the cellar
workshop presentation
october 17, 2025 | 7:30 pm
STUDIO THEATRE @ SHADBOLT CENTRE FOR THE ARTS
6450 Deer Lake Ave, Burnaby, BC
FREE
ANNA PIDGORNA and MARIA REVA will present their in-progress opera theatre work THE CELLAR, which explores military occupation in southern Ukraine. Get a sneak peek into this project through workshop performances of several scenes and join a discussion with the artists.
With this work, composer ANNA PIDGORNA and librettist MARIA REVA aim to process the seemingly endless cycles of imperialist aggression that their homeland and family have been subjected to over centuries, pushing back against subtle Russian propaganda narratives that cloud and confuse understanding of this war and its historical context outside of Ukraine.
This event is part of a theatre residency supported by Shadbolt Centre for the Arts and Deer Lake Artist-in-Residence program.
tickets
FREE
No registration needed. Just show up.
LOCATION
Studio Theatre @ Shadbolt Centre for the Arts
6450 Deer Lake Ave, Burnaby, BC
parking
Free parking is available beside the arts centre off of Deer Lake Avenue. Walk between the different construction projects to the main centre entrance. Studio Theatre is on the main floor, just past the Box Office.
SYNOPSIS
THE CELLAR is an experimental opera theatre work combining live performance with electronic sound design and projections to tell a fictional story of three elderly siblings who return to their homeland – Ukraine – just as Russia invades. Trapped in the same cellar where they once hid from the Nazis in 1941 and the Soviets in 1944, the siblings recall how they survived past occupations by performing the songs of their oppressors – SS marches and Soviet war-time songs. Their only connection to the world above are intercepted radio conversations of Russian soldiers picked up through a loose metal filling in the older sister’s tooth, a rare but real phenomenon. As they hide, subsisting on pickled tomatoes and pumping air with an old accordion bellow, they reflect on their Ukrainian identity and how far they would go to survive this repeating ordeal.
CREATIVE TEAM
Photo by Anya Chibis
ANNA PIDGORNA | composer
Anna Pidgorna is a Ukrainian-Canadian composer, vocalist, multi-media artist and producer who combines sound, visual arts, and writing to create works that are dramatic and picturesque. She works extensively with opera and voice, draws inspiration from Ukrainian folk singing and the natural soundscape, and incorporates visual elements into some of her manuscripts. Her work has been commissioned, performed and recorded by soloists and ensembles in Canada, USA, Uruguay, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece, Poland, Ukraine and South Korea. She holds a PhD from Princeton University, an MMus from the University of Calgary, and a BA from Mount Allison University. Anna is the founder and Artistic and Executive Director of Pickle Underground.
Photo by Anya Chibis
maria reva | librettist
Maria Reva writes fiction and opera libretti. She is the author of Good Citizens Need Not Fear, set in an apartment block in Ukraine, as well as Endling. In November 2022, she was included on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s list of sanctioned Canadian citizens who are forbidden from entering Russia. Maria’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, McSweeney’s, The Wall Street Journal, Granta, The Best American Short Stories, and elsewhere. She won a National Magazine Award in 2019 and was a finalist for the Writers’ Trust of Canada 2020 Fiction Prize. Her debut novel Endling was longlisted for the Booker Prize. As librettist, Maria has collaborated with Laurence Jobidon (Le Phare), Anna Pidgorna (Plaything, Our Trudy), and City Opera Vancouver (Lost Operas of Mozart). Maria was born in Ukraine and grew up in New Westminster, British Columbia. She received her MFA from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas.
kadaitcha | electronic sound design
Kadaitcha is a Ukrainian electronics duo made up of Yurii Samson and Andrii Kozhukhar, exploring organic aspects of the noise, post-industrial and archaic aesthetics. Active since 2015, Kadaticha has released five albums and a compilation on labels Quasi Pop Records (Ukraine),Repartiseraren (Sweden), Sentimental Productions (Ukraine), Powdered Hearts (USA) and Ant-Zen (Germany). Both Samson and Kozhukhar have solo projects and pursue other collaborations. Samson and Kozhukhar spent several months under Russian occupation in Nova Kakhovka in southern Ukraine. They fled to Estonia in the summer of 2022.
anna shylova-kolomiets | director
Anna Shylova-Kolomiets arrived in Canada in 2023, fleeing russia’s aggression. She holds a diploma as a conductor (college), vocal teacher (undergraduate) and theater director (masters). In Ukraine she was a theater director and musician. She worked in the music industry, staging various performances and organizing festivals and concerts. She also worked in cinema as an actors’ assistant, first director’s assistant and casting director in advertising. Inspired by her three children, she organized the creative volunteer project “Brainchild”, a music and theater studio for Ukrainian children to help them adapt to life in Canada. Anna and her husband Alexandr Shylov have a small video production studio Motions Pictures Production where they film advertisements for companies in Ukraine and Canada.
kostiantyn tereshchenko | visual artist
Kostiantin Tereschchenko is a visual artist working with pencil, painting and sculpture in a style that infuses surrealism with symbolism and spiritual iconography. Originally based in Kherson, Ukraine, Tereshchenko found himself under enemy occupation at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, fleeing to Sweden with his wife and new-born daughter in spring 2022. For him, drawing is both a method of discovering the world and an inner duty within our social reality. Currently, his work is deeply intertwined with two powerful, contrasting experiences: the miracle of his child’s birth and the horror of war. These themes blend in his art, creating a new reality — a cocoon in which his child displaces the shadows of war. Through creativity, he strives to protect not just cultural objects, but perception and worldview, building harmony amidst chaos.
PERFORMERS
Photo by Andrew David Terris
sarah albu | soprano
Sarah Albu is a singer, composer and performance-maker based in Tio’tia:ke (Montréal, Canada) and Berlin.Her background in theatre and obsession with science fiction feed quirky and darkly comedic imagined worlds. She has been an invited artist at the Banff Centre for the Arts, the National Arts Centre of Canada, the Koumaria Residency in Greece, the Summertónar Festival in Tórshavn (Faroe Islands), Finland’s Saari Residency and international series and festivals across Canada, Europe, the US and Mexico. She moves fluidly between different forms, genres and collaborations. Known for her captivating stage presence and natural ease in roles ranging from dramatic to slapstick comedy, she is praised for her precision, agile soprano register and her versatility as an adventurous vocalist specializing in avant-garde, contemporary and experimental music/stage work.
sarah jo kirsch | soprano
Sarah Jo Kirsch (they/them) is a highly versatile vocalist/soundmaker based in the region of unceded Coast Salish territory colonially referred to as Vancouver. Steeped in Western European classical traditions and their evolutions,SJ has performed song, oratorio, and opera across Turtle Island and beyond. SJ is a sought-after premiere interpreter of new works, a composer of their own sound/text works, a session vocalist, and an active part of the local sound/noise improvisation community. SJ also offers their insight on song/voice as instructor/lecturer/facilitator/pundit for various arts organizations and academic institutions.
Photo by George Katehis
matti pulkki | accordion
Finnish accordionist Matti Pulkki is acclaimed for his imaginative and creative exploration of the vast expressive potential of his instrument. Although he focuses on contemporary and experimental programming, Pulkki also actively performs repertoire that ranges from classical works and transcriptions to diverse global styles. He is also a sought-after collaborator in opera, theatre, and interdisciplinary productions as a musician, performer, and arranger. Regardless of the genre or context, Pulkki aims to captivate audiences with performances that showcase the instrument’s full expressive range and versatility. He frequently collaborates with composers to discover new sonic landscapes for the accordion. Through his most recent commissions, he has explored the use of electronics and multimedia, the performer’s body as an extension of their instrument, and the use of voice and text as expressive tools. Currently based in Toronto, Pulkki performs as a soloist and with ensembles worldwide. His ongoing chamber music projects include the eclectic voice and accordion duo Sawtooth with vocalist Sarah Albu, the Toronto-based Freesound Performance Collective, and the internationally acclaimed classical crossover ensemble Quartetto Gelato.
PRODUCTION TEAM
Photo by Anya Chibis
masha birkby | stage manager
Masha Birkby is originally from Kharkiv, Ukraine and has lived in Vancouver since 1995. She has worked backstage in theatre for over two decades in every facet of live entertainment possible. Theatre, dance, magic, festivals, music, special events, corporate — Masha has done it all from the safety of the backstage, whether it be dressing the actors, programming lighting, suspending the trussing above the stage, creating schedules and procedures for everything to come together smoothly.
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