Les Kurbas Theatre – Educating and Entertaining the Public of Lviv
The Les Kurbas Theatre of Lviv was first established in 1988, as the local actors in the town discovered a growing desire to remove themselves from the old customs and traditions associated with theatre at that time. These efforts to produce more modernized pieces were supported by Volodymyr Kuchynsky and a following of young actors who were first and foremost in helping to realize this dream.
Seventy years back a similar event occurred when Les Kurbas, a famous theatre director, and his friends found themselves in the exact position that Volodymyr Kuchynsky and his troupe of local actors found themselves in. They were young men with a lot of potential, having just completed all the courses needed to make them successful in the acting world, but there was only one problem. They had plenty of energy and new ideas to exhaust but they were frustrated by performance pieces and techniques that had been used for years and had not changed for a long time.
That is all in the past ever since the Les Kurbas Theatre came into existence. Today the Kurbas Theatre has become a highly recognized and acclaimed theatre in both Ukraine and around the rest of the world. There are many theatre productions that have come out of the Les Kurbas Theatre and have been a hit success. In fact productions like ‘Games for Faust’ and ‘Apocrypha’ have been some of the many shows that have received invitations to theatre festivals that take place internationally and actors and casts have walked away with awards and prizes for their performances.
Twice a year the Les Kurbas Theatre of Lviv educates the local residents about the theatre industry with an entertaining festival called, “Theatre: Method and Practice”. They are also heavily involved with other workshops and projects in many different countries in both Europe and America. The Gardzience Center of Theatre Studies in Poland, the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski in Italy and the Saratoga International Theatre Institute in New York are some of theatres and studios that they join regularly to collaborate in different projects that are regularly arranged.
