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Puppet Theatre

The Kyiv Academic Puppet Theatre was founded on October 27, 1927 as part of the Kiev Franko Theatre for Children (later known as the Young Spectators' Theatre on Lipki) at the initiative of Ukraine's People's Artist Aleksandr Solomarsky and Irina Deyeva. The Theatre's first season was opened with two productions, Old Petrushka and Musicians, based on works by L. Yegibov, with the stage version made by P. Shcherbatinsky.
The Theatre's first actors, who became founders of the Theatre's best traditions, were F. Andriyevskaya, M. Kozlovsky, O. Mikhaylov, I. Zaliznyak, A. Vishnevskaya, T. Vasnetsova, G. Soroka and Ya. Zhovinsky.
It was these actors that took the Theatre's first steps on its way towards, so to speak, Mount Parnassus, the home of the Muses. In the 1930s, this journey was continued by their successors such as the production designer Ye. Margolina, the designer Ye. Vasilyeva and the actors Yu. Sokolik, Ye. Pevna, G. Trubetskaya, Ye. Storozhenko, Ya. Mirsakov, M. Pototskaya, R. Kotvitskaya, F. Yaninskaya, A. Buryakovsky, Ye. Solodar, B. Goncharov and V. Goncharova.
The mastery of the Theatre's puppeteers was recognised in 1937, at the 1st All-USSR Festival for Puppet Theatres, when the Jewish branch of the Theatre performed O. Kuishich's Magic Grain and Binyomin Gutyansky's Angry Lazar, winning the first prize.
The happy years of the intensive creative work were interrupted by the Second World War.
The Theatre's first performance in Kyiv that had been liberated from the Nazi troops took place in 1946. Children welcomed back their favourite company, which at that time was led by Mariya Tobilevich, a daughter of the famous playwright Ivan Karpenko-Kary.
In the building at 7 Yaroslavov Val Street, which housed the Theatre during that time, the stage directors Zoya Pigulovich, Leonid Zarubin, Ya. Zhovinsky, O. Ishchenko, and O. Sumarokov produced a multitude of interesting shows. Later, the Theatre's repertoire included a show for grown-ups, Isidor Shtok's The Divine Comedy (based on the poem by Dante), staged by the director M. Rudin together with the designer R. Margolina and the composer V. Shkapov. Great popularity was enjoyed among Kiev residents by a show for grown-ups, Jan Drda's and Isidor Shtok's The Devil's Mill, staged by Sumarokov.
The Theatre's great success in its creative work was confirmed in 1946 by the fact that the Theatre received the first prize at the All-Ukrainian Review of Puppet Theatres; at the review, the Theatre performed the Brothers Grimm's The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids staged by Zhovinsky.
The contemporary Puppet Theatre is a worthy heir of its famous predecessors.
At the initiative of the Puppet Theatre, an international festival for puppet theatres has been held in Kiev since 1991. Among the participants there have been leading puppet theatres from Belgium, Austria, Canada, Slovakia, Finland, Japan, China, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Russia, Bulgaria, Moldova, Buryatiya (an autonomous republic within Russia), Turkey and other countries.
Experts from various countries have recognised the festival as one of Europe's most prestigious festivals.
The Theatre is a collective member of the UNIMA (UNion Internationale de la Marionnette or the International Union of the Puppet), an international association for people of puppet theatre.
On 30 October 2002, Ukraine's Ministry of Culture and Arts awarded the Puppet Theatre with the status of an academic theatre, for its significant contribution to the development of theatre art.
On 19 December 2005, a new building of the Theatre, in Kreshchaty Park, at 1A Mikhaila Grushevskogo Street, near European square, was opened; the building looks like a fairy-tale castle. Timed to coincide with St Nicolas Day
This puppet theatre is easy to recognise. After a dull, drab stagnation, the Theatre, like Cinderella with the wave of the magic wand, turned into a real palace.