Ignat Terentevich Buinitskii
Buinitskii, Ignat Terent’evich
Born Aug. 10 (22), 1861, in the Polivachi estate, now in Glubokoe Raion, Vitebsk Oblast; died Sept. 9 (22), 1917, near Molodechno. Byelorussian actor and theatrical figure.
In 1907, in an estate near the village of Prozoroki, Buinitskii reorganized an amateur group into a theater named The First Byelorussian Company, or The Theater of Ignat Buinitskii, which operated until 1913. This theater staged performances in hamlets and villages throughout Byelorussia and toured such cities as Vilnius, Minsk, St. Petersburg, and Warsaw. Buinitskii’s activities laid the foundation for Byelorussian professional theatrical arts. Buinitskii staged most of the performances himself. He was one of the founders of the First Association of Byelorussian Drama and Comedy established in Minsk in 1917.