Interview with Lena Lugushonkova as part of the Spoken Archive of Polish-Ukrainian Cooperation in Theatre

Interview by Ewa Bal and Yana Partola with Lena Lagushonkova, Ukrainian writer and playwright. Ukrainian playwright, graduate of the History Department of Taras Shevchenko National University of Luhansk. She made her debut as a playwright in 2018 with the play "BAZA", about women and prostitution, presented during the Contemporary Art Week festival (Тиждень актуальной пьесы). Her work to date includes eight plays, which have been staged in theatres in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa. She collaborates with the Young Theatre and the PostPlay Theatre, co-creates projects for the National Association of Theatre Activists of Ukraine, and is a co-founder of the Playwrights' Theatre in Kyiv. Since March 2022, she has been living and working in Poland, where she has collaborated with theatres including the Polish Theatre in Bydgoszcz, TR Warszawa, and the Powszechny Theatre. She is a laureate of the Tydzień Sztuki Aktualnej and Drama.UA competitions, and a finalist of the first edition of AURORA—Dramaturgy Award of the City of Bydgoszcz (play entitled "Gorky's Mother"). In 2022, she was awarded the European New Talent Drama Award.

The interview was conducted as part of a research project carried out at the Jagiellonian University and financed by the National Science Centre entitled "Theatre as a laboratory for Polish-Ukrainian encounters from 2014 to the present day. Perspectives of co-feeling-thinking, no. 2024/53/B/HS2/02533".