SpaceBridge

“[There’s a] dynamism to the storytelling that never lets up ”

— Elisabeth Vincentelli, The New York Times

Russian refugee children and their American-born friends unite in joyful resistance, offering unignorable anti-war messages and reimagining what it means to belong.

SpaceBridge brings together Russian refugee children—who fled to the U.S. due to their families’ anti-war stance and now live in NYC shelters—with American peers to build a more welcoming world where their new friendships can thrive and grow.

Created by Irina Kruzhilina, the piece centers children we seldom consider: Russian youth affected by the war in Ukraine. It follows their efforts to integrate into American society, where they often encounter suspicion, bullying, and a lack of empathy.

SpaceBridge draws its inspiration from two significant historical events: the 1983 peace mission to the USSR led by 11-year-old American activist Samantha Smith, who bridged the gap between American and Russian children during the Cold War; and the satellite-mediated “citizens’ debates”, known as “spacebridges” between the US and the USSR, which prompted unfiltered and uncensored conversations between ordinary people from both cultures.

The performance emerged from a series of storytelling workshops with immigrant and non-immigrant youth which used art and performance to spark dialogue about the realities faced by young refugees in the US.

SpaceBridge was originally presented by La MaMa ETC in association with En Garde Arts and Visual Echo, as part of the Under the Radar Festival in NYC.

Info

Venue

Robert J. Orchard Stage,
Emerson Paramount Center
559 Washington St, Boston, MA 02111

Dates

Nov 21, 2025 - Nov 23, 2025

PACKAGES

Single tickets and group sales for this show will go on sale later this summer.

Details

95 mins

Ages 12+

Access

Open Captioned Show
Sat, Nov 22 2:00 pm

ASL Interpreted Show
Sat, Nov 22 8:00 pm

Audio Described Show
Sun, Nov 23 2:00 pm

Performances

Friday, Nov 21 2025

8:00 PM

SATurday, NOV 22, 2025

2:00 PM

saturday, NOV 22, 2025

8:00 PM

SUNDAY, NOV 23, 2025

2:00 PM

Artist Note

Support for SpaceBridge has been made possible by a two-year artist residency at La MaMa ETC. The project was commissioned in part by En Garde Arts’ Joan D. Firestone Commissioning Fund and through its Uncommon Voices program and by Creative Engagement—a regrant program supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by LMCC. Additional institutional support was provided by the David Richenthal Foundation and the Leon Lowenstein Foundation.

Educational partnerships include the Stella Adler Center for the Arts and the New School of Drama.

Companies

Visual Echo, La MaMa & En Garde Arts

Visual Echo

Visual Echo is a New York-based performance organization dedicated to fostering generative dialogues among people from diverse backgrounds who rarely intersect. We use performance and educational programs as catalysts for discussions on civic and community issues, including social justice and polarization.

La MaMa

La MaMa builds audiences that are integral to the creative process. Our local and global community members who gather in our physical, digital, and hybrid spaces to see new work, are often the first audience for that work. The audience response helps to shape the evolution of the piece for the artist, and is an essential part of the creative ecosystem that La MaMa nurtures. La MaMa believes art is a force for change. Violence, discrimination, and systemic racism will not stop without a unified resistance.

En Garde Arts

En Garde Arts is the award-winning pioneer of New York City’s site-specific theatre movement. En Garde has a rich, impactful history of using the city as our stage to create, produce and present bold theatrical experiences that reach across artistic, physical and social boundaries. It has a significant legacy of producing ground breaking productions by Anne Bogart, Chuck Mee, Tina Landau, Reza Abdoh, Jonathan Larson and Mac Wellman, among others.

Conceived and directed by:

Irina Kruzhilina

Written by:

Clark Young and Irina Kruzhilina

Projection designer:

Peter Nigrini

Associate projection designer:

Zoey Crow

Cinematographer:

Aleksei Postnikov

Lighting designer:

Brian H Scott

Sound designers:

Sophie Yuqing Nie, Darron L West

Choreographers:

Laura Peterson, Robbie Simpson

Composer:

Ian Miller

Voice / Speech coach:

Alba Quezada

Props artists:

Jacqueline Brockel, Moira Zhang, Noyu Ueda

Puppet designers:

Yuliya Tsukerman, Nick Lehane

Assistant directors:

Anamaria Willars, Colin Wilson

Stage Manager:

Max Mooney

Production Manager:

Thijs Beuming

Ellen Lauren as Samantha Smith

SpaceBridge ensemble:

Alisa Shaverdova, Anastasia Skorobogach, Anna Skorobogach, Arina Skorobogach, Artem Skorobogach, Lily Borzenko, Leon Ladia, Mark Savin, Mars Markelov, Sasha Boikova, Sonia Tsatskina, Adele Nigrini, Alex Weiner, Drake Malave, Henry MacDowell, Nate Hatter, Sabine Gutenberg, Silas MacLean, Tiera Lopper.

Irina Kruzhilina

Irina Kruzhilina is a New York-based director, sce- nographer, visual dramaturg, experience designer and educator, creating work at the intersection of visual art, live performance, and civic engagement. Her creative endeavors range from interdisciplin- ary downtown theatre to large scale parades, from opera to site responsive installations. Her work has been shown at Times Square, Tokyo, Disney, BAM, Prague National Theatre, NY Philharmonic, and Barbican Center. She is the founder of Visual Echo, a New York-based performance organization ded- icated to facilitating generative dialogues among people from diverse backgrounds. She holds the position of associate professor at the New School of Drama, where she co- developed a new MFA pro- gram in Contemporary Theatre and Performance. Irina is a La MaMa resident artist and Joan D. Fires- tone Fund Award recipient.