Uzh Station. Location: Uzhhorod
‘Station Uzh’ is a vibrant space offering psychological support,
where creativity, culture and community help people restore their inner balance in times of war. Here, through art, events and shared activities, we create a safe space for people to meet, grow and forge new connections.
- Since 2022, some of the specialists from the NGO HFP have moved to Uzhhorod, where they have continued their work with young people and established the “Station Uzh” art space.
- During this time, a number of projects have been implemented in Uzhhorod with the support of various donors, providing psychological support to teenagers and young people, and delivering psychosocial support sessions using methods such as playback theatre, forum theatre, art therapy and so on.
Art space ‘Station Uzh’
The mission of Uzh Station – to help Ukrainians come to terms with the traumatic experience of war through art, including playback theatre, forum theatre, documentary theatre and so on.
Rehearsals and playback theatre performances take place here regularly, and the venue also offers courses for adults and young people on the basics of playback theatre, as well as yoga and contact improvisation classes, film screenings, art exhibitions, masterclasses in playing musical instruments, and concerts.
Psychosocial support
Psychologists work at the art space, professional psychological support is provided: children and parents, teenagers, adults, both internally displaced persons and local residents, military personnel and their families. People come to us both for crisis support and for long-term support, with issues related to traumatic experiences, anxiety or low mood, low self-esteem, and so on.
We also have psychosocial support sessions are held regularly, including artistic and cultural elements: playback theatre and forum theatre performances, playback theatre workshops, masterclasses, exhibitions, literary events, film screenings, board games and other activities.
This helps to relieve stress, feel supported by others, broaden your social circle, find like-minded people, realise your creative potential, and so on. For many people, our space has become a sort of new home, the warmth we create for one another through communication, collaborative creativity, sharing what matters, and taking action.
We are not only active in the art scene, but also We are sharing our knowledge with communities across Transcarpathia. As part of the ‘Clown Care’, ‘Unburdening’ and ‘Theatrical Practices of Healing and Unity’ projects, we staged clown shows and performances, as well as running workshops in Khust, Mukachevo, Tyachiv, Yasinya and other towns and villages across Transcarpathia.
In 2024–2025 in collaboration with Olena Zelenska’s “How Are You?” programme we implemented a project providing psychosocial support to teenagers and young people in Zakarpattia using the playback theatre method, as part of which we staged performances and ran workshops in communities across Zakarpattia. We also provided training for community professionals who work with teenagers and young people.
From 2022 we work in partnership with the SOS Children’s Villages Ukraine Charitable Foundation, specifically at the ‘Mayachki’ psychological rehabilitation camp for children and teenagers, where we run psychosocial support sessions in the form of playback theatre performances, as well as workshops on playback theatre and forum theatre.
Our events gallery
Playback theatre
Adult education
The Playback Theatre method has been in existence for over 50 years. It is an international organisation dedicated to training actors, conductors and CPT trainers (Central Playback Theatre School), as well as affiliated schools in various countries around the world – in Ukraine, this is the Ukrainian Playback Theatre School (UPTS). Here at the ‘Station Uzh’ arts space, you can take a basic certification course taught by accredited USPT trainers, or take part in masterclasses or sessions at the Playback Theatre studio.
Classes for teenagers
Playback theatre is particularly valuable for teenagers. Our sessions are attended by teenagers aged 12 and over. Playback theatre helps teenagers develop their emotional intelligence, understand themselves and others better, boosts their resilience to stress, and provides opportunities for creative and social fulfilment. Over the course of three years of teenage workshops, our ‘Serdentsy’ teenage – and now youth – playback theatre group was formed. The actors and actresses began training when they were aged 13–15 and became the youngest playback theatre practitioners to complete the basic certification course in Ukraine. The “Serdienky” playback theatre team is now actively involved in the art space’s psychosocial projects and performs for children, teenagers and young people.
Performances
“Station Uzh” also puts on performances for private groups and in various settings, such as: for company staff, or displaced people living together in a building; for people of all ages; for individual school classes or at camps for children and teenagers. The venue for the performance can vary, even a street space, which we adapt to suit our process.
Playback Theatre “Uzh Station”
In 2022, in Uzhhorod, playback performers who had been forced to move there due to the war came together and founded a new playback theatre to help Ukrainians process the challenges of war through playback and to support one another.
March 2022 – Several actors and actresses from the playback theatre groups ‘Living Mirror’ (Kharkiv) and ‘Neighbours’ (Dnipro) were evacuated from the combat zone to Uzhhorod.
Almost immediately after the evacuation, we began rehearsals in the house where we were staying; we shared our stories, reflected on our own traumatic experiences and drew strength from them. Gradually, more actors and actresses from Kharkiv and Odesa joined us.
April 2022. We are launching a series of open playback performances and forming a team of playback actors. It will later be named ‘Station Uzh’, a reference to the well-known Kharkiv volunteer initiative that helped displaced persons between 2014 and 2016, ‘Station Kharkiv’.
The cast of the ‘Station Uzh’ playback theatre currently comprises actors and actresses (aged between 20 and 60) who were forced to move to Uzhhorod due to the war, as well as local residents.
We don’t just put on performances; we also run playback theatre training sessions and workshops, and our team includes accredited playback theatre trainers, psychologists and others.
Forum Theatre
- This is an interactive method of the Theatre of the Oppressed, developed by Augusto Boal, which seeks to address real-world social issues through improvisational performances.
- Participants (spectators) can intervene in the plot by suggesting their own courses of action to improve the situation.
- We use forum theatre in our work with teenagers, as well as in our creative and social activities with adult audiences.
- The themes of the plays we create emerge during the workshop process – we have already staged plays on topics such as domestic violence and bullying, discrimination, asserting personal boundaries, the challenges posed by war and social stratification, and the uncertainty of the future, among others.
Exhibitions
We are delighted to collaborate with artists from various disciplines and organise exhibitions in our space. The exhibition opening features a meeting with the artist and a discussion, and guided tours are organised throughout the exhibition to attract as many visitors as possible.
At the mental health forum ‘Human Resilience – System Resilience’, institutions and organisations that are most actively and professionally involved in implementing mental health initiatives were presented with awards from the nationwide mental health programme ‘How Are You?’, an initiative launched by First Lady Olena Zelenska.
The ‘Uzh Station’ team received an award at the Mental Health Forum 2024.
Literary events, film screenings, board games and other activities
- A group of active, creative young people has come together around the space and the playback theatre sessions. They are spearheading new psychosocial initiatives at ‘Station Uzh’.
- The venue hosts literary events, film screenings with discussions, themed parties, board games and more.
- Such activities promote creative development and lively interaction, as well as self-fulfilment; they teach teamwork and encourage all participants to be active and work together.
Feedback and complaints
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