This article attempts to identify the role of theatrical performances that have a socalled ethnic component (in our context the Gypsy one) in promoting ideas about Gypsy culture in general, customs and traditions in particular. M. Staritsky’s play ”Gypsy Aza”, which became one of the first performances staged by Ukrainian theater companies on the Chisinau stage at the end of the XIX century in Bessarabia, narrated the life of Tabor Gypsies in the Patriarchal environment of Transcarpathian Ukrainians. This play was very popular and was gathering sold-out audiences, as written by the Chisinau theater critics of Bessarabia. It still continues to arouse interest today, due to the fact that it allows us to understand the mechanism of forming ethnic stereotypes in society, and the causes of ethnic and social conflicts. The drama ”Gypsy Aza”, which was played for decades, from the end of the XIX century till the beginning of the XX century in Chisinau, Tiraspol, Balti, laid the tradition of theatrical interpretation of famous stories on the Gypsy theme on the Chisinau theater stage and a new understanding of the cross-cultural dialogue.