The director of the Odessa Drama Theater flooded a Kyiv university with complaints about a student
Olena Shramko-Pushkina, director of the Odesa Regional Academic Drama Theater, sent a series of complaints to the I. Karpenko-Karyi Kyiv National University regarding Andriy Grishin, a student in the directing program.
The conflict between the theater director and the young artist arose due to the cancellation of the premiere of the play “Mina Mazailo,” based on a play by Mykola Kulish.
Tensions surrounding this production have been ongoing for three months now, as the theater’s management refused to stage the play following a critical discussion at the artistic council.
According to the students, theater representatives claimed that the play allegedly stirs up ethnic animosity and “does not stand up to criticism.”
During the artistic council meeting—audio recordings of which were leaked to the media—council members made a series of controversial remarks.
In particular, Olena Shramko-Pushkina stated that she was outraged by the lack of attention in Ukraine to the famine in the Russian Volga region, where, in her words, “there were things even worse than in Ukraine.”
She also spoke negatively about tourists from western Ukraine, claiming that they “pollute the coast,” and added: “I speak Ukrainian when I need to.”
In response to media coverage of these events, the theater filed a complaint with the university, accusing Andriy Gryshin of anti-Ukrainian activities and the unauthorized release of the meeting recording.
The student explained that he was forced to make the recording because the theater refused to provide official minutes of the discussion.
“The theater accused me of making my play *Mina Mazailo*… anti-Ukrainian and of recording and releasing the proceedings of the artistic council. Apparently, the purpose of the complaint is for the university to conduct some kind of internal investigation or have a conversation with me,” the young director said.
Despite the pressure, the university administration did not impose any sanctions on him, as it found no grounds for the allegations.
This is reported in an article by “Glavkom.”
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