Bukeeva, Khadisha

Born Feb. 21, 1917, in Kaztalovka, Ural’sk Oblast. Soviet Kazakh actress. People’s Artist of the USSR (1964).

In 1938, Bukeeva graduated from the Leningrad Theatrical Institute and joined the company of the Chimkent Theater. In 1942 she began to work in the Auezov Theater of Drama (Alma-Ata). Among her roles are Saule (Abishev’s Friendship and Love), Karlyga (Auezov’s Koblandy), the narrator (Abai, based on Auezov’s novel of the same name), Mekhmene Banu (Nazim Hikmet’s Legend About Love), Katherine (Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew), Saule (Akhtanov’s work of the same name), and Tkhan’ (Kupriianov’s Star of Vietnam). Bukeeva’s best stage roles are marked by deep realism and theatrical expressiveness. Since 1965 she has carried on pedagogical activity (since 1968 as assistant professor at the theatrical department of the Kurmangazy Institute of the Arts. She received the State Prize of the USSR (1952). She has been awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Badge of Honor, and medals.