In the spring of 2022, Vita Tzykun and David Adam Moore began working on the immersive theater installation REFUGE, an exploration of the refugee experience and the meaning of home, “ignited” by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24. In a series of interactive, multilingual scenes, audiences are brought into the stories of refugees, navigating the unfolding of events guided only by the dynamic sets, the lights, the voices, and their own intuition. At the end of it, David remarked, “The thing that I want more than anything is for the audience to leave with a changed frame of reference.”
In the following interview, Ian Ross Singleton speaks with Vita and David on the urgency of this project, its development, and its role in uniting disparate refugee communities in a shared narrative.
Ian Ross Singleton (IRS): What was the inspiration when you began this project?
Vita Tzykun (VT): We were awarded a dual Granada Artist Residency at the University of California, Davis during the pandemic, but the closures of live performance spaces meant we couldn’t bring our vision to life. When the world began to reopen, the invitation returned—this time, just two weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
David Adam Moore (DAM): We were originally planning an immersive exploration of the Oedipus story, but the pandemic put that project on pause. About two weeks after we were approached by the Granada committee to propose a new project, Russia’s February 24, 2022 invasion of Ukraine was launched, and sparked the largest refugee crisis in Europe since WWII. This is why we said in the PR materials that the project was “ignited” by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Given Vita’s Ukrainian heritage and our numerous friends and family both in Ukraine and Russia, we knew that we had to take the first opportunity to give voice to the shock, outrage, fear, and confusion being experienced by those close to us. We needed to find a path for international audiences to connect with this experience.
VT: Confronted with such a historic moment, we felt a profound responsibility to respond through our art. We set out to create an original immersive theater installation that would give voice to the countless refugees forced to flee: Ukrainians escaping the violence of war, and Russians facing persecution for speaking out against it. The urgency and gravity of the invasion inspired us to use the residency as a platform for these stories, transforming the stage into a space of empathy, witness, and shared humanity.
DAM: Our original working title for the installation was “HOME,” because it explored the question of “What really is home?” But as we pursued this question, it became apparent that the refugee experience itself brings the answer to light. The objects, customs, food, music, and ways of connecting with one another that give us a sense of “home” are so often defined by what our ancestors practiced in order to survive and comfort themselves during their own refugee experiences. That’s the heart of the matter: all of us at some point in our biological and/or cultural lineage are descended from refugees. So we decided to call the installation REFUGE.
IRS: You say this project moved faster than other theater projects on which you worked. Can you expand on the urgency you felt?
VT: Theater often unfolds at a slower pace, rarely responding in real time to unfolding events. In our case, however, we began developing and writing this piece immediately after the full-scale invasion, and continued shaping it for over a year as the situation evolved. This meant that the work was in constant conversation with the world outside the rehearsal room. Each time we received news from family, friends, or acquaintances affected by the conflict—or heard a story in the media that resonated with our project—we carefully considered whether it belonged within our narrative. There was a palpable sense of urgency to honor and include certain stories, especially those shared with us directly. One such moment came from our friend Masha Frolyak, a New York Times investigative reporter covering Ukraine on the ground. She sent us a photograph taken from her car window as she traveled through devastated villages: in it, an elderly woman sits at a table beneath the open sky, surrounded by the ruins of her shelled home. Whether she had nowhere else to go or simply refused to leave, we may never know—but the image was so haunting and powerful that we felt compelled to bring it to life on stage. We created an entire scene to recreate that photograph, honoring both the environment and the indomitable spirit of the woman at its center.
DAM: By 2023, when we began building the set and rehearsing with performers, the situation was evolving at a rapid pace. We were in contact with war correspondents, soldiers on the front, a trauma psychologist, Ukrainian war refugees, and Russian political refugees. We wanted to create something that was reflective of the events in Ukraine, but with enough universality that it would not offer us Americans that comfortable distance from which news media presents tragedies to us. This distance causes us to “other” victims of catastrophe. To create a storytelling experience that left room for this “othering” would have been a failure on our part.
IRS: The “changed frame of reference” you mention, David, is that a translation, in a sense?
DAM: Absolutely, in that storytelling can translate perspective, i.e., it has the unique ability to translate experiences from one person’s frame of reference into that of another. If the storytelling is effective, this operates on a subconscious level, leaving one’s frame of reference changed from that point on. This is what draws us to storytelling.
IRS: Can you talk about the various languages and vocalizations involved in the project?
VT: We began our work by gathering testimonies of over fifty Ukrainian women who, faced with only moments to pack and uncertain of when—or if—they might return, fled their homes with their children. We asked them: “What did you take with you, when time was so pressing? And in the absence of your actual home, what does ‘home’ mean to you?” As we wove these powerful stories into the narrative of our piece, we realized that we were touching on something even larger: an archetype of the Refugee, with a capital R. In truth, nearly all of us can trace our roots to someone who, at some point in history, was forced to leave everything behind. We are the living proof of their resilience and survival.
This realization inspired us to assemble a multilingual cast, allowing about half of the performance to unfold in English, while the other half is spoken in a tapestry of languages—Spanish, Mandarin, Kannada, Japanese, and Cantonese—chosen to resonate with many in our audience and to underscore the universality of displacement. As the piece progresses, language itself eventually gives way to something even more fundamental: movement, dance, and light. In the most poignant scenes—those that grapple with grief, both personal and collective—we found that words, in any language, fell short. Instead, we turned to post-verbal expression, trusting that the deepest emotions can be shared and understood without the need for translation.
DAM: When composing the music for REFUGE, I used harmonic structures found in Ukrainian folk music to create both original work and arrangements of folksongs in Ukrainian, Yiddish, and Mandarin. Then, as Vita said, language gives way to purer forms of vocalism as the scenes progress: breathing, singing, and other non-verbal vocalizations that erupt naturally out of the movements of the performers. Our movement director and choreographer, Erika Tsimbrovsky, was particularly adept at guiding the performers into this space. From a musical standpoint, this idea of finding the emotional space beyond language was also inspired by the operas of our frequent collaborator, David T. Little.
IRS: What do you mean when you say that you want to use this piece to work with other refugee communities?
VT: We are eager to collaborate with refugee actors and musicians, inviting them to share their stories in their own voices and languages, drawing deeply from their lived experiences. Our hope is that the diversity of our cast will be reflected in our audience, creating a space where many perspectives can meet. For those who have never faced displacement, this immersive experience can offer a chance to understand—on a visceral level—the uncertainty and disorientation that refugees so often endure. For refugees themselves, it can be a powerful, cathartic moment: to see their journeys honored and shared with the wider community. Inspired by the pioneering work of trauma psychologist Jack Saul, whose writings on moral injury have shaped our vision, we have sought to create a space where the universal struggles of refugees can be carried collectively—by society as a whole—so that together, we may help lift the burdens of those who have borne them alone for too long.
DAM: Our work has become increasingly influenced by Jack and other friends who are working in the social sciences, journalism, legal philosophy, economics, climate science, and humanitarian efforts. Similarly, they have been looking to artistic collaborations for insight. It has become more and more apparent lately that we are addressing many of the same questions, and that the seemingly intractable problems facing contemporary society require a lot of creative firepower channeled through a transdisciplinary approach.
IRS: How significant was immersive theater in this project?
VT: An immersive theater experience about refugees allows audiences to step into the lived realities of displacement, fostering a deeper emotional connection and understanding that traditional theater often cannot achieve. Immersive theater places the audience in environments that mirror the actual settings refugees endure, such as makeshift shelters or destroyed homes, enabling participants not just to observe, but to engage actively with the narrative and characters. This participatory approach breaks down the barrier between audience and performer, making the struggles, choices, and emotional landscapes of refugees more immediate and visceral.
By experiencing the story in real time and space, audiences are more likely to empathize with the complexities of the refugee experience, including the uncertainty, fear, and hope that define it. Such engagement has been shown to promote greater awareness, challenge stereotypes, and inspire meaningful dialogue and action, making immersive theater a powerful tool for social change and advocacy around refugee issues.
DAM: We wanted to offer the audience participants a tactile sense of uncertainty, insecurity, and being constantly on the move. The experimental aspect of REFUGE was giving the audience an unusual amount of agency. There were no visible chaperones, guides, or stage managers. The house staff gave them a brief talk about what to expect in terms of potential hazards and such, then opened a small side door into the theater, from which point they were on their own with the environment and the performers. They had to interpret each scenario and make their own decisions regarding where to walk, stand, and sit, and how to determine when one “scene” ended and when another began.
We did quite a bit of research to work out the technicalities of predicting and motivating audience behavior. We also used a video game engine to previsualize the scenery, lighting, and audience movement in VR before we began the scenic builds and rehearsals. This enabled us to create tightly-choreographed scenic changes that transformed the audience’s environment without their knowledge while their attention was engaged elsewhere. Other methods of motivating audience behavior were dialed in via trial and error during the later stages of the production, by running the show with test audiences.
IRS: Can you give some examples of people from very different communities coming together through this project and feeling empowered?
VT: Our project brought together performers and audiences from a remarkable array of backgrounds spanning the United States, Ukraine, Israel, Mexico, China, Hong Kong, Japan, and India, and included participants of all ages. This diversity was not just present on stage, but also deeply felt in the audience, creating a rare space where people from vastly different walks of life could connect through shared experience. One of the most moving moments came at the end of each performance, when no one wanted to leave; instead, people lingered, openly sharing emotions of empathy, grief, loss, and hope. The immersive nature of the production dissolved barriers between strangers, allowing everyone to step into each other’s stories and perspectives. Many told us they lost track of time, feeling as though only twenty minutes had passed during what was actually an hour-long journey, which was a testament to the sense of unity and empowerment that grew from this collective experience. In these moments, it became clear that the project was more than a performance; it was a catalyst for genuine connection and understanding among people who might otherwise never have crossed paths.
DAM: We were pleasantly surprised by how deeply engaged in the experience audiences were, but we learned quickly that it would benefit from having a “postlude” to de-role. In future presentations, we plan to offer audience members a kind of cool-down space, potentially with facilitated discussion and a calm lounge with refreshments. It could also include resources for contributing their personal reflections and taking direct action to help refugees.
David Adam Moore maintains a prolific international career as a transdisciplinary artist working in performance, immersive art, and creative technology. Regularly appearing as a leading baritone with companies such as the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Covent Garden, and the Salzburger Festspiele, his repertoire of over 60 principal roles includes acclaimed interpretations of Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin, Dead Man Walking, Billy Budd, Stanley Kowalski, Prior Walter, Winterreise, and Carmina Burana. A devotee of contemporary music, Moore has created roles for composers including Thomas Adès, Peter Eötvös, Mary Kouyoumdjian, and David T. Little. His work in digital media and performance art has been presented by institutions worldwide, including the Guggenheim, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Alongside his artistic partner, director/designer Vita Tzykun, Moore is the artistic director of the NYC-based transmedia collective GLMMR. He serves on the faculty of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Theater Institute and as Granada Artist-in-Residence and Visiting Professor at the University of California, Davis.
Vita Tzykun is a creative director, and transdisciplinary artist and has designed and directed productions for companies worldwide, including Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Bolshoi Theatre, Norwegian Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, Atlanta Opera, and Tel Aviv Museum of Art. A proponent of new works, she has designed over a dozen world premieres to date. Film and TV credits include art direction for Lady Gaga, and production design for several award-winning films, music videos, and nationally-aired TV ads. Known widely for her work in education and leadership, Tzykun serves on the faculty of the National Theater Institute and has lectured at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Mannes School of Music, and Carnegie Hall’s Weil Institute. Advisory roles include the National Endowment for the Arts, and tech-focused panels for San Diego Opera and Austin Opera. Tzykun has been featured in Lighting and Sound America magazine, given a solo exhibition at the national Opera America center in NYC, and nominated for Designer of the Year by the International Opera Awards.
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