The article traces the influence of Mykola Voronoi's own acting and directing experience on his theatrical and literary practice, analyzes the conceptuality of the Ukrainian writer's views on the nature of drama, its evolution and national-historical conditionality, specifies the basic principles of Mykola Voronoi-theater critic his theatrical criticism. Mykola Voronyi used the clearly realistic criteria in interpreting and evaluating the works of Ukrainian and foreign playwrights. They are based on the stage and drama experience of the then Ukrainian theater, but, like in his predecessor Ivan Franko, those criteria are tested by the experience of world drama, whose lessons, together with the best achievements of national art, form the aesthetic and theoretical basis of critics' judgments and views. Enriching the repertoire of the Ukrainian theater by processing other people's works, the critic believes, is possible and sometimes necessary. A careful reading of his critical speeches convinces that M. Voronyi also defended other princely things. He understood that behind the hidden plagiarism automatically stretches a train of distortion of characters, the transfer to the Ukrainian stage of alien types, conflicts, situations. Therefore, updating and enriching the repertoire was not the last aim for M. Vorony, as well as for his older contemporary I. Franko. The demand for the truth of life meant for him the demand for the truth of the image of Ukrainian life. The monographic sketch made by M. Voron can be considered a model for the evolution of the original repertoire of Ukrainian drama during the XIX century - from "Natalka Poltavka" to the works of "the father of realism in Ukrainian drama". It is noteworthy that the last definition, as well as the definition of "innovator" is connected in M. Voronoi's essay with the characteristic "deep connoisseur of the Ukrainian village" and the corresponding link of the repertoire in M. Kropyvnytsky's dramatic work. It was the evolution of the "rural" part of the repertoire that led to the establishment of realism in Ukrainian drama. The leading demand of Mykola Voronoi-critic concerns the characters (types) supplied by "real life itself"; the corresponding cognitive instruction of the critic is connected with this requirement, he is comforted when at least one or two figures, observed in reality and more or less truthfully reproduced by the playwright, flash in the work of even the less original author. Voronyi says something special about his works from ancient times. He tactfully removes them from the scope of the category of "realism", which is quite justified theoretically and aesthetically. The notions of "truthfulness and artistry" applied by the critic to this part of the repertoire have an objectively different content: it is essentially marked by romantic poetics, which is what the critic reckons with., У статті простежено вплив власного акторського та режисерського досвіду Миколи Вороного на його театральну та літературознавчу практику, конкретизовано концептуальність поглядів українського письменника на природу драми, її еволюцію та національно-історичну зумовленість, конкретизовано основні принципи Миколи Вороного-театрознавця, літературознавця, з’ясовано новаторські аспекти його театральної критики.