Laryssa Lauret stars in off-Broadway show (06/26/05)

Laryssa Lauret stars in off-Broadway show

NEW YORK - Laryssa Lauret, the well-known Ukrainian TV and Broadway actress (Larysa Lysniak), who in the early 1960s was a member of the experimental Ukrainian "Novyi Teatr" (New Theater), directed by Volodymyr Lysniak, recently starred in an off-Broadway production titled "Name Day."

The play by Jovanka Bach opened at the Barrow Group Theater on June 1, where it played through June 19, as a production of the Immigrant's Theater Project (ITP). The Barrow Theater Group is located at 312 W. 36th St., fourth floor.

Written in 1995, the play is a drama about two Serbian immigrant families, set in southern California, circa 1985. The plot revolves around the engagement of a young couple which "instigates [a] painful excavation of an unvanquished past."

As noted on ITP's website, "the play explores the psychological price of a person's inability to let go of the past, to forgive and to heal, and represents the self- destructive, atavistic rage that drove the recent retributive Yugoslav wars."

The play was directed by Marcy Arlin, with Bob Adrian, Michael Balsley, Anastasia Barnes, Christian Baskous, Ms. Lauret, Mikal Sarah Lambert, Charles Randall, Elaine Smith and Victor Steinbach as members of the cast.

A review of the play appeared in the June 8 issue of The New York Times.

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Founded in 1988 by artistic director Ms. Arlin, ITP presents traditional and experimental plays by and about immigrants to the United States. The theater company works with professional immigrant and native-born artists from over 50 countries and ethnic groups. By portraying individual stories, ITP shows the universality of the American experience, promotes intercultural understanding and develops the new genre of immigrant theater. Themes include adaptation, tradition vs. American culture, generational change, intercultural relationships, questions of identity and reasons for leaving vs. realities of life in a new land.

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