as a storyteller, creator and visual designer and I am wholeheartedly behind her vision for how  children will be the ones that change the world for the good."
 
The SpaceBridge initiative is supported by La MaMa ETC, Visual Echo and commissioned by the Joan D. Firestone Commissioning Fund at En Garde Arts.
 
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. She has collaborated with acclaimed artists and organizations including Doug Fitch, Lars Jan, Dmitry Krymov, Geoff Sobelle, En Garde Arts, Mabou Mines, and Arlekin Players. She  is the founder of Visual Echo, a New York-based performance organization dedicated to facilitating generative dialogues among people from diverse backgrounds. As the artistic director of Visual Echo, Irina has conceived and directed several original productions, including Journey of a Dream, a cross-generational venture developed in collaboration with Peace Child International in commemoration of the UN’s 75th Anniversary, “Мис”Translation, an interactive installation delving into the artistic potential of verbal and artistic mismatches, and Bridging Conversations, a sound-mediated experience for two that offered participants a brief yet impactful opportunity to immerse themselves in someone else’s perspective. She 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. Irina is a La MaMa resident artist and Joan D. Firestone Fund Award recipient.
 

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