Pay Disparity at Kyiv's Lesya Ukrainka Theater: Guest Stars Earn Multiples of Company Salaries

Actor Raises Alarm Over Pay Gap

According to Главком: Actor Pavlo Tekuchev has voiced serious concern about the significant pay disparity between the permanent company members of the Lesya Ukrainka Theater and guest stars. He states that fees for visiting actors can be three to five times higher than the salaries of the theater's own troupe. This claim is supported by data from tenders published on the Prozorro public procurement platform, which lists specific performance fees.

Specific Performance Fees Revealed

For the play 'Zemlya' (Earth), director Ivan Uryvskyi received 403.2 thousand UAH, set designer Petro Bohomazov received 165.75 thousand UAH, and costume designer Tetiana Ovsiichuk received 110.5 thousand UAH. Actors Mariia Rudynska and Oleksandr Rudynskyi were each paid 90 thousand UAH for the same production. In 'Poromnyk' (The Ferryman), the lead role was performed by Stanislav Boklan, who received a fee of 700 thousand UAH (approximately 17 thousand USD). Seven other guest actors, mostly children, were paid 20 thousand UAH each for this play. For 'Othello', director David Petrosian received 310.6 thousand UAH, actor Oleksandr Yatsentiuk received 300 thousand UAH, and actress Olha Goldys received 600 thousand UAH.

Tekuchev noted that information on guest actor fees is transparent as it appears in public tenders, with these sums covering an entire project lasting roughly three months. He emphasized that all actors deserve fair and equitable pay to avoid situations where some are undervalued while others are overvalued. This issue highlights the challenging financial realities for many full-time theater professionals in Ukraine.

“It's difficult to feed a family on a theater salary.”

Pavlo Tekuchev

Furthermore, in September 2025, the Lesya Ukrainka Theater and the Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theater signed a Memorandum of Cooperation, which could foster development within Ukraine's theatrical community. Tekuchev hopes for more active collaboration not only between these two institutions but among various theatrical groups across the country.

Pavlo Tekuchev's statement underscores critical questions about compensation in the theater sector, which can impact both the creative process and actors' well-being. Significant pay gaps can lead to dissatisfaction within the permanent company and affect the overall atmosphere in a theater. The inter-theater collaboration discussed by Tekuchev may represent an important step toward improving working conditions and elevating the standard of theatrical art in Ukraine.