Olympiia Dobrovolska. 1948. UVAN archive
The genius of Y. Hirniak often left in the shadows the figure of his “alter ego” — Olympiia Dobrovolska […] They were a unique couple, always close, in sincere unity.
Valeriy Haydabura, theater critic
Olimpiia Dobrovolska was a Ukrainian-American actress, director, educator, follower of famous Ukrainian modern theatrical director Les Kurbas. She, together with her husband, Yosyp Hirniak, founded The Ukrainian Theater in America and The Theater of the Word in the United States.
Olimpiia was born in 1895 in Odesa. She graduated from Kyiv’s Mykola Lysenko Music and Drama School (1912-1915). She began her career at the Molody theater in Kyiv and Berezil Theater under the direction of Les Kurbas. In 1919, she moved to Kamianets-Podilskyi with the theater company. During the 1920s, she worked at the Ivan Franko Theater in Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, and Kherson, and in the early 1930s at the Taras Shevchenko Theater in Kharkiv. In 1937, she was arrested and sent into exile to Siberia, where she performed in the camp theater. From 1941 to 1942, she performed at the Kyiv Young Spectator’s Theater and the Lviv Opera House.
During World War II, the actress and her husband, the famous theater artist Yosyp Hirniak, left for Austria. There, in 1946, the family founded the Theater Studio in Landeck. The following year, the family moved to Bavaria (Germany) with their Theater Studio. In 1949, the family of actors emigrated to the United States. In America, the couple founded the Ukrainian Theater in America and the Theater of the Word and continued to work hard in the theater field, popularizing Ukrainian culture. Olimpiia taught acting and later created her school of creative reading. As a director, she directed productions, including Lesya Ukrainka’s “The Forest Song” and Henrik Ibsen’s “The Phantom.” The actress died in 1990 in New York. Her main dream in exile was to revive the Ukrainian theater in the way Les Kurbas developed it.
