Bronek was founded by Valentyna Zabolotna, a notable theater expert and the granddaughter of the outstanding actor. Speaking about what was happening on that day at the Kyiv House of Actors, which is, in fact, now in danger of being completely destroyed, I wouldn’t want to use a dry and overly official phrase “awarding ceremony,” because the starting point of this true holiday is not a struggle for victory but humanity, sincerity, friendship, and love for the profession. On March 14 it will host a warm meeting of friends, colleagues, and like-minded people — all those for whom the theater is their main occupation and the love of their life. In this warm and even family atmosphere, actors and directors that were taken note of by the award committee’s analytical group are rewarded.
The debutant directors Andrii Saminin and Oleksandr Kobzar received the prize for their play Hraiemo Chonkina (Playing Chonkin) at the Drama and Comedy Theater on the Left Bank. The play staged after a novel by Volodymyr Voinovych has already found its audience, because the directors offered real theater work in it with interesting mises en scene, unconventional actors’ tricks, and original stage inventions. However, it is probably the most important that this is a play staged with heart. It is not by chance that the pleasure with which the actors play in it as if energetically embraces everyone in the audience.
Another play that impressed the experts and the audience was Liuksemburzky Sad (Luxemburg Garden) at the Theater in Podil directed by Ihor Slavinsky. The performance is a combination of musical and choreographic action; some kind of mystification about Luxemburg garden, which united feeling of different people. French chansons, Edith Piaf’s songs, rock-n-roll, and Joseph Brodsky’s poetry helped young actors create a true fairy tale that is appealing to, first of all, the feelings and emotions of people in the audience. By the way, during the meeting all who were present there could see some pieces from the play.
What concerns actor’s work, the analytical group has noted the actor from the Drama and Comedy Theater Mykola Boklan, who played two roles in the play Hraiemo Chonkina: the clumsy, frightened, but touching head Holubev and the heartless commander Huba. By the way, these roles helped the actor move on from lover character typecasting.
Another play directed by Slavinsky, Mertvi Dushi (Dead Souls), made it possible for a few other actors to enter the circle of awardees: Sofia Pysman (Korobochka), Serhii Boiko (Nozdriov), Volodymyr Kuznetsov (Pliushkin), and Maksym Maksymiuk (Manilov). Each of these characters is an individuality and at the same time a part of a whole organic stage solution. Take, for example, the paradoxical, confused, but cunning Korobochka, or the unexpectedly touching Pliushkin. The members of the analytical group and the founders of the prize have also noted work of Svitlana Telehova in the play Dezhurka (Watchman’s Booth) at the Theater in Podil and the work of Bohdan Beniuk, who played Kochkarev in the play Odruzhennia (Wedding) by Nikolai Gogol in the Ivan Franko Theater.
However, the real surprise for the guests was the announcement of the winner of the prize (according to the idea of the prize, there is only one winner). Volodymyr Petrenko, art director and stage manager of the Dnipropetrovsk-based Virymo! Theater received Bronek 2010 for a strong and aching play about the Holodomor — Holodna Krov (Hungry Blood). This means that Bronek has reached beyond the capital to new territories.
According to Petrenko’s words, Hungry Blood resulted from the work of the Laboratory of Modern Ukrainian Drama, which was organized by the theater in order to write a play to honor victims of the 1932–33 Holodomor. “I really want as many people as possible to see this play. People in Cherkasy, Khmelnytsky, Zhytomyr, Lutsk, Ternopil, and Lviv have already seen it. Despite the tragic topic the play is not sad, and it is still the third most popular among Dnipropetrovsk youth. We have in our repertoire Riadovi (Common Soldiers) and Holodna Krov and I am proud of the fact that my 30-year-old artists can feel this topics with their hearts and souls. Our theater is, in a direct sense, a home theater, a family theater. We have nice actors but there are no stars because it is a team theater. I think that ensemble acting is one of our most essential components.”
The Virymo! Theater (which has been acting in a professional status for six years now, as a municipal theater) developed from a studio. All the actors there are the students of the theater’s artistic director Petrenko. They studied at his studio and later received higher theatrical education at the Kharkiv Institute of Arts. Petrenko himself was a student of Serhii Danchenko and is a laureate of the Danchenko Prize.
At Bronek 2010 included a greeting song from last year’s laureates, sincere and warm words from friends and colleagues, memories, theater fairy stories, funny stories, and jokes. It is hard to convey verbally the mood that the guests of the ceremony had when they came and the mood that was created by the founder of this hearty and truly spring-like holiday. Bronek has not just became an alternative to Kyiv Pektoral — it has turned into a self-consistent artistic event. It is obvious already today that actors and directors received a new possibility not only to be acknowledged, noted, heard, but also to feel that they are needed and loved.
