Les Kurbas in theater research studies of Petrо Medvedyk

Abstract

The purpose of the article. The article is connected with the coverage of the biography and creative way of Les Kurbas in the scientific and journalistic writings of Petro Medvedyk. The main attention is paid to the period of the end of the nineteenth – the first and second decades of the twentieth century, which are related to childhood, youth and the development of professional views of the artist. The first directing works by Les Kurbas in cinematography were described. The methodology of the research is to use methods of analysis, comparison, generalization, as well as art criticism, culturological and historical approaches. This made it possible to identify the peculiarities of the scholarly thinking of the researcher in the search for unknown and important facts of life and artistic creativity of Les Kurbas, to collate and compare the information from other scientific works of Petro Medvedyk, in which similar information is disclosed. The scientific novelty of the work consists in the thorough research and elaboration by the ethnographer and theater critic Petro Medvedyk of archival materials, periodicals, namely the main memoirs and interviews with contemporaries of Les Kurbas, who were friends and worked with the artist during the early period. Information is provided that highlights unknown to this page of life and training future actor and director at Vienna and Lviv Universities. Conclusions. It was proved that Petro Medvedyk as a scientist carefully analyzed the milestones of the life of Les Kurbas, using valuable archival, manuscript and printed sources, and also made a great contribution to the study of not only his biography and creativity, but also the development of Ukrainian theater studies and culture in general.