Ihnatovych, Hnat

Ihnatovych, Hnat [Ігнатович, Гнат; Ihnatovyč; stage name of H. Balinsky], b 17 November 1898 in Nemyriv, Bratslav county, Podilia gubernia, d 16 January 1978 in Uzhhorod, Transcarpathia oblast. Stage director, actor, and teacher. He studied with Les Kurbas at the Molodyi Teatr theater (1918–19) and appeared in the productions of the Kyiv Drama Theater (1920–2) and the Berezil (1922–5) theater. He also directed the 1924 Berezil production of Ernst Toller’s Masse-Mensch. Thereafter he taught at the Lysenko Music and Drama Institute in Kyiv (1924–8), the Kharkiv Music and Drama Institute (1928–34) and at the acting school of the Kyiv Artistic Film Studio (1934–46). From 1946 to 1963 he served, with breaks, as the artistic director of the Transcarpathian Ukrainian Music and Drama Theater in Uzhhorod. There he directed many plays by Ukrainian, Russian, and European playwrights. Ihnatovych appeared in such roles as Yarema in Haidamaky (based on Taras Shevchenko’s poem), the millionaire’s son in Georg Kaiser’s Gas I, and Macduff in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]