Yosyp Hirniak. 1981. The Ukrainian Museum in New York
Yosyp Hirniak. 1982. The Ukrainian Museum in New York
Olympiia Dobrovolska and Yosyp Hirniak. 1969. The Ukrainian Museum in New York
In the creative arsenal of Yosyp Hirniak, the actor’s weapon was the most effective tool for defending his patriotic positions.
Tetiana Boiko, art historian
Yosyp Hirniak was a Ukrainian-American theater actor and director, follower of famous Ukrainian modern theatrical director Les Kurbas. He, together with his wife, Olimpiia Dobrovolska, founded the Ukrainian Theater in America and the Theater of the Word in the United States.
He was born in 1895 in the small town of Strusiv in Podillia. He started being interested in art, especially theater, while still in high school: he participated in amateur performances and literary evenings, reciting works by Ukrainian writers. He began his professional acting career in 1914 at the Ruska Besida (Ruthenian Conversation) Theater. He continued on the professional stage in 1915 at the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen Theater, where he enrolled as a volunteer. In 1919, he collaborated with the Molodyy Theater (Young Theater) in Kyiv. In 1922, he became a member of the Berezil Artistic Association and began working with the Les Kurbas Theater. In 1934, Hirniak was arrested and convicted. The actor shared the fate of many of Les Kurbas’s associates and students and served his sentence in the Ukhtopechlag camp.
During the Second World War, he returned to Galicia, where he continued his stage work in Lviv, in the Lviv Opera House. In 1944, Hirniak and his wife, Olimpiia Dobrovolska, left for Austria and, after some time, settled in Germany. In 1949, the actors emigrated to the United States.
The first production in the USA was the play “Mother and I” by M. Khvylovy. The Ukrainian Theater in America, founded by the couple, revived some of Berezil’s productions, including “Myna Mazaylo” by M. Kulish, in which Yosyp Hirniak brilliantly played the main tragicomic role.
He worked as a stage director and announcer for Radio Liberty in America and left behind a lot of articles and his memoirs about the activities of the Ukrainian theater at home and abroad.
The artist died in 1989 in New York City and was buried at St. Mary’s Ukrainian Catholic Cemetery in Fox Chase, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
