Hrytsai, Vasyl

Hrytsai, Vasyl [Грицай, Василь; Hrycaj, Vasyl'; stage name of Василь Колтановський; Vasyl Koltanovsky], b 1856 in Kukovychi, Chernihiv county, Chernihiv gubernia, d 2 March 1910 in Kukovychi. Actor, singer, stage director. From 1883 to 1899 he acted in the troupes of Marko Kropyvnytsky, Mykhailo Starytsky, Panas Saksahansky (see Saksahansky's Troupe), and Dmytro Haidamaka. Then for the next seven years he managed his own troupe. He sang tenor and later baritone parts in Semen Hulak-Artemovsky’s Zaporozhets' za Dunaiem (Zaporozhian Cossack beyond the Danube), Ivan Kotliarevsky’s Natalka Poltavka (Natalka from Poltava), and M. Starytsky and Mykola Lysenko’s Nich pered Rizdvom (Christmas Eve). His most successful roles were as Yurko Dovbush and Khoma in Starytsky’s Iurko Dovbush and Oi, ne khody, Hrytsiu (Don’t Go to Parties, Hryts), and Mykyta in Kropyvnytsky’s Dai sertsiu voliu—zavede v nevoliu (Give the Heart Free Reign and It Will Lead You into Slavery).

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