Lianna Makuch (she/her) is a second-generation Ukrainian Canadian theatre artist in amiskwaciwâskahikan on Treaty Six Territory. She is a performer, playwright, emerging director, and a graduate of the BFA Acting Program at the University of Alberta. Lianna is the co-Artistic Producer of Pyretic Productions and a producer with Punctuate! Theatre.
She is the playwright and principal performer in the award-winning play Barvinok, formerly titled Blood of Our Soil. The play is inspired by the experiences of the playwright’s grandparents who fled Ukraine during WWII, and true accounts from Eastern Ukraine. In October 2017, Pyretic Productions travelled to Ukraine and ventured within just 5km of what was then the frontline, where they interviewed dozens of people affected by the ongoing war. Pyretic returned in October 2018 to further develop and workshop the play with Kyiv-based local theatre company Wild Theatre and presented a sold-out staged reading at the infamous Les Kurbas Theatre. Lianna is also the 2020 REACH Award recipient, which is supporting her as she develops this story into a feature length screenplay. Barvinok will be touring Alberta in Fall 2022.
Lianna was the first Canadian artist-in-residence with the IZOLYATSIA Cultural Institute in Kyiv, Ukraine in February 2020, where she began the development of her play Alina. This story is inspired by the true experiences of a 19-year-old volunteer Ukrainian combat medic in 2015 who leaves everything behind to go to the battle for the Donetsk Airport. But when she returns home to the shock of “peaceful” civilian life she realizes her struggle does not end at the front. Alina premiered in Edmonton in May 2022, and was shortlisted for the Alberta Playwrighting Award. Upcoming, she will be directing Punctuate! Theatre’s First Métis Man of Odesa by Matthew MacKenzie and Mariya Khomutova on its 2023 National Tour.
Lianna believes that in light of the full scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, that it is more important than ever to be an artist, especially a Ukrainian artist. She believes that art speaks in a different way than a news article, and works to express an intangible human experience. By exploring themes deeply connected to her Ukrainian identity and expressing from her own authentic truth, that the art she creates can find a universal connection and impact.
Linda Duncan, former NDP MP for Edmonton-Strathcona, cited Lianna’s play Barvinok in the House of Commons which she called “the most power presentation she has seen about the long history of travesties that Ukraine has suffered.” Lianna is a founding member of Canadians in Support of Ukrainian Political Prisoners (CSUPP), and was an integral part of creating and circulating a parliamentary petition to demand the release of Ukrainian political prisoners in 2018. Lianna was also a key leader in fundraising for the Ukraine-based NGO “Our Children,” a group which fundraises for families of political prisoners in Crimea. Since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Lianna has helped to fundraise close to $100,000 in support of the brave Ukrainian veterans who helped support the development of her theatre work. These funds have helped purchased non-lethal equipment, medical aid, and tactical gear for Ukraine’s defence.
