Throughout the collaboration both teams were guided by the idea of living culture — the ability to carry traditions into the present so that they live not only in museums but in the hearts of the people who take them up and make them anew. This is the philosophy Gaptuvalnya cultivates: using innovative sustainable materials and weaving regional techniques, old names and local rhythms into contemporary silhouettes of embroidered dress.

Alongside hearing stories from behind the scenes of the theatre from director Rostyslav Derzhypilskyi and the story of the collaboration from Gaptuvalnya founder Nataliia Herheliuk, guests contributed to a fundraiser for Mavic 3T drones for the 80th Air Assault Brigade by bidding at auction for a one-of-a-kind shirt worn by the lead characters.

"At a time when we are fighting to preserve Ukrainian culture, our answer is to create new culture. Not on ruins, but on a foundation — on deep traditions and roots. Ukrainian traditions are not a monument or artefacts in a museum; they are our foundation, the values that give the impulse to create new meanings."

Rostyslav Derzhypilskyi
director of the Ivan Franko Ivano-Frankivsk National Academic Drama Theatre