HIRNYAK Svitlana – Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor of the Philological Sciences and Techniques of Teaching in Elementary School Department, Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University, Ivan Franko Str., 24, Drohobych, 82100, UkraineE-mail address: s.girnjak10@gmail.comORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7264-0312 ResearcherID: http://www.researcherid.com/rid/I-3030-2018 LUTSIV Svitlana – Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor of the Philological Sciences and Techniques of Teaching in Elementary School Department, Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University, Ivan Franko Str., 24, Drohobych, 82100, UkraineE-mail address: lutsiw@ukr.netORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3219-7779 ResearcherID: http://www.researcherid.com/rid/I-5194-2018 To cite this article: Hirnyak, S., & Lutsiv, S. (2019). School theater in educational institutions of Ukraine in the XVII – XVIII сenturies. Liudynoznavchi studii. Seriia «Pedahohika» – Human Studies. Series of «Pedagogy», 8/40, 146–157. doi: 10.24919/2413-2039.8/40.164444. Article history Received: December 1, 2018Received in revised form: January 15, 2019 Accepted: February 18, 2019Available online: April 22, 2019Journal homepage: http://lssp.dspu.edu.ua/ p-ISSN 2313-2094e-ISSN 2413-2039 © 2019 The Authors. Human studies. Series of «Pedagogy» published by Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University & Open Journal Systems. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).Abstract. The article reveals the question of the formation of the school theater in educational institutions of Ukraine. It has been determined that the study of the formation and development of the school theater in Ukraine in the XVII–XVIII as a separate pedagogical problem was preceded by a long process of accumulating scientific and journalistic literature on the identified issues. Turning to the previous experience of studying the school theater, the close attention of researchers to the study of its individual aspects has been noted: philosophical and aesthetic foundations, elements of folk art, genre and style, content, artistic value, main characters and their characters, and the like. It is established that the pedagogical component of the study of the school theater in Ukraine of the outlined period is presented rather poorly. First of all, it is studied in the context of the study of the development of Ukrainian schooling of the XVI–XVIII centuries and coverage of the pedagogical heritage of famous Ukrainian enlighteners of that time. On the basis of a historiographical analysis of the works of leading scientists in various branches of the humanities, it has been established that the study of the school theater requires a comprehensive analysis taking into account the systemic and interdisciplinary approaches. The study of the school theater in Ukraine of the specified period will be comprehensive and objective with the help of these methodological approaches.The article determines that the establishment of a school theater in Ukraine took place in a pan-European context of the development of education and schools. The leading role in the development of the school theater in Ukraine was played by the fraternal schools, the Ostroh Educational and Cultural Center, and later the Kiev-Mohyla Academy, which borrowed from their opponents, Jesuits and Protestants, some forms of school organization and teaching methods. Among them, a prominent role was given to school drama and a school theater, which were of a powerful educational and propaganda nature.The study found that the school theaters of fraternal, Protestant and Jesuit educational institutions had many analogies, which is explained by the general nature of these theaters, the similarity of didactic and social functions. Thus, by staging school dramas, representatives of each of the above-mentioned schools tried to contribute not only to the religious education of young people, but also contributed to the moral, patriotic and political education of young people.Acknowledgments. Sincere thanks to the Board of Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University, in the person of Nadiia Skotna, Rector.Funding. The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.