Donetsk National Academic Ukrainian Musical and Drama Theatre

The Donetsk National Academic Ukrainian Musical and Drama Theatre began in 1927 in Kharkiv, then the capital of Ukraine, with the creation of the Ukrainian Labour Theatre. Its purpose was to carry out cultural and educational missions in Eastern Ukraine. The troupe was formed from the actors of the Kharkiv State Folk Theatre and the Berezil Theatre. The first director was А. Zagarov, who had studied with Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. A year later, V. Vasilko, a student of Les Kurbas who later became an Honoured People's Artist of Ukraine, was appointed the art director.

In 1933, at the invitation of the People's Commissariat of Education of Ukraine, the creative team was transferred to Donetsk (then Stalino), where the first season opened on November 7, 1933, with the premiere of I. Mikitenko's play The Bastille of the Virgin (Ukrainian: Бастилія божої матері).

During its first 10 years the theatre visited the main cities of the Donets Basin (Voroshilovgrad, Mariupol, Gorlovka, Donetsk, Makiivka and Slavyansk) and also travelled outside the region, to Baku, Minsk, Vitebsk, Gomel, Mogilev, Leningrad, Rostov-on-Don and Kyiv.

After the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, the theatre was not completely evacuated. Most of the members went to the front. A small group of actors joined the Artyomovsk Theatre and were evacuated to Kyzylorda, Kazakh SSR. Another, somewhat bigger group joined the Stalin Drama Theatre in Horlivka on their way to Central Asia and worked in Jalal-Abad, Kyrgyz SSR. After the liberation of the Donets Basin in January and March 1944, both troupes returned to Stalino.

On September 28, 2001, the Theatre was granted Honorary Academic status, and on November 26, 2009, a Presidential Decree granted it National status.

In 2017, by the decree of the Head of the Donetsk People's Republic, the theater was named after the theatre reformer and former head Mark Matveevich Brovun.