Ukraine’s oldest puppet theater is now located in the unique premises of the Fairy Tale Palace (both inside and outside). The territory adjacent to the building is also decorated like a real children’s fairy tale town (with sculptures of fairy tale characters, a fountain, benches, flower-beds etc.).
There are two halls in the theater, with a capacity of 300 and 119, as well as a children’s cafe. All the rooms, both for audience and staff, are modern and well-equipped.
The theater’s playbill currently features both Ukrainian and foreign performances, and there are plays for adults and children. The Kyiv Academic Puppet Theater has represented Ukraine at prestigious international theater forums and festivals in Austria, Canada, the US, Japan, Peru, Slovakia, South Korea, Poland, Bulgaria, Belarus, and Russia. The International Festival of Puppet Theaters, held in Kyiv since 1991, is based in the theater. It has been attended by leading puppet theaters from Belgium, Austria, Canada, Slovakia, Finland, Japan, China, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Russia, Bulgaria, Moldova, Turkey, and other countries.
The theater’s chief director Yurii Sikalo talks about the previous seasons and coming premieres: “Since moving to the new premises (2005) we have been staging plays for adults on a regular basis, alongside plays for children. Thus, the theater has shown The Divine Comedy by Isidor Shtok, Maslov’s The Decameron after Giovanni Boccaccio, Forest Song by Lesia Ukrainka, A Carter and a King by Asar Eppel after Isaak Babel, and Chasing Two Hares by Mykhailo Starytsky. When we were working in the premises on 13 Shota Rustaveli Str. (1997), the performances took place on an everyday basis (mainly for schoolchildren), and the repertoire was selected accordingly.
In the new premises (on Hrushevskoho Str.), in the so-called Fairy Tale Palace, we work for our little audiences every Saturday and Sunday, whereas we show plays for adults, as a rule, on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.”
Mr. Sikalo, every play for children should address a specific age. Does not it seem to you that this postulate is no longer valid, given the influence of television and how today’s children grow up quicker?
“My answer is categorically no. Young spectators aged under three believe that everything happening on stage is real. It is very hard to explain to them that this is theater. It is strange for them to see characters they know from books speaking with human voices, bantering about, sometimes even fighting. Therefore we recommend that parents be acquainted with the play’s content and prepare their children. If the play is based on a classical literary work, which is known to the child, in theater s/he will understand the theater aesthetics. By this I mean that they will comprehend the essence of theatrical action. Literature describes, whereas the theater shows something in action. I remember an anecdotal situation. I once saw a mother with a baby in a theater hall. When I inquired about the baby’s age, she answered, obviously proud of the fact, ‘She’s already five months old.’ I asked, ‘Isn’t it too early to bring the baby to the theater?’ To this she replied with indignation, ‘No! We have already visited a zoo and she understood everything there.’ I was surprised with the young woman’s position, because she was not aware what the consequences may be: what if the baby gets scared and, God forbid, starts to stammer: she is so small! Dear parents, let’s be friends. It is your responsibility whether your children will like theater, whether they will find the play interesting, whether they become theater-goers in the future.”
Tell us please about the peculiarities of the previous season and the new productions in your repertoire.
“We have decided that all the premieres should address the young audience. Most experts call us a ‘a classical fairy tale theater’ and we like this description. I have released the Little Red Riding Hood after Shvarts, which was an extremely successful debut for the composer Kalandionok. His music is somewhat unusual for our kind of art, but it really fits the lyrical style of Evgeny Shvarts, and I am very thankful for this. I advised the artist Hukailo to use a circle to give the performance a ‘steeper tone.’ The play was written for a young audience and consists of three acts — I had to do the corresponding editing, so that the young viewers could watch it. I want to applaud the actors who aptly and imaginatively recreated Shvarts’ characters. These include Shchypitsyna (her Little Red Riding Hood is a paragon of kindness and nobility) who accurately recreates the director’s concept and is an able leader, Chubynska (her Hare is utterly devoted to save the heroine), Yasynovska (her Fox can quickly adapt to any situation), Kulykova (she faultlessly played Mother, Grandmother and the Hedgehog), and Farafonov as the Bear, who did great work on the character and skillfully operated the puppet. It is true that there are no small roles. Bokovenko proved this with his small but rich part as the Woodkeeper. Two actors play the main aspirant for leadership in the forest, the Wolf, the theater’s senior Malynsky and the young actor Drapikovsky, each of them showed his own vision of the role, based on their creative individuality.
“Now we are holding rehearsals of two plays whose premieres are scheduled for September. The play Riaba Hen and Golden Sun is based on one of the many plays written by our artistic director Mykola Petrenko. It is based on the widely known folk fairy tales about Kurochka Riaba and Turnip, aptly combined in the course of the plot. The performance is full of the rich children’s folklore and will make a bright puppet show. The play was staged by a young director, a student of mine (I taught a course on ‘Puppet Theater Directing’ at the Karpenko-Kary National University of Theater, Cinema, and Television) Maryna Nazarenko. She works together with the artist Filonchuk and composer Zhuravchak, for whom, in my opinion, this was a successful debut.
“The student of the Karpenko-Kary University Tumaev is intensively working on his diploma work. This will be the performance Our Merry Kolobok by Usach (artist: Danko, music by Markelov). This will be the second edition of the exhibit that I staged back in the 1960s. It is precisely with that play that we presented the art of Ukrainian puppeteers at prestigious Ukrainian and international festivals. Whereas the previous play was young, in terms of atmosphere and the age of the performers, the new one engages representatives of all generations of actors.
“In the end of the year, during the New Year’s holidays, we are planning to release another play for young spectators. It will be Three Piglets and a Wolf by Usach and Yefremov, and I will stage it with the theater’s chief artist Danko and the composer Kalandionok.”
