Kovalenko, Prokhor

Kovalenko, Prokhor [Коваленко, Прохор], b 23 February 1884 in Yaroslavets, Hlukhiv county, Chernihiv gubernia, d 16 October 1963 in Kyiv. Character actor and educator. Upon graduating from the Lysenko Music and Drama School (1910), he joined Sadovsky's Theater in Kyiv and worked there until 1917. After a brief period at the State People's Theater in Kyiv, he played with various provincial companies before committing himself permanently to the Kyiv Ukrainian Drama Theater (1926–48). At the same time he lectured at the Kyiv Institute of Theater Arts (1934–60). His repertoire included such roles as Zolotnytsky in Borys Hrinchenko’s Stepovyi hist' (Steppe Guest), Kramariuk in Ivan Karpenko-Kary’s Zhyteis'ke more (The Sea of Life), Tataryn in Stepan Vasylchenko’s V kholodku (In the Shade), and Dobchinsky in Nikolai Gogol’s Revizor (Inspector General). He wrote two books of memoirs: Nezabutnie (The Unforgettable, 1962) and Shliakhy na stsenu (Paths to the Stage, 1964).

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