Lena Kudajewa

(b. 1977, Donetsk) – She lived a peaceful life in independent Ukraine until the outbreak of war with Russia in 2014. After a series of relocations, she eventually settled in Kramatorsk, where she began a new chapter of her life. In 2020, she completed a degree in psychology. In February 2021, she took part in an intensive documentary theatre course and wrote her first play, 6.5. Based on this text, a stage production premiered on 4 September 2021 at the Mykola Kulish Kherson Regional Academic Music and Drama Theatre. She later joined the DRAMLABNEO Week drama laboratory, an initiative supported by the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation. Her participation in the project resulted in her first full-length play, The Overachiever’s Diary, which made the longlist of the 8th Drama.UA Playwriting Competition. In October 2022, two of her plays—Insect and One Day—reached the finals of the July Honey Festival of Contemporary Ukrainian Drama. The following month, her texts One Day and A Bad Year were shortlisted for the 13th edition of the Week of Contemporary Art competition.