Pidvysotsky, Kost

Pidvysotsky, Kost [Підвисоцький, Кость; Pidvysoc'kyj, Kost'], b 28 June 1851 in Korzhova, Pidhaitsi county, Galicia, d 12 June 1904 in Medukha, Stanyslaviv county, Galicia. Actor, stage director, and dramatist. He acted in Omelian Bachynsky’s troupe (1875–81 and 1882–5) and acted and directed in the Ruska Besida Theater (1881–2, 1886–9, 1893–7, and 1900–2), in Marko Kropyvnytsky’s and Mykhailo Starytsky’s troupes (1889–92), and in Mytrofan Yaroshenko’s and Oleksii Sukhodolsky’s troupes (1898–1902). As a director Pidvysotsky first staged Ivan Franko’s Ukradene shchastia (Stolen Happiness), in which he acted the part of Mykola, and staged Kropyvnytsky’s Nevol'nyk (The Captive), Ivan Karpenko-Kary’s Burlaka (The Vagabond), and Mykola Arkas’s opera Kateryna. He wrote the comedy Pidshyvanets' (The Impostor, 1888) and adaptations of Józef Korzeniowski’s Pomsta hutsula (A Hutsul’s Revenge, 1893) and Hal'ka (1899, based on Włodzimierz Wolski; music by Stanisław Moniuszko).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]