In the spring of 2022, Vita Tzykun and David Adam Moore began working on the immersive theater installation REFUGE, “ignited” by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Developed and first presented with the support of UC Davis’ Granada Artist Residency, REFUGE is an exploration of the refugee experience and the meaning of home. 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.