Hutsul Theater

Hutsul Theater (Гуцульський театр; Hutsulskyi teatr). Amateur theater group of Hutsul peasants, organized in 1910 by Hnat Khotkevych at the Sich society Home in Krasnopilia, Kosiv county. In 1911–12 the group, which had 40 members (including Les Kurbas) and an orchestra of Hutsul musicians playing folk musical instruments, toured the villages and towns of Galicia and Bukovyna. It also performed in Lviv, Cracow, and Chernivtsi. Its repertoire included ethnographic plays written by Khotkevych: Hutsul's'kyi rik (The Hutsul Year) and Neproste (Non-Simple); Dovbush, a dramatization of the legend about the folk hero Dovbush; Praktykovanyi zhovnir (The Experienced Soldier); and Antin Revizorchuk, a reworking of Józef Korzeniowski’s Karpaccy górale (Carpathian Highlanders). In 1913–14 Khotkevych tried to organize a tour of Russian-ruled Ukraine for the group but military events stopped it and the ensemble dissolved. For most of its existence the Hutsul Theater was directed by O. Remez.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Charnets'kyi, S. Narys istoriï ukraïns'koho teatru v Halychyni (Lviv 1934)
Shekeryk-Donykiv, Petro. ‘Pershyi hutsul's'kyi teatr opered' svitovoi voinov,’ in Kalendar hutsul's'kyi na rik 1937 (Warsaw 1936)

Valerian Revutsky

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]