Ukrainian theater

The first mentions of theatrical productions in Ukraine belong to the second decade of the XVII century. They were brought from the West by Jesuits , but were quickly adopted by fraternal and other Ukrainian schools and were widely used, among other things, to combat Jesuit propaganda, defending Orthodoxy and the Ukrainian people ^[1] .

The oldest theatrical works, the texts of which have reached our days, are two interludes to the drama Yakub Gavantovich (1619) and the recitation at Christmas of Christ, performed in honor of the Lviv bishop Jeremiah Tisarovsky (not later than 1615). The first known production of the Ukrainian theater is considered to be two Ukrainian interludes, performed during the breaks of the Polish tragedy in honor of the death of John the Baptist on August 29, 1619 at a fair near Lvov ^[1] .

In the 17th and 18th centuries , the nativity scenes , the itinerant puppet theaters that performed Christmas dramas and social interludes ^[1], gained a wide scope.

In 1795, the first stationary theater in Ukraine was opened in Lviv , in the former Jesuit church. In the Dnieper region, where the first theater groups were also born in the 18th century , the process of opening stationary theater structures progressed more slowly. So, in Kiev, the first stationary theater appeared in 1806 , in Odessa - in 1809 , in Poltava - in 1810 .

The formation of classical Ukrainian drama is associated with the names of Ivan Kotlyarevsky , who headed the theater in Poltava , and Grigory Kvitka-Osnovyanenko , the founder of prose in new Ukrainian literature . Burlesque and expressiveness, along with the picturesque and humor that are characteristic of their works, for a long time determined the face of the academic theater in Ukraine.

In the second half of the XIX century , the amateur theatrical movement spread in Ukraine. In amateur circles, the leading figures of the Ukrainian theater began to work - playwrights and directors Mikhail Staritsky , Mark Kropivnitsky and Ivan Karpenko-Kary . The merit of the rapid development of the theater also belongs to the outstanding Tobilevich family, whose members performed under the stage names of Ivan Karpenko-Kary , Nikolai Sadovsky and Panas Saksaganskogo . Each of them not only created his own troupe, but was an outstanding actor and director. The star of the Ukrainian theater of that time was Maria Zankovetskaya .

A new period in the history of the national theater began in 1918 , when the State Dramatic Theater ( Ukrainian State Duma Drama Theater ), established in Kiev in 1917, received considerable financial support from the government of Hetman Skoropadsky . Also a great influence on the development of theatrical art was rendered by the “Young Theater” ( Ukrainian “Young Theater” ) (it was founded in 1916 as a studio, from 1922 - the modern Ukrainian theater “Berezil” ( Ukrainian “Berezil ” ) by Les Kurbas and Gnata Jury . A cohort of talented actors appeared on the theater stage - Ambrose Buchma , Marjan Krushelnitsky , Olympia Dobrovolskaya , Alexander Serdyuk , Natalia Uzhviy , Yury Shumsky and others ^[2] .

The State Drama Theater continued the traditions of the realistic-psychological school. But the "Young Theater" defended the position of avant-garde . With the formation of the theater "Berezil" his stage became a kind of experimental platform. It was not by chance that the mockups of the theatrical association Berezil received a gold medal at the World Theater Exhibition in Paris in 1925 . Here the plays of outstanding Ukrainian writers and playwrights Nikolay Kulish (“People’s Malachi”, “Mina Mazaylo”) and Vladimir Vinnichenko (“Bazar”, “Black Panther and Polar Bear”) were staged for the first time. Thanks to the genius of Les Kurbas, who combined the talents of the director, actor, playwright and translator of world literature, the works of William Shakespeare , Heinrich Ibsen , Gerhart Hauptmann , Friedrich Schiller and Moliere were reinterpreted on the Ukrainian stage plays of European playwrights.

From the creative association "Berezil" originates theater library, theater museum and the first theater magazine. The experimental search for Les Kurbas is still being addressed by contemporary artists. Nowadays, the International Theater Festival Art of Berezilla, dedicated to the memory of Les Kurbas, which was arrested on December 25, 1933 and shot at the Sandormoh tract in November 1937, is taking place in Kiev.

In Transcarpathia, in conditions of a significant influx of intelligentsia from the ZUNR and the UPR, the Russian Theater was created, in particular, due to the loss of statehood, headed by Nikolai Sadovsky .

During the years of independence, many new theaters appeared in Ukraine, and interest in the national and street theater has increased. Ukrainian dramatic art is increasingly integrating into the European cultural space. World-wide recognition was received by theater director Roman Vikyuk , whose work was a significant contribution to world theater aesthetics at the end of the 20th century. Another Ukrainian director, known far beyond the borders of Ukraine, is Andrei Zholdak . A number of talented actors of the Ukrainian theater, such as Bogdan Stupka , Natalya Sumskaya , Ada Rogovtseva , Anatoly Khostikoyev and others, with great success shot in domestic and foreign films.

Now in Ukraine, a number of international theater festivals take place every year, which have shown their prestige in Europe: “Kiev May” ( Ukrainian. “Kiev Travneviy” ) in Kiev , “Golden Lion” ( Ukrainian. “Golden Lion” ), “Ladder” ( Ukrainian “Drabina” ) and “Drama.UA” ( Ukrainian “Drama.UA” ) in Lviv , “Ternopil Theater Evenings. Debut ( Ukrainian. "Ternopils Theater Evening. Debut" ) in Ternopil , "Chersonese Games" ( Ukrainian. "Chersonese Mountains" ) in Sevastopol (until 2014 in Ukraine , after the referendum on the status of Crimea (2014) in Russia ) “Melpomene Tavria” ( Ukrainian “Melpomene Tavria”) in Kherson , “The Christmas Mystery” ( Ukrainian. “Holiday Church” ) in Lutsk , “Interlyalka” ( Ukrainian “Interlyalka” ) in Uzhgorod .