In the early days of the Russian invasion in 2022, the Yuriy Drohobych Lviv Regional Academic Music and Drama Theatre in Drohobych almost immediately changed the way it operated. The dressing rooms and backstage areas were turned into shelters for artists fleeing from the most dangerous regions, including Severodonetsk.
At the same time, the theatre building was transformed into a volunteer centre. Actors, musicians and technical staff prepared food for the army – cutlets, dumplings, borscht mixes, and later also bread and canned meat. On one day alone, around two thousand cutlets were made. 
In the following months, this activity continued alongside artistic work. The theatre kitchen operated ‘between performances and rehearsals,’ and thousands of loaves of bread and over a tonne of meat and lard preserves were sent to the front.
The artists worked together — the local troupe and the refugees they had taken in — preparing new performances and shows for children and displaced persons. The theatre remained a cultural institution, but it also became a humanitarian base and a place of solidarity for the artistic community during the war.