On August 17th is the 115th anniversary from the date a stage player, the people’s artist of Belarus and the USSR, laureate of the State prize of the BSSR, Zdislav Francevich Stoma (1907–1992) had been born.
Zdislav, Slavka as he was called by his family and friends, was born in Minsk. He was gifted for science since his childhood; his acquisitive mind wanted to check up everything. He looked through the surroundings, wanted to guess natural traits in each human traits. He had to start working early at the construction site; he had to help his parents. When he had time, he had used to write verses, and participated in fine art handicrafts.
In 1929 he graduated from the studio of the Polish state-owned movable theater of the BSSR, served in the theater in 1929, 1931–1933 and also in the theaters of Ukraine in 1935–1936. In 1937 Zdislav Stoma became a performer of the Belarussian youth theater named after N.K. Krupskaya. The outstanding directors-masters of the stage E. Mirovich, N. Kovyazin, M. Zorov help to disclose a talent of a young performer. In 1940 he came to the current National academic theater named after Ya. Kupala, where he created a range of brighter characters successfully.
Z.Stoma with his wife Galina Vikentievna
He used to act out about five hundred plays in total. His main characters in the theater were: Bykovsky and Pustarevich (the play “Pavlinka” by Ya. Kupala); Tulyaga (the play “The One who laughs the last” by K. Krapiva); Levona (“The Levoniha on orbit” by A. Makayonak); Buravchik (“Konstantin Zaslonov” by A. Movzona), Karavkina (“The Gates of Immortality” by K. Krapiva); granddad Savos (“Where the sin comes from?” by A. Petrashkevich); Glapyo (“The One Thousand Franc Remuneration” by V. Hugo) and other. He was rewarded the State award of the BSSR in 1966 for the character of an old Glushak from the novel by I. Melezh “People in the swamp”, created by the artist twice: on the theater stage and in the play with the same name.
“The Pavlinka” by Ya. Kupala. Z. Stoma playing Bykovsky
“The Levoniha on orbit” by A. Makayonak. Z. Stoma playing Levon
“The One Thousand Franc Remuneration” by V. Hugo. Z. Stoma playing Glapyo
The artist was good at body movement technique, improvisation, a wide range of intonations, mimics, gestures. He was able to master different styles: he acted out perfectly comedian characters, he could transmit clearly the entire tragedy of the character.
He had begun acting out in movies since 1949. He plaid in the movies such as “Konstantin Zaslonov” (in 1949), “Mikolka the steam train” (in 1956), “The clock stopped at midnight” (in 1958) and many others.
Besides, Zdislav Stoma is the author of a few lyrical works for children.
Information on Zdislav Stoma’s life and activity can be found in the resources of the National library of Belarus: online public access catalogue, online encyclopedia “Belarus in persons and events”.
By Bibliography research department.
