Arianda, who uses her middle name instead of her Ukrainian surname, Matijcio, first appeared onstage at age three, reciting part of a patriotic Ukrainian poem at a Ukrainian school hall in Passaic, New Jersey. (She grew up in Clifton.) She had spent the previous week learning the poem with her mother, Lesia, a painter who had studied at the School of Visual Arts with Robert De Niro, Sr.
NEWYORKER: The Natural