We recently connected with Petro Ninovskyi and have shared our conversation below.

Petro, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

When I was only 6 years old my first teacher brought me to a small amateur poetic theatre called “Orpheus” which was in my hometown, Kolomyia, Ukraine. I feel like that was the beginning of my craft learning. I stayed there for over 10 years, and definitely picked up some of the skills that I still use now: the understanding of value of each single word, its rhythm and musicality. Performing at that theatre had helped me to make a decision to pursue an acting career. And soon I graduated from The Karpenko-Karyi National Theatre, Cinema, and TV University in Kyiv. That was one of the toughest periods in my life, far away from home, in a huge city, with no friends and no family, but with strong desire to ‘do’ and to ‘be’. I dare to say, even though initially it was very hard, that was the most formative time in my life. And I think I learned what craft is from my teachers in Kyiv.
But now I’m about to become a 4th year graduate Acting student at The Juilliard School- one of the best acting programs in the US and, probably, world. And for me, it’s about expending my acting toolbox as wide as possible. It’s about jumping higher and dreaming bigger.
It’s been almost 10 years of training in different acting programs. Even though it sounds overwhelming, I want to believe that I’m in a good place in my life and in my career and I’m extremely grateful to my teachers for all these years of training. I guess, I’m ready to go out in the world with knowledge and skills that i’ve gained, even though there’s no limit to it as we all know.
Probably, one thing that I wish I used more throughout my school experience is bravery. I think that is the key to all big accomplishments. But fear is always there, sometimes it saves our life, sometimes it strips us off our better selves. In order to progress we have to learn how to make mistakes and reconcile with all the things we are afraid of.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I was born and raised in a small town Kolomyia on the Western part of Ukraine. The best place in the world to be born in, as I always say. Somehow, you need and dream more in your life, being raised in small towns, like mine. There’s always some wonder “behind that hill”, there’s always something unknown ahead, and more feelings and impressions to discover.

I was very playful as a kid, and my mom always helped me to convert my energy into different activities. I tried numerous after-school sections such as football, volleyball, basketball, gymnastics, chess, music school, theatre, wrestling. And I think that this indescribable “feeling of game” is what actually saturate my acting every day now.
At the same time, my father is a priest, and if my mom vaccinated me with the feeling of the game and love, my dad showed me what ritual, culture and tradition is. The wisdom of patience-that’s probably how I’d describe my dad. I’ve been able to meet and interact with a huge amount of people through my dad’s job, and that gave me that source of understanding of various, complicated human’s fates and circumstances. Even though my parents didn’t really want me to be an actor at first, they have been unconsciously preparing me for it my whole life.

All that gave me a chance to play various characters, starting from Moliere’s Tartuffe at my theatre school in Ukraine ending with Sidney Brustein and King Lear in New York. It also helped me to feature in over 30 film, TV and commercial projects.
Recently, one of my movies I featured in, SHTTL (dir. by Adi Walter) was presented at Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, in NYC. What is funny, my school dormitory is located right above it. So I just took an elevator to go down to my 1st international movie premiere. I’m not trying to brag about it, I’m just trying to say that everything is actually so much closer than you think it is, it’s within your reach. You just have to reach!

I’m a first Ukrainian acting student in Juilliard history. And it’s a curse and a blessing. A curse-because in the midst of my first year in NYC, Russia had begun a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and they are waging a terrible war against my country. I haven’t seen my family for 3 years as for now, and that is hard…And a blessing because I have a chance to study, peacefully, in this dire time. I have a chance to temper my craft while my brothers and sisters are tempering their weapon. Unfortunately, this war is a big part of every single Ukrainian, no matter where they are. And I feel like my battle is ahead of me. I’ll be fighting with what I know how to do best: acting. Storytelling. To speak in the voices of voiceless. To preserve the stories of the past in order to build bright future.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I think that new work in any art genre is the most important thing we have. For one, we can actually influence it and that is directly correlated with how we will live tomorrow. Secondly, supporting young/old/living artists is crucial, because they are future Mozarts, Caravaggios, and Laurences Olivier.

The thing is, with the pace of modern life we are forgetting and loosing something essential about ourselves. We kind of forget who we are, and what we are. We don’t talk to each other anymore, we put our headphones in to escape to our own worlds, to our own bubbles. I even think wars are happening because people don’t hear one another.
I feel like artists are trying to penetrate those “bubbles” with something that has meaning, something that may affect you, something that can make a difference. But we have to stop for a second, get out of our bubble zone and start listening to each other. Go to your local theatre, gallery, music hall. Maybe you’ll find the answers you’ve been craving for.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I think it’s the ability to share it with other people. Even though it’s very vulnerable to be present in front of the audience, but this common sense, common experience and understanding- sometimes you can feel it in the air and it’s magnificent. We all become one and we laugh and cry together. I feel like there’s more ‘real life’ and truth to it than in real life itself.
It’s a transcending, like in Nolan’s ‘Interstellar’. We open other dimensions, and they live, die, and yet to be discovered.
The truth is that the hardships of this life rarely allow us to empathize, and I think acting is solely built on empathy.
Dare I say, this allows me personally to cleanse my heart. Acting is some sort of confession.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm11963303/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/peter.ninovski

Image Credits

Maya Maximova
Olya Oborina