Faina Martynova

City – Artsyz (Ukraine)
Activity – theatre actress and director, singer, poet, composer

Faina Martynova is a Ukrainian actress, theatre director, songwriter and performer. She stages productions and performs at the «Na Chainoi» Theatre, as well as collaborating with other theatre venues in Odesa.

Early Life and Artistic Development

Faina Martynova was born in Artsyz, Odesa region. She recalls her childhood as an active, joyful and free period. Her interest in creativity began to emerge while she was still at school. Her homeroom teacher, Zhanna Veniaminivna, played an important role in this development by creating an atmosphere of trust in the classroom and supporting her students’ creative initiatives. According to Faina, this interaction helped her and her classmates graduate with confidence in their own abilities.

Her family also played an important role in shaping the future artist’s worldview. Faina’s mother has two university degrees – in philology and psychology. She taught her daughter to read at an early age. According to the director, this significantly influenced her vocabulary and her subsequent attitude toward words as an important tool of artistic expression.

The church also played a major role in Martynova’s life. Her father, Hennadii Martynov, is a church rector, and her family upbringing was based on mutual understanding, trust and spiritual values. From an early age, Faina often reflected on life and questions of meaning that usually interest much older people. She frequently communicated with adults and felt that such conversations were particularly interesting to her. According to Faina, her father taught her not to be afraid of unconventional thinking, not to conform to imposed frameworks and to take responsibility for her own decisions. This sense of inner freedom later became one of the defining features of her artistic style.

Development as a Singer

Faina developed a love of music in childhood. Her grandmother had a significant influence on her, as she was a talented singer who knew numerous folk songs and effectively passed her love of music on to her granddaughter. Faina began singing at the age of four and later moved from performing other people’s material to creating her own compositions.

At the age of 13, Martynova took part in the «Talents of Ukraine» competition, where she presented her original songs. Her performance won the regional competition in the «Composer» category.

At the same time, Faina studied piano at a music school for seven years and took vocal lessons for another two years. This gradually established the foundation for her future career, in which music, words, theatre and original creative work exist as a unified artistic space.

Education and the Beginning of Her Professional Career

Creativity became more than just a hobby for Faina at an early age and eventually guided her professional choice. After school, Martynova entered the Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-Karyi University of Theatre, Cinema and Television, where she studied Drama Directing.

After graduating in 2017, Faina returned to the Odesa region and worked at the «Na Chainoi» Theatre for six years. There she gained practical experience working with actors, dramatic material and audiences while gradually developing her own directorial style.

When some of the productions were removed from the theatre’s repertoire, the director began focusing more actively on her own projects. At the same time, she remained a member of the theatre’s acting troupe, although the main focus of her work gradually shifted toward her individual creative projects.

«The Mystery of Being»

Among Faina Martynova’s directing works, the play «The Mystery of Being» holds an important place. It was staged in 2018 at the Odesa Theatre for Young Audiences named after Yurii Olesha. The production was based on a play by contemporary Ukrainian playwright Tetiana Ivashchenko, which tells the story of the complicated and passionate relationship between Ukrainian poet Ivan Franko and his wife, Olha Khoruzhynska.

Martynova focused not only on the biographical material but primarily on the psychological aspects of the story. The production explores love and sacrifice, the inner rebellion of a genius, and the fate of a woman who finds herself beside a prominent man but often remains in his shadow. Through these personal and moral conflicts, the director explores the nature of feelings, choice and self-sacrifice.

«Thank You for Everything»

One of Faina Martynova’s most important original projects is the one-woman show «Thank You for Everything». Its distinctive feature is that the script is entirely based on the director’s own songs, poetry and prose, while live musical accompaniment is provided by professional musicians. The performance therefore combines several areas of the artist’s work – acting, directing, literature and music.

The premiere took place in 2025 on several Bulgarian stages, including in Sofia. The performances were held at the invitation of the Patriarch of Bulgaria and with the support of patron Plamen Miryanov. At that time, the production was presented in three languages – Ukrainian, Bulgarian and Russian.

Musical Projects

Faina Martynova has been writing her own poetry and music since adolescence, so original songwriting has long been an integral part of her creative work. Her musical projects are closely connected with theatrical forms, and her compositions often become the basis for performances, concert programmes and intimate stage formats.

One of the artist’s main projects is the musical one-woman show «Love» – a large-scale original production that Martynova has presented, among other venues, at the Odesa International Cultural Centre Union. It is an intimate performance built around her own songs and live music. Through the musical material and stage action, it explores themes of love, pain, hope and complex inner experiences.

Another format developed by Faina is musical and poetry house concerts. These intimate gatherings take place in cosy art spaces, where the artist performs her own poems and songs accompanied by live instrumental music. Unlike performances on a large stage, the focus here is on direct contact, with almost no distance between the performer and the audience.

Future Goals

Although her directing degree gives Faina the opportunity to work in theatre, film and television, her priority today remains the development of her own original project. She is interested in a format that allows her to combine directing, acting, music, poetry and stage performance independently.

One of Martynova’s important creative goals is to bring her performance to her native Bessarabia. For the artist, this is not simply another tour, but an opportunity to perform for people with whom she shares common roots and a special emotional connection.

Artistic Style

Faina Martynova’s artistic style can be described as interdisciplinary and deeply psychological. In her work, theatre naturally intertwines with live music, original poetry and personal reflections, while the boundaries between director, actress, performer and author gradually disappear.

In her directing and acting, she focuses on emotional vulnerability, minimalism and sincerity. Martynova does not seek to overload her productions with unnecessary props or elaborate visual design. Instead, she is interested in concentrating the audience’s attention on the inner state of the characters, their fears, doubts, search for faith and personal conflicts.

For the artist, a concise visual approach is often not a limitation but an artistic tool. It leaves more space for the actor, the spoken word, the musical composition and the emotion that emerges directly between the stage and the audience.

Civic Position

Faina Martynova’s civic position is clearly expressed through her pro-Ukrainian cultural activities and consistent promotion of national identity. As a director and actress, she draws on Ukrainian classics, figures from national history and contemporary Ukrainian drama, seeking to present these subjects through a modern theatrical language.

At the same time, Martynova actively supports Odesa’s independent theatre scene. As part of her artistic work, she creates poetry and music projects and one-woman shows that encourage audiences not only to follow the story but also to reflect on their own feelings and life choices. Another important area is her interaction with young representatives of the creative community. Faina helps a new generation of artists find their own voice and develop within the contemporary Ukrainian cultural environment.

During the full-scale war, her position has remained unchanged. Martynova continues to live and work in Ukraine, using art as a means of providing moral support to society and contributing to cultural resistance.