Origins of Art Director. From the Previous Works of Ukrainian Theatrics

Direction as a creative profession and the problem of creating an author's theatrical performance has been over the century in the center of discussion of theatrical scholars, cultural experts and specialists of other branches, touching the stage art. The purpose of the article is to include in the scope of the contemporary theoretical problems the forgotten works of the art history profile which were characteristic of the key moments of Ukrainian history: ideological and political self-determination after 1917 (M. Voronyi, G. Gaevsky) and returning to the public memory of creative the achievements of the outstanding Ukrainian director Les Kurbas (N. Kuzyakin, the last quarter of the twentieth century). Research methods of (primarily historical) are due to significant time intervals, to which we retrospectively return, given the significance of a particular artistic event, its political engagement, etc. Another dominant method is comparative, that is, one that demonstrates the similarity or difference between artistic techniques of theatrical performance in connection with a certain socio-political or ideological requirements. The comparative method makes it possible to analyze the features of the artistic phenomenon for the purpose of their classification and typological structuring. The scientific novelty of the work consists in the fact that the appeal to forgotten aesthetic concepts of the past (G. Gaevsky, M. Voronyi) gave an opportunity to look in a new way on the established representations of the past times and, accordingly, provide them with modern scientific interpretation. The findings of the study primarily relate to the place and role of Les Kurbas in various manifestations of European directorial theory and practice of the twentieth century, which are still not sufficiently appreciated outside the Ukrainian theatrical culture.