Sabinin, Lev

Sabinin, Lev [Сабінін, Лев; real surname: Теплинський; Teplynsky], b 15 November 1874 in Poltava, d 7 December 1955 in Moscow. Actor, choreographer, and theater director. He began his theatrical career in 1890 in L. Avedikov’s Russian-Ukrainian troupe and then was an actor in Heorhii Derkach’s and Oleksii Sukhodolsky’s troupes (1891–1907); director of his own Ukrainian troupe, which staged approximately 100 performances of the populist-realist repertoire (1907–20); stage director of various workers’ and peasants’ theaters (1920–9; see Workers' and collective-farm theaters); actor and stage director in the Moscow Ukrainian Theater of the RSFSR (1930–4); actor in the Chernihiv Music and Drama Theater (1934–41); and artistic director of the Ukrainian Ensemble at the Novgorod Philharmonic Society (1945–50). His memoirs are titled Sorok p’iat' rokiv na ukraïns'kii stseni (Forty-five Years on the Ukrainian Stage, 1937).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]