The Odesa Oblast Academic Drama Theater (Ukrainian: Одеський обласний академічний драматичний театр) is the oldest theatre in southern Ukraine.

Many Russian, Ukrainian, German, French, Italian, drama, opera and оperetta companies performed on its stage among which Sarah Bernhardt, Eleonora Duse, Benoît-Constant Coquelin, Jean Mounet-Sully, Maria Savina, Vladimir Davydov, Maria Zankovetskaya, Panas Saksagansky and Mark Kropivnitsky.

In 1927, the Executive Political Committee of the Odessa Governorate (Gubispolkom) appointed opera singer Andrei Alekseyevich Ivanov as director of the theatre.

Important actors started their activity at the Odessa Russian Theatre, among which Mikhail Astangov, Darya Zerkalova and Vladimir Samoilov.

Among the actors which spent most of their acting activity on the theatre’s stage are Nikolai Komissarov, Nikolai Volkov the elder, Liya Bugova, Pavel Mikhaylov, Boris Zaydenberg, Leonid Marennikova, Yevgeny Kotov, Lidiya Polyakova and Igor Shelyugin.