Ukrainian theater as an instrument of cultural diplomacy and its role in modern integration processes

The purpose of the article is to determine the significance of theater art in the cultural diplomacy of Ukraine. The object is the cultural diplomacy. The subject is the role of theater in cultural diplomacy. The relevance of this article lies in the need to understand the historical role of the theater in the formation of the identity of various nations It has become quite natural that countries actively use their own dramatic art in presenting themselves to the world community. The methodology of the theoretical analysis in this article is based on both the whole complex of ideas related to the object of research and a specific scientific toolkit formed by the morphological and methodological discourse. It is noted that the theater operates within cultural diplomacy in four main ways, each of which implies different expectations of interaction with the target audience. At the first and simplest level, a theatrical performance can simply be a pleasant and interesting gift to the audience; at the second level — a way of forming perception and informing; at the third level, the theatrical performance becomes a mechanism for creating interaction between the source and target groups; and at the fourth level — it can be part of the strategy for the development of art and the creative public sphere in a given country. The results. 1. The concept of people-to-people contact is extremely important in cultural diplomacy because it facilitates access to intercultural dialogue, thus allowing people to learn more about each other, other cultures and different ways of life. The advantage in this case is that existing prejudices are overcome in a casual and informal way. In addition, cultural diplomacy and its various projects contribute to openness and tolerance for the development of civil society. 2. Ukrainian cultural diplomacy has some experience of involving theatrical art in the presentation of Ukrainian culture abroad, but in general it can be characterized as sporadic, non-systematic, and ideological. 3. Ukrainian theater faced the task of not only actualizing old and finding new artistic images and symbols, in order to form the proper image of the country, but also to form a certain basis for the effective implementation of the tasks of cultural diplomacy of Ukraine, which is appropriate in relation to the challenges of the time. 4. Over the past decades, the theater festival has become an inseparable component of the artistic life of Ukraine, as well as the cultural diplomacy of our country. Theatrical festivals gained tangible audience sympathy and turned out to be not only an important event in the artistic life of our country, but also realized the understanding of the “brand”, becoming a symbol of quality for connoisseurs. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that the theater can be a diplomatic mechanism for initiating two-way conversation and exchange. The means of implementing this task can vary from promoting the staging of works by foreign theater groups in one’s own country to attracting foreign producers and directors for joint development, to selecting plays with the aim of creating new discussions. The practical significance of the article lies in the fact that the scientific analysis allowed us to identify the cultural diplomacy as a type of diplomacy that uses the country’s cultural heritage as a means to achieve its goals: art, in particular theater, cinema, music, literature, and education.