A Panoramic View of the People’s Theater

When journalists write about the crisis of the theatrical genre in Ukraine, they usually mean professional companies, forgetting that hundreds (or maybe even thousands) of amateur theaters are still operating in our country. Probably these writers do not remember that there were times when a drama society existed at virtually every Ukrainian school, and an amateur theater at every rural club. It is a shame, because from the late nineteenth century theater had been almost the only source of culture for the Ukrainians living in the countryside. Times have changed. As a result of the drastic changes in the economic, political, and social life that Ukraine has seen after independence, amateur theater has been relegated to the background and buried under the wreckage of the transition period. Yet it has survived and is experiencing an active revival.

Evidence of this was the Theater Panorama 2003, a Rivne oblast amateur theaters and solo performers festival held in Ostroh under the aegis of the Rivne oblast Folk Arts Center and the oblast and district culture departments. That Ostroh was chosen as the venue for the theater forum was no accident. Aside from being a historical and cultural center, Ostroh saw one of the first theater companies in the Soviet Ukraine founded in 1939, which in 1959 was granted the title of a People’s Theater. According to Valentyna Kapitula, theatrical genre methodologist of the Rivne oblast Folk Arts Center, Rivne oblast can be proud of its ten amateur theaters that, despite the shortage of funds, bear the title of People’s Theaters and one is even titled an Exemplary People’s Theater. Such a high level of Rivne theaters is primarily due to the devotion of the veterans of the stage — Attaliya Havriushenko (Rivne), Meritorious Cultural Worker of Ukraine Dmytro Tkachuk (Dubno), Nadiya and Yevhen Zhyhadlo (Ostroh) — as well as the enthusiasm of the young actors — laureates of the Nationwide Elocutionists Contest Anna Mashlay (Hoshcha), Hanna Stelmakh (Rafayilovka), and Natalia Bunechko (Sarny). The culture departments of the Oblast and District State Administrations and the oblast Folk Arts Center also actively support the amateurs.