New Calypso
Kitchen Theatre Company
November 13, 2026, 8PM
Free, no registration required
Through the poetic tradition of rhyming comes a tale navigating wars, the hypocrisy of politicians, and the destruction of the world by dictators. Traversing a land haunted by a burning sea and a sky filled with missiles and drones, a new, modern heroine, New Calypso, makes her way. Just an ordinary woman to the untrained eye, her power lies in her persistence of self, conducting her dialogue with the universe and the reality of today with an unshaken belief in the power of love.
New Calypso’s story comes to life in this musical theater performance featuring Olena Boryshpolets as both author and actor and bandura musician Lesya Verba. The performance will feature a folk song in the native language of Andy Warhol’s mother, Lemko Yulia Warhol.
For the uninitiated, the bandura is a stringed and plucked Ukrainian folk instrument. A bandura player, or “kobzar,” is a Ukrainian folk singer and musician. They were the creators, keepers, and transmitters of the epic tradition in the form of historical songs, as well as fairy tales and legends, accompanied by the kobza, lyre, or bandura. Their significance for the Ukrainian people can be compared to that of ancient Greek poets in ancient Greece and Arab poets in Arabia.
Olena Boryshpolets is originally from Odesa, Ukraine, and now lives in Pittsburgh as a writer-in-residence with City of Asylum Pittsburgh. She is a poet, writer, journalist, actress, cultural manager, and author of the short story book Ukrainian Detox, the book of poetry Orpheus and Eurydice in New York, and the long-form poem New Calypso. Olena is also a member of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, a co-founder of the public organization Creativity Without Borders, and a member of PEN America.
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Olena traveled to Poland, where she spent a year acting in the Polish-Ukrainian play Life in Case of War. Olena is currently a Research Scholar at Chatham University and was a Research Scholar at the University of Pittsburgh from 2023 to 2026. She has been a Writer-in-Residence at the City of Asylum Fellowship for Ukrainian Writers since 2023.
