óźš / eng / pol

HANNA VESELOVS’KA

I was assigned to write about the socialist-realist epoch in art for the book 20th Century Ukrainian Theatre. Having been born during the “thaw” of the 1960s, I did not have the opportunity to see true stage socialist-realism, designed to impress with its colorful decorations, monumentalism, streamlined composition and clarity of idea. 1970s stages were occupied by an anemic grandchild of the “grand Stalin style”, fearful and recast. This did not prevent Soviet ideologues from continuing to declare socialist-realism influential, functional, and aesthetically accomplished. Today, with the relegation of totalitarian aesthetic practice to the past, and with its memoirization still far off, I wanted to reveal its conundrums: grandness and profanity, pathos and Ignobleness, heroism and betrayal.

Theatre critic, candidate in art scholarship, lecturer. Graduated from the theatre scholarship faculty of the I. Karpenko-Karyi Institute of Theatre Arts. Employed by the Les’ Kurbas Centre since 2000. Authored the chapter entitled “Method as Style, and Style as Method: Formal Searches in the Theory and Practice of the Socialist-Realist Age (1930-1950) in the joint 20th Century Ukrainian Theatre project. Holds wide-ranging research interests. Studies include: “The Protestant and Orthodox Baroque in 17th-18th Century Slavic Theatre”, “Baroque Aesthetics in Slavic Folklore, Art, and National Theatre”, “Theatrical Expressionism in Ukraine: Genesis and Sources”, “Meyerhold’s Enterprise in Kharkiv”, “Serf Theatre in Ukraine”, “Novel Searches in Kyivan Theatres, 1918-1919”. A frequent participant of pan-Ukrainian and international conferences and symposia. Participated in international Slavists’ conferences in Bratislava and Krakow. Read papers at international Ukrainianists’ congresses in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Odessa. Publishes in the journals Suchasnist’, Ukrains’kyi Teatr, Kino-Teatr, and others. Member of the annual “Kyivs’ka Pektoral’” theatrical awards panel of experts. Teaches “Introduction to Theatre Criticism” and “The History of Ukrainian Dramatic Art” to theatre-criticism students at the KSITA, and has also developed and taught a course entitled “Les’ Kurbas’s Plays: a View to World Theatre” for VIAT students. Author of the manuscript Theatrical Intersections in Kyiv 1900-1920, which she dreams of publishing.

 



 

NEWS / CENTRE / LES KURBAS / PLAYS
LIBRARY /PROJECTS / PARTNERS / contactS