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January 8, 1888

A durable actor and director Hnat Yura was born on January 8, 1888, in Fedvar (now Pidlisne) a village about 50 miles southwest of Kremenchuk. He first appeared on stage as a professional in 1907 then worked with the Ruska Besida Theater in 1913-1914 under Stepan Chalnetsky. In 1917-1919, he led the traditionalist faction within the Molodyi Teatr.

In 1920 he helped found the Franko New Drama Theater in Vinnytsia a company that eventually moved to the Ukrainian capital, where it became known as the Kyiv Ukrainian Drama Theater. He served as its artistic director until 1961, drawing on much of the Molodyi Teatr's repertoire.

Perhaps as befits one of the few actors/directors of talent to have survived Stalin Yura was best known in the role of simpletorls, such as the wily "Good Soldier Schwcik" adapted for the stage from Czech Jaroslav Hasek's writings. His other notable roles included Kopystka in Mykola Kulish's 97." Luka in Maxim Gorky's "Na Dni'' (The Lower Depths) and Tereshko in Ivan Karpenko-Kary's "Suieta" (Vanity).

Yura also appeared in feature films, such as "Prometheus" (1936) "Zaporozhets za Dunayem'' (Kozak Beyond the Danuba, 1937), "Karmeliuk" (1938) and

"Shevchenko'' (1950). In 1945-1965, he also taught at the Kyiv Theater Institute publishing an autobiography ''Zhyttia i Stsena" (Life and the Stage) in his last year there.

Hnat Yur died in Kyiv on January 18 1966.

Source: "Yura Hnat," Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Vol. 5 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993).

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 7, 1996, No. 1, Vol. LXIV

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