Ivano-Frankivsk Drama Theater
The theater is located in one of the most welcoming cities in the west of Ukraine, Ivano-Frankivsk. Even the city itself was named after the outstanding writer and playwright Ivan Franko, who was nominated for the Nobel Prize several times, so it is not surprising that there is also a theater named after him.
The building was erected in 1980 under a typical project – there are similar facilities in Simferopol and Sumy. This architectural style is constructivism, though in Europe it is more often called brutalism.
However, in the theater, it is usually characterized as “Hutsul Modernism.” This is due to the building interior, which was created by local Hutsul craftsmen – representatives of a unique ethnographic group of Ukrainians living in the Carpathian Mountains. The theater's interior design was so impressive that it even received Ukraine's highest artistic award: the Shevchenko Prize. Inside, there is also an original ceramic panel of Kosiv pottery, a traditional Hutsul craft, which was included in the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage a few years ago.
The theater has a total of six stages, including non-standard ones, for example, the basement stage in the former engine room. Spectator seating is arranged similarly to that of Shakespeare's famous Globe Theatre. This stage was used for the “Hamlet” neo-opera, and Professor Michael Dobson, the well-known British expert in Shakespearean studies and theater, called the performance one of the best he had ever seen.
However, using unusual locations is a common practice of the Ivano-Frankivsk Theater. For example, they have already performed on Mount Popivan, in the Chernobyl zone, in castles and museums, and since the beginning of the war, the troupe has been actively touring bases to perform for Ukrainian soldiers.
2023 is the 85th theatrical season of the Ivano-Frankivsk Drama Theater. Its main website page features a kind of motto: “We never knew it was impossible. So we did it.”
Roman Grygoriv
Roman Grygoriv is a Ukrainian composer known for his innovative and daring
work in music theater and opera. Born in 1984 in Ivano-Frankivsk, he has achieved
recognition for his compositions and artistic management in Ukraine and abroad. His
groundbreaking works have been staged at prestigious venues and festivals worldwide,
including Prototype Festival in New York City, Theater der Welt in Frankfurt am Main,
Teatro Municipal São Paulo, Triennale Milano Teatro, Der Musikverein Wien, Sibelius
Academy in Helsinki, Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Festival Musiktheatertage Wien,
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York City, and Rotterdam O. Festival,
among others.
Mr. Grygoriv began his education in double-bass performance at the Department of
Musical Performance Art at Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University in
Ivano-Frankivsk in 2004. He completed his master's in music composition at the
National Music Academy of Ukraine in Kyiv in 2012. He continued his composition
studies with a postgraduate degree under the supervision of Hanna Havrylets at the
same institution. Currently, he is pursuing a postgraduate degree in media composition
under Jorge Sanchez-Chiong at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.
Together with composer and librettist Illia Razumeiko, Mr. Grygoriv has composed ten
operas to date: GAIA-24, Opera del Mondo (2024); GENESIS. Opera of memory in 13
mise-en-scene (2022), OPERA LINGUA. Music theatre in seven books (2021),
CHORNOBYLDORF. Archaeological Opera in seven novels (2020), GAZ.
Opera-dystopia (2019), AEROPHONIA. Futuristic opera for AN-2 airplane and
Ensemble (2018), HAMLET. Dramma per musica (2018), WOZZECK. Trap-opera
(2017), ARK. Opera-ballet (2017), BABYLON. Opera-circus (2016), neprOsti. All-night
opera (2016), IYOV. Opera-requiem (2015).
His work in opera and music theater has brought him critical acclaim and numerous
awards. In 2021, his opera CHORNOBYLDORF was recognized as one of the Top 6
music-theatrical performances worldwide by Music Theater NOW and was named Best
Experimental Performance by the Ukrainian Theatre Award "GRA." Mr. Grygoriv's
opera-requiem IYOV was awarded the prestigious Shevchenko National Prize in 2020
and named among the Top 10 music-theatrical performances worldwide by Music
Theater NOW in 2018.
Mr. Grygoriv has also composed music for various films, including the mystical sci-fi
drama "Chrysanthemum Day," the historical drama "The Raid," the documentary "The
Winter Garden's Tale," the documentary series “Collapse," the tragicomedy “Umbrella
Sky,” and the military drama "Mother of Apostles," which received the award for Best
Soundtrack at the Terni and Social World Film Festivals.
Mr. Grygoriv has extensive experience as a music festival organizer, including as
co-founder of PORTO FRANKO International Festival of Modern Art (Ivano-Frankivsk,
Ukraine) with composer Illia Razumeiko. In 2021, they co-founded Opera Aperta.
Laboratory of Contemporary Opera in Kyiv, Ukraine.
From 2011 to 2022, Mr. Grygoriv was music director of the National Presidential
Orchestra of Ukraine. He has been a member of the National Composers’ Union of
Ukraine since 2011.