Theater and Criticism in Ukraine and Russia
22.11.2013
Center for Urban History, Lviv
The participants discussed the primary foci of development in contemporary dramaturgy and theatrical direction in Ukraine and Russia as well as the role of criticism in this process. The critics looked to compare the experiences of the two countries in their use of innovative approaches in the theater, audience participation and co-authorship in theatrical practice. They explained the means to bring about the contemporization of the profession of director and dramaturge. The discussion did not fail to cover the mastery of new terminologies and technical skills required of the critic and contemporary audience.
Moderator - Iryna Chuzhynova, Kyiv.
is leader of the cultural section at the Ukrainian national information and analysis weekly Dzerkalo Tyzhnya. Ukraina. Distinguished Ukrainian journalist, theater critic, author, and host of the Hravtsi series on the Kultura National TV Network. He is a member of the National Shevchenko Committee, and a member of the Ukrainian Journalists’ Association and the Ukrainian National Theater Workers’ Union. He is a senior lecturer (Docent) on the Journalism faculty of the Institute of International Relations at the National Aviation University. His first media publications on theater appeared in the late-1990s while he was a lecturer on world literature at Drahomanova National University, at which time he researched the topic of “H. Ibsen and V. Vynnychenko: Genre Specifics of the New Drama”. In time his theater reviews and essays began to appear on the pages of Teatr (Russia), Ukraiinskyi Teatr, and Art-Line (Ukraine), and as a columnist at newspapers like Kultura i Zhyttia, Kyivski Vidomosti, and Dzerkalo Tyzhnia, and Nezavisimaya Gazyeta, and others. In all he has published more than a thousand pieces on the theater. He is the author of the books Kvytok na Vchorashniu Vystavu, an essay on eminences of Ukrainian theater in the Soviet period; and Anti-Ranevska, reporting on the topics of theater, film, and popular culture. He is the recipient of the Yuri Dolgoruky International Literature Prize (Russia), and the Hoholivska Prize (Ukraine). is a theater critic and manager with a PhD in Art Criticism. He graduated from the Drama Department of Moscow’s Russian Academy of Theater Arts (GITIS) in 1998 having studied Contemporary Dramaturgy under Natalia Krimovaya. He has published more than a thousand articles on the theater in various publications. He is on the editorial staff of the journal Suchasna Dramaturhia. He runs a distance-learning course for theater critics at GITIS, and has lectured and held seminars at a number of colleges. He is the Assistant Art Director at the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater (MHAT), and dean of the MHAT Special Projects Studio. His published works include Teatralni Pohlady Vasylia Rozanova, Putin.doc. Devyat Revoliutsiynykh Pyes, Martin McDonagh – The Pillowman and Other Plays. He has translated plays by Martin McDonagh, Mark Ravenhill, James Patrick Dunleavy, Ingeborg von Tsadov, Rob Becker, Mika Myllyaho, John Mighton, Morris Panych and others.
Oleh Verhelis
Pavel Rudnev