Children of the war

For those of us beyond a certain age, Ukraine was just a region in the Soviet Union.  Then, when the Soviet Union broke up, it somewhat improbably became an independent nation.  Then, in 2022, Russia decided that Ukraine was really part of Russia, and wanted it back.  

We all know how that has turned out.  But Ukraine and Russia aren't just hunks of land on a "Risk" game board.  Ukraine is full of people.  What are those people like, and how has war with Russia affected them?  Rather than some comprehensive survey of the entire nation, the New York Times published a feature article this past week studying three teenaged students and a drama instructor in Kyiv, Ukraine.

A drama instructor who was bearing up under the psychological pain of knowing that her fiancé was in the Ukrainian army, fighting near the Russian border.  But a drama instructor with the whimsical humor to name her studio the "9¾ School," after the magical track leading to Harry Potter's Hogwarts.  She wrote a different play each year, directed it using her pupils, and put on a performance at the end of the course.

In 2024, she decided to ignore the war and write a romantic play about teenagers in America.  The play was entitled "It's OK," after one of the songs in the play.  It starred a 16-year-old boy, Sasha, who enrolled in the class while still hospitalized for emotional distress caused by the uncertainties of war.  His character, from New York, was orphaned by a car accident.  He was taken in by the desperately poor best friend of his mother, who lived in a small town in Mississippi.  He fell in love with the two young daughters of the family, played by two young teenagers. A fourth cast member, age 12 but "an old soul," played the mother.

The details of the plot aren't really important.  What's important is how Sasha's intense focus on learning and acting the part of the orphaned New Yorker began the process of restoring his interest in life.  The article points out that he memorized a poem for the play, a poem that included the words:

And even if your soul is the most desolate of deserts, then something will grow from it.

The young actors learned their lines.  Their teacher taught them to act. 

Sasha's mother burst into tears when he appeared on the stage, acting the lead in the play.  The entire audience was near or at tears, watching a play about kids being kids, not obsessed by death or injury.

I know Simon [the character Sasha played] is pretty sad but with that family that loves him, the character, he got loved by someone,” Sasha said. “It was very good for him.

Sasha himself felt himself loved, both by the play's audience, and, more importantly, by the three kids his age with whom he had worked hard to produce a good performance.

Sasha now hopes to become a psychologist, to help both veterans of the war and the young people whose lives have been turned upside down by that war.

After the performance, Ms. Korzhenevska joined the actors onstage and praised each one. Sasha, she said, had developed a kind of peace and inner calm.

I’m just on tranquilizers,” Sasha said. The audience laughed.

“Me too,” Ms. Korzhenevska admitted.
“I’m just joking,” he replied.
Ms. Korzhenevska hugged him. “I’m not,” she said.

Sasha came to the class a very sad boy.  Much of that sadness is probably still felt.  But he has retained -- or regained --a sense of humor.

A sense of humor always helps.