Director’s method of "One hundred thousand" staged by Mykola Merzlikin in 1968

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to study separate aspects of Mykola Merzlikin director’s method. The method-ology of the research is based on historical, systematic and informational approaches, analyses and syntheses methods. Scientific Novelty. There are materials in the article that have been collected for the first time and give a general under-standing of creative director’s approach of Mykola Merzlikin, famous Ukrainian stage director and teacher. The article is based on one of his earliest and most essential performances "One hundred thousand" written by Ivan Karpenko-Kary and staged in 1968. There is also analysis of Theatre for Young Audiences of that time. Due to the situation in the theatre and the country in general an information about bright creative experiments of Merzlikin and other stage directors wasn’t fully disclosed. Conclusions. There is a research of Mykola Merzlikin director’s method in the article. It is based on "One hundred thousand" play staged in 1968. The play was one of Merzlikin’s earliest performances and one of the most important events in Ukrainian theatre life in the late 1960s, according to those times and contemporary critics. "One hundred thousand" is a classical play. However, it became an experimental field in plastic and scenography, acting and character interpretation for the yang stage director. Although Merzlikin director’s method was an innovative working approach ahead of its time, the director performed the play again in 1990 opening a new exciting meaning and relevant point of view.