Creative Principles of Vasyl Vasyliev – Opereta Artist and Teacher

The purpose is to study the artistic and pedagogical talent of Vasyl Vasyliev (Vasyl Vasyliev-Humanyk) (1898-1987), an artist of the Kyiv State Theatre of Musical Comedy, Honoured Artist of Ukraine. The methodology of the study is based on the following scientific approaches: general historical (outlining the historical and socio-cultural context of the formation and development of the artist's creative personality); analytical (studying historiographical sources); the method of analogy (to establish the relationship of creative approaches similarity) and survey (collecting information in the form of a telephone interview); systematic (studying V. Vasyliev's creative activity in the unity of performing and pedagogical creativity); historical and biographical (determining the main stages of V. Vasyliev's activity for the sequence of events). Scientific novelty. The study is the first attempt to collect, systematise, and analyse the information found about V. Vasyliev's creative and pedagogical activities and to assess the master's contribution to the development of Ukrainian theatre art in the mid-twentieth century. For the first time, archival photographic materials were introduced into scientific circulation, which complemented the understanding of the artist's creative path. Conclusions. The multifaceted talent of V. Vasyliev made a significant contribution to the development of musical theatre in the twentieth century. The collected and analysed materials testify to the unique talent of the comic performer V. Vasyliev, which was clearly manifested in the embodiment of leading roles on the stage of the Kyiv State Theatre of Musical Comedy. V. Vasyliev was an unsurpassed master of creating realistic images on stage; the methodology of working on a role involved psychological analysis of the role, studying the motivation of the character's psychological state with the determination of individual psychological motivations for behaviour on stage. The peculiarities of the performing style include a realistic approach to creating stage images, a preference for the "school of pretence", a unique organic combination of dramatic vocal and choreographic performing talent on stage, wide use of external expressive means, the ability to improvise with a partner, and the accurate use of comic and sketch techniques. During ten years of cooperation with the training theatre studio at the Kyiv Operetta Theatre, V. Vasyliev proved to be an extraordinary teacher. In his work with the students, he successfully combined the methods of actor's work on the role, characteristic of both the "school of experience" and Stanislavsky's system, and the representatives of the "school of pretence".