Dobrovolska, Olimpiia [Dobrovol’s’ka, Olimpija], b 12 August 1895 in Odesa, d 2 February 1990 in New York. (Photo: Olimpiia Dobrovolska.) Actress skilled in various types of roles, pedagogue, play director; wife of Yosyp Hirniak. Dobrovolska played in the Molodyi Teatr theater in 1917–19, the Franko Theater (now the Kyiv Ukrainian Drama Theater) and its theater-studio in 1920–2, the Berezil theater in Kyiv and Kharkiv in 1922–37, and the Lviv Opera Theater in 1942–4. She emigrated to Austria, then Germany and the United States, where she and her husband directed a theater studio in 1945–61 (see Theater-Studio of Y. Hirniak and O. Dobrovolska). She appeared in various roles and successfully directed Lesia Ukrainka's Lisova pisnia (The Forest Song) and Orgiia (Orgy) and H. Ibsen's Ghosts.


Encyclopedia of Ukraine