Rostyslav Kolomiiets

Corresponding Member of the NAA of Ukraine

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Rostyslav Kolomiiets

    born in 1942

Theatre Activist, Director, Theatre Historian, Playwright

    Corresponding Member of the NAA of Ukraine (1997)

    Honoured Artist of Ukraine (2001)

    PhD Candidate of Art History (1997)

    Professor (2005)

    Laureate of the award of the Union of Theatre Workers of Ukraine in the field of theatre criticism (1982)

    Laureate of the I.P. Kotlyarevskyi Literary and Art Prize (1998)

    Laureate of the Kyiv Pectoral Award (1995)

Rostyslav Kolomiiets has directed over 30 productions in theatres across Ukraine and abroad, including Jokes Aside by O. Pidsukha, May Night by M. Starytskyi and M. Lysenko, The Bagpiper of Strakonice by J. Tyl, Casa Mare by I. Druță, Life is Beautiful! (based on the short stories of A. Chekhov), Vanity by I. Karpenko-Karyi, and many others.

Kolomiiets is also the author of over 300 works on theatre history, including monographs such as The Theater of Saksahanskyi and Karpenko-Karyi, The Frankivtsi, Portrait of a Director in the Interior of Time, The Moment of Truth, Walks with the Commander, and Passions for Bohdan (published in Ukrainian and English). His research also includes Traditions, Canons, and Innovations in Ukrainian Theatre (Early 19th – Early 20th Century) and Holidays and Weekdays. Joys and Sorrows, which offer insights into the history of contemporary dramatic theatre in Ukraine and beyond.

As a translator, Kolomiiets has brought world-class works into Ukrainian, including Peer Gynt by H. Ibsen, The Brothers Karamazov by F. Dostoevsky, Dead Souls by M. Gogol, Hamlet by W. Shakespeare, No. 13 by R. Coony, and My Life in Art by K. Stanislavsky.

His own plays, Family Joys from Morning Till Dawn and Life is Beautiful!, have been staged both in Ukraine and internationally. As an educator, Kolomiiets has mentored a generation of directors who now lead theatres in Kyiv, Lviv, and Sieverodonetsk, as well as those successfully working in Greece, Jamaica, Algeria, Bulgaria, Mongolia, and Yemen.

For his contributions, he was awarded the Veteran of Labour Medal (1987) and the Gold Medal of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine (2005).