Valentyna Zabolotna

Artistic impressions which stay in your memory and soul for a long time are not so frequent. The play from the Chamber Stage of the Ivan Franko Theater, Morituri te Salutant (There is Always a Holiday for Us) based on Vasyl Stefanyk’s short stories and staged by director Dmytro Bohomazov, was...

Hnat Yura is at last coming back to his dear theater that he directed for over forty years. And what years! The Civil War, Ukrainization, fighting against “nationalism,” mass repressions, World War II and the postwar ruin, “cosmopolitanism,” debunking the “...

How long has it been since we last played with a doll? Now that we are grownups, dolls and puppets are part of our distant childhood, and are toys that our grandchildren play with. However, some serious-minded adults in Ukraine have dedicated their lives to puppets, like the members of Kyiv’s...

Ukrainian audiences finally have a choice of theaters of different directions, esthetics, and dimensions. So, ladies and gentlemen, love what you can love, be interested in what interests you, and don’t forget that what may be unexciting and strange for you may spark interest and pleasure in...

A visit to the theater is always a grand occasion. There is a lot of light, the gilded hall glows for the spectators. There is great music, a well-heeled audience, and flowers. The theater is a departure from the routine, a beautiful event in the monotonous flow of daily life. The theater is still...

I sympathize with the honorable members of the Shevchenko Prize committee. They will have a hard time choosing the best of three gems. Three plays staged by drama theaters have been nominated for the main Ukrainian State Prize. Also nominated are two operas, but I will discuss only the plays. They...

In modern Ukraine “musical drama theater” is often a synonym for aesthetic decrepitude and decay. This appellation is justified when productions are oversaturated with illustrative songs and dances of a pseudo-folk or pop character. However, when Belarus’s largest dramatic company, the Yanka Kupala...

The fairy-tale forest creature juggled with balloons, catching them with its knees, neck, picking them from hands miraculously emerging from beneath the surface of the earth... The youthful forest creature seemed surprised to see the surrounding world, to perceive it as well as its own body... A...

Kyiv is always glad to receive guests, especially good old friends. St. Petersburg’s Lensovet Theater has more than once toured Ukraine. We still remember watching thanks to it such famous and beloved actors as Freindlikh, Piedogorova, Petrenko, Boyarsky, Solovei, et al. This theater is now...

The last theatrical season seemed remarkably dim, perhaps because Ukrainian culture suffered heavy losses last summer. Playwright Yaroslav Stelmakh died in his creative prime, followed by Serhiy Danchenko, an outstanding Ukrainian producer of the past forty years. And every premiere lacked...