Starytska, Mariia [Старицька, Марія; Staryc’ka, Marija] (stage name: Yavorska), b 31 May 1865 in Kyiv, d 20 December 1930 in Kyiv. (Photo: Mariia Starytska.) Actress, director, and theater pedagogue; daughter of Mykhailo Starytsky. She began her theatrical career in her father's troupe (1885), completed her theatrical education in the Saint Petersburg Theater College (1894, A. Fedotov's class), and played on the Russian stage in Saint Petersburg, Moscow, and Kyiv. From 1898 she worked as a director and pedagogue in Ukrainian drama circles at regional People's Homes and in the Kyiv Literary-Artistic Society. She headed the drama faculty in the Lysenko Music and Drama School in Kyiv (1904–18), participated in the organization of the Ukrainian National Theater (1917), and taught in the Lysenko Music and Drama Institute (1918–27). As director she premiered Lesia Ukrainka's play Iohanna—zhinka Khusova (Joanna, the Wife of Chuza).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]