- May 26, 2026
- 3:06 pm
- Israel
On June 29, 2026, a theatrical and musical program by Evgeny Chepurnyak “I Stayed… Zhenya” will take place in Jerusalem. The event is announced as part of the International Jerusalem Festival ADAMfest, and Chepurnyak himself is presented as a People’s Artist of Ukraine, the chief director and frontman of the KVN DGU theater from Dnipro.
For the Israeli audience, this is not just another evening on the poster.
It is a meeting with an artist who represents an entire cultural era: the legendary KVN DGU, the Dnipro stage, Ukrainian theater, television, songs, cinema, the cabaret “Vesely Pesets” and that special intonation where humor never cancels tenderness.
Who is Evgeny Chepurnyak — not only “Zhenya” but also a People’s Artist of Ukraine
Evgeny Samoilovich Chepurnyak was born on May 4, 1959, in Dnipropetrovsk — now Dnipro. His biography includes several layers: student theater, professional acting education, philharmonic, stage, KVN, cinema, and his own recognizable style that cannot be reduced to a single genre.
From 1976 to 1981, he studied at the Dnipropetrovsk Chemical-Technological Institute and was already involved in the student theater. Then, from 1983 to 1988, he received theatrical education at the Yaroslavl Theater School at the F. G. Volkov Theater.
Before KVN DGU, there were the Dnipropetrovsk Philharmonic and the Moscow Theater “Stuntman”. And from 1988, the chapter began by which millions of viewers recognized him: Evgeny Chepurnyak became an actor and director of the Dnipro City Theater “KVN DGU”.
It was there that the very “Zhenya” appeared — funny, touching, charming, gentle, yet absolutely stage-accurate.
Chepurnyak is an Honored Artist of Ukraine and a People’s Artist of Ukraine. These titles are important not as a formality, but as recognition of his contribution to the Ukrainian stage. In 2009, he was awarded the title of “Honored Artistof Ukraine“, and in 2019, the title of “People’s Artist of Ukraine” according to the decrees of the President of Ukraine.
KVN DGU as a memory that still resonates
For many viewers, the name Evgeny Chepurnyak instantly brings back memories of that very KVN DGU team, which was adored by almost the entire former union. It was not just a set of successful numbers, jokes, and reprises. It was a separate theatrical school where humor was based on musicality, pause, acting ensemble, and human warmth.
The team could make the audience roll with laughter, and a minute later — freeze with tenderness.
This was the strength of the Dnipro KVN. It was not just a competition of funny people. In its best moments, it turned into a small performance where the audience laughed not at the person, but with them. Where irony did not kill empathy. Where even the strictest professionals on the jury sometimes lost distance and reacted not as judges, but as spectators caught in live theatrical magic.
Evgeny Chepurnyak became one of the recognizable figures of this memory.
But it is wrong to leave him only within nostalgia. His creative biography is much broader: films, television programs, performances, concerts of various formats, the cabaret “Vesely Pesets”, songs on YouTube that gather thousands of views and likes.
From stage to cinema
Chepurnyak’s filmography includes “Show of Lonely Teachers”, “Odessa. A Story in Stories”, “Oldster: Mission of Justice”, “Pan Pinta’s Tavern”, “Dear Children”. In 2018, he appeared in Sergey Loznitsa’s film “Donbass”, where he played the chief doctor.
This is an important detail: Chepurnyak did not remain an artist of one image. He transitioned from the comedic genre to theatrical, from television format to cinema, from variety to chamber stage.
And everywhere he maintained the main thing: the intonation of a person who knows how to be funny without coarseness and lyrical without falseness.
Why this evening is especially important in Israel
Since 2022, Evgeny Chepurnyak has been living in Israel.
Therefore, his program in Jerusalem is not just a tour of a Ukrainian artist. It is a performance by a person whose creative biography, after the start of the great war, has also become connected with the Israeli space.
For the Russian-speaking, Ukrainian, and repatriate audience of Israel, this is especially close.
Many viewers here themselves live between several cultural biographies. Some have Kyiv, Dnipro, Odessa, Kharkiv, or Zaporizhzhia behind them. Others have Soviet television memory, Israeli everyday life, and new Ukrainian pain after 2022. Others simply have a love for the stage, where the artist comes out not to “perform a number”, but to talk to the audience.
That is why such evenings become more than a poster.
For NAnovosti — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency such events are important as part of a big story about how Ukrainian culture, repatriate memory, and the Israeli stage after 2022 increasingly meet in one space. Not at the level of slogans, but through specific faces, voices, songs, memories, and live contact with the audience.
“I Stayed… Zhenya” — a program about a person, time, and stage memory
On the event page, the program “I Stayed… Zhenya” is marked as theatrical and musical. Its duration is 1 hour 20 minutes. The description states that this is the program of Evgeny Chepurnyak — People’s Artist of Ukraine, chief director, and frontman of the KVN DGU theater of the city of Dnipro. The festival president is Mark Galesnik.
This format itself explains a lot.
It is not a standard concert or an ordinary evening of memories. Rather, it is a stage self-portrait where the artist’s personal intonation is combined with music, humor, memory of time, and the very image of “Zhenya” that viewers remember not as a mask, but as a living person.
Evgeny. Zhenya. Zhenya.
A talented, gentle, funny, touching, infinitely charming artist who knows how to take the stage as if talking not to the hall in general, but to each person individually.
Where and when the evening will take place
The program will take place in Jerusalem on Monday, June 29, 2026, at 19:30.
The venue is the Jerusalem Cultural Center, Hall “Harmony”. The ticket sales page indicates a price of 66 shekels and a duration of 1 hour 20 minutes.
Jerusalem here does not appear as a random point on the map.
It is a city where personal memory almost always becomes part of the common history. For some viewers, this evening will be a return to the legendary KVN DGU. For others, an acquaintance with a Ukrainian artist they may have previously known only from individual roles, songs, or stage fragments.
And for many, just a rare opportunity to see on the Israeli stage a person who knows how to combine laughter and tenderness without loud declarations.
Tickets:
https://nikk.kassa.co.il/announce/86199
