Olena Pchilka's comedy «The World Thing» in theproductions of Galician professional and amateur theaters (1893–1897)

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to trace the Galician theatrical reception of Olena Pchilka's "The Worldly Thing" in 1893–1897, and to reveal the conditions and circumstances of its staging by the drama circle of the student "Academic Community" in Lviv, by including relevant materials in the consideration. Methods: source-based, factual, biographical, contact-based, cultural-historical, receptive. Results. The source, factual, biographical, and contact research article traces the Galician theatrical
reception of Olena Pchilka's comedy «The World Thing» in 1893–1897 for the first
time on the basis of publications found in the Lviv press, such as the newspapers
«Dilo» and «Ruslan» and the magazine «Zorya». The play was staged by the traveling professional theater of the national organization «Ruska Besida» (at least in 1893–1894 and 1896, in a revision by Mykhailo Staritskyi) and by the amateur drama group of the Lviv student «Academic Community». The prerequisites, circumstances (1896-1897), and peculiarities of the performance (February 5, 1897, in the hall of the Postal Club in Lviv) of the comedy «The World Thing» by the «Academic Community» group are elucidated in detail. The play was directed by Mykola Voronyi, who had previously played the role of Holub in the Ternopil performance of «The World Thing» (April 30, 1896), which was staged by the Ukrainian National Theater. In the amateur performance, the main character Oleksandra (Sasha in Pchilchyn's original) was played by Maria  Slobodivna (in marriage: Krushelnytska; *1876–†1935), a dramatic artist of the «Ruska Besida» Theater in 1893–1901. The roles were also played by her sister Emilia Slobodivna, Yurii Tobilevych (son of the playwright Ivan Tobilevych, a student at Lviv Polytechnic at the time), Severin Pankivskyi, and others. The theatrical history of Olena Pchilka's comedy «The World Thing» in Galicia can be further traced back to the pages of the Galician and Bukovinian press of the second half of the 1880s and early 1900s.

The epilogue to the article highlights an episode in the relations and mutual responses of M. Voronyi, M. Krushelnytska, and her husband Antin Krushelnytskyi in 1925.

Conclusions. So far, newspaper and magazine information about these Galician performances has not become the object of special research by literary and theater scholars. The scientific novelty of the proposed investigation lies in the introduction of the collected information into scientific circulation and in its understanding.