Theater-Studio of Y. Hirniak and O. Dobrovolska

Theater-Studio of Y. Hirniak and O. Dobrovolska [Театр-студія Йосипа Гірняка і Олімпії Добровольської; Teatr-studiia Iosypa Hirniaka i Olimpii Dobrovolskoi]. An actors' studio established by Yosyp Hirniak and Olimpiia Dobrovolska in 1946 in Landeck, Austria. It was based in Mittenwald, Germany, and staged over 250 performances throughout West Germany until 1949. It resumed its activities that year in New York and was dissolved in 1951; its successor was the Ukrainian Theater in America. The Theater-Studio synthesized modern elements and traditional Nativity plays in I. Cholhan's satirical revues, such as Zamotelychene telia (The Confused Calf), Blakytna avantura (The Blue Adventure), and Son ukraïns’koï nochi (A Dream of a Ukrainian Night); adapted the old ethnographical repertoire, such as Marko Kropyvnytsky's Poshylys’ u durni (They Made Fools of Themselves); introduced modernist Ukrainian plays, such as Lesia Ukrainka's Orhiia (The Orgy); adapted for the stage Mykola Khvylovy's Maty i ia (Mother and I) and Zaivi liude (Superfluous People); and staged Western European classics such as Carlo Goldoni's The Servant of Two Masters and Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts. Among the actors were V. Zmii, Stepan Zalesky, B. Khabursky, T. Pozniakivna, A. Kryvetsky, Lidiia Krushelnytska, Volodymyr Lysniak, and M. Cholhan.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Boichuk, B. Teatr-studiia Iosypa Hirniaka Olimpiï Dobrovol’s’koï (New York 1975)

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]