Maiia Symashkevych

1900 – 1976

Theater and film artist. She studied at the Kyiv Art Institute in the theater studio of avant-garde artist Vadym Meller. In 1923, together with other students of Meller, she moved to the “Berezil” Art Association to the created by Meller makworkshop. Symashkevych together with her husband Valentyn Shkliaiev designed such well-known productions as: “We were fools” by M. Kropyvnytskyi (1924, directed by F. Lopatynskyi), “Jacquerie” by P. Merimee (1925, dir. by B. Tiahno), “Sava Chalyi” by I. Karpenko-Karyi (1927, dir. by F. Lopatynskyi).
Simultaneously with her work in “Berezil”, Symashkevych worked as an artist at Odessa and Kyiv film studios, designing such films as: “Koliivshchyna”, “Vershnyky”, “Karmeliuk”, “Natalka-Poltavka”. Created costumes and scenery for the first color film of the Kyiv Film Studio “May Night”.
Since 1945, Symashkevych worked as the chief artist of the Ivano-Frankivsk (Stanislavskyi) Regional Music and Drama Theater, directed the art studio, at which organized a shadow theater for children.

Performances