Less is more in this heart-wrenching yet funny, solo act by Seattle performer/writer Yana Kesala.
Inspired by her mother’s life as The Ukrainian Dentist’s Daughter, Kesala plays a young woman named Maya fretting over whether or not her husband-to-be has stood her up at the alter on New Years Eve, 1967. As Maya waits, flashbacks from her past are revealed to the audience with Kesala in character as Maya, her mother and a Ukrainian widow living in Ohio with a knack for painting. We see a young girl smitten with her doting father, a blossoming woman with dreams of being a fashion designer, and pressures from a mother on her daughter to court and find a husband among other coming-of-age vignettes.
Maya and her family’s journey as Ukrainian immigrants to the United States is also a key thread of the story. Kesala seamlessly interweaves all of these defining moments into not only a cohesive but genuine and complex character sketch that almost anyone who has felt different, loved hard or dreamed big will relate to.
Have you seen The Ukrainian Dentist’s Daughter? Comment below and let us know what you think!
