November 13-16, 2025

Thursday, 11/13 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, 11/14 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, 11/15 at 2 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, 11/16 at 2 p.m.

Yara Arts Group is bringing its show “The Magic of Light” about how an artist discovers his spiritual and cultural light in the darkest of times to Chicago. The show, created by Virlana Tkacz, Julian Kytasty and Tom Lee, performs at the Northwestern | Wirtz Center Chicago, 710 N Lake Shore Drive, November 13-16, 2025, Thursday-Saturday at 7:30PM, plus Saturday and Sunday at 2PM. Tickets: $15, $12 students at wirtz.northwestern.edu/the-magic-of-light/

“The Magic of Light” premiered in March at La MaMa and was embraced by audiences and the press : “Yara Arts Group’s Virlana Tkacz directs a multimedia work that celebrates Ukrainian culture of the 1870s as exemplified by the epic singer Ostap Veresai and the young artist Porfiry Martynovych. The songs of the former are performed live by bandura specialist Julian Kytasty; the journey of the latter, whose drawings were projected at an 1875 Veresai concert, is rendered by puppeteer Tom Lee. The piece is performed in English and Ukrainian.” Time Out, March 1, 2025

“The content of this production is sobering and unflinching. But the puppets who serve as the messengers of that content are spellbinding vessels of delight.” Mindy Allof, New York Theatre Wire, March, 2025

“Virlana Tkacz has once again collaborated with the superb bandura master musician/performer Julian Kytasty whose singing/reciting and strumming brings to life the text with dialogue among the various characters… Tom Lee’s fine artistry—he is a master of various puppetry traditions and video projection designs—is critical to making the puppet human, as he gently moves the puppet with his hands, his visible face and clear voice carrying the wide range of emotions from humor to dejection.” Beate Hein Bennett, New York Theatre Wire, March 8, 2025