Olimpia Dobrovolska
Ukrainian theater actress
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Olimpia Ostapivna Dobrovolska[a] (July 31 (August 12) 1895 – February 2, 1990) was a Ukrainian actress, director, theater teacher and theorist of Ukrainian art of the 20th century. She was married the actor Yosyp Hirniak.
Olimpia Dobrovolska | |
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Олімпія Добровольська | |
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| Born | July 31, 1895 |
| Died | February 2, 1990 (aged 94) |
| Occupations | actress, theater director |
Early life and education
Olimpia Dobrovolska was born on 31 July (12 August) 1895 in Odesa.[1] In 1915, she graduated from Lysenko Drama Institute in Kyiv.[2]
Career
In 1916, 20-year-old Dobrovolska was associated with the Kurbas group and was one of the founders of the Kyiv Academic Young Theatre (Molodyi Teatr) and played there until 1919.[3] Since the foundation of Franko Theater in January 1920 until 1922, Dobrovolska worked there.[4] In Franko Theater, she met an actor Yosyp Hirniak and married him.[5]
In 1922, Dobrovolska and her husband were among the first employees of the Berezil Theatre of Les Kurbas in Kyiv.[2] In 1926, she moved to Kharkiv together with the Berezil theater.[1]
In December 1933, Dobrovolska’s husband Hirniak was arrested by the Stalinists, and in 1934 he was exiled to the camps in Karelia on charges of participating in a “national terrorist organization”.[6] Dobrovolska remained in Kharkiv, and since 1935, she joined the troupe of the Shevchenko Ukrainian Drama Theater in Kharkiv.[7]
In 1937, Dobrovolska was arrested and exiled to Chibyu, Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, along with her husband.[2] There she worked in the Kosolapkin theater.[3]
In 1940, Dobrovolska and her husband received permission to return to Ukraine and moved to Cherkasy where Dobrovlska worked in Cherkasy Drama Theater.[7] In 1942, Dobrovolska and her husband moved to Lviv and lived there during Nazi occupation.[8] During this time, she played on the stage of the Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet.[1] In 1944, Dobrovolska was forced to emigrate to Austria, then to Germany.[8]
Along with her husband, Dobrovolska directed the Theater studio in Austria and Germany.[7] In 1947, their Theater studio came on tour to the American zone of Germany and since then operated in West Germany until 1949.[6]
Emigration to United States
In 1949, Dobrovolska and her husband emigrated to the United States.[7] In 1949-50 season, they staged six plays in New York.[6] In 1953-1955, Dobrovolska directed Ukrainian theater in the United States.[7]
From 1956 to 1964, she headed the Theater of the Ukrainian Word in New York and her own school of artistic reading.[5] As a director, Dobrovolska made productions Forest Song and Orgy by Lesya Ukrainka and Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen.[1]
Olimpia Dobrovolska died on 2 February 1990 at a nursing home in New York at the age of 94.[3]
Honors
In 1985, a book Undefeated Berezil Actors by Valerian Revytsky dedicated to Dobrovolska and Hirniak was published in New York.[9]