The History of Ukrainian Theater

Read the text and be ready to discuss it in the class. Give a good literary translation of the text.

THEATRE IN UKRAINE.

UNIT 3

Elements of theatricality can be traced in Ukrainian folk customs and rites, games, folk oral literature, and folk dances back to pre-Christian pagan traditions and rituals. They are especially evident, even today, in the spring vesnianky-haiivky, the summer Kupalo festival, and the winter carols and above all in the ceremony of the Ukrainian wedding. Theatrical entertainment and participation in many rituals was provided by skomorokhy. With the acceptance of Christianity in Ukraine, the Divine Liturgy took on elements of theatricality, and the church adopted or converted many pagan rituals for its own purposes. The recorded history of nonritual Ukrainian theater begins in 1619 with two intermedes staged between the acts of religious drama. The further development of Ukrainian theater was influenced by European medieval theater, the Renaissance, and classicism in the court and in school drama, particularly at the Kyiv Mohyla Academy, vertep puppet theater.

Ukrainian secular theater became popular during the 19th century, beginning with the staging of the first Ukrainian-language plays of I.Kotliarevsky and H.Kvitka-Osnovianenko by the Poltava Free Theater in 1819. From the end of the 18th century, Ukrainian landlords organized serf theaters at then-estates, where Ukrainian plays were sporadically performed. The pioneering Ukrainian actors were K.Solenyk, M.Shchepkin, and L.Mlotkovska. In Western Ukraine, amateur secular performances began at the end of the 1840s in Kolomyia, Peremyshl, and Ternopil.

In Russian-ruled Ukraine many amateur and touring theater groups were active by the end of the 1850s. The leaders in setting up amateur troupes were M.Starytsky and I.Karpenko-Kary. Although the 1863 tsarist government circular prohibited the use of the Ukrainian language on stage, the development of Ukrainian amateur theater continued. It reached its apex in the performance in 1873 of M.Lysenko's opera "Christmas Eve", based on N-Gogol's story directed by Starytsky.

The first professional Ukrainian theater was a touring troupe in Austrian-ruled Galicia and Bukovyna. Founded in 1864, it is an important landmark in the evolution of modern Ukrainian theater, and notable for its productions, in Ukrainian only, directed by O.Bachynsky

In 1881 the first touring theater in eastern Ukraine was founded under M. Kropyvnytsky. Touring theaters led by Starytsky (1885) and M. Sadovsky (1888) and Saksahansky's Troupe (1890) followed. Their repertoire consisted mostly of populist-romantic and realistic plays by Kropyvnytsky, Starytsky, and Karpenko-Kary. Censorship did not permit performances of plays with historical and social themes and completely prohibited the staging of plays translated from other languages. Each performance had to include at least one Russian play, and the territory of the touring theaters was limited to Russian-ruled Ukraine.

In 1905 censorship eased, and Sadovsky was able to organize the first resident Ukrainian theater in Kyiv in 1907. He successfully produced Ukrainian operas as well as melodramas and comedies in translation.

In March 1917 the Central Rada endorsed the creation of a Theatrical Committee. Undoubtedly, the boldest innovations in the modernization of Ukrainian theater were initiated by L.Kurbas, whose early work developed at Molodyi Teatr (1917-19). In 1920 Kurbas produced an adaptation of Shevchehko's poem "Haidamakas" for the Shevchenko First Theater of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic, and H.Yura founded the Franko New Drama Theater. The leading new Ukrainian theaters after 1917 also included the Zankovetskaya Theater in Lviv and the Odesa Drama Theater.

After the institution of Soviet rule all Ukrainian theaters fell under state control. In 1934 socialist-realism was applied to Ukrainian theater. The insistence upon socialist realism resulted in the dominance of contemporary Soviet drama and an almost complete absence of new contemporary European repertoire, a negation of all stylistic variation in performances, and the suppression of any experimentation whatsoever.

Over the past few years the Ukrainian theater has stayed on the wave crest of national revival. At present Ukraine operates 91 drama companies, including "academic theaters", musical drama and puppet theaters, youth theaters, musical comedies. Among theater stars are B. Stupka, B. Kozak, F. Struhnin, A. Rohovtseva, V. Zaklunna and others.

2. What or who is identified by the following?

1) can be traced in folk customs and rites

2) adopted pagan rituals

3) became popular in the 19th century.

4) staged the first Ukrainian-language plays

5) organized serf theaters

6) began at the end of 1840s

7) set up amateur troupes

8) prohibited the use of the Ukrainian language on stage

9) based on N.Gogol's story

10) was a touring troupe in Galicia and Bukovyna

11) was founded in 1881

12) was set up in 1907

13) founded the Kyiv Ukrainian Drama Theater

14) is on the wave crest of national revival

Дата добавления: 2014-11-06