Faculty
Andrei Droznin (Movement)
Andrei Droznin started
his career in theatre in the 1960s. One of the most famous movement
coaches in Russia, he was among the founding members of the Tabakov
Studio in Moscow and the Stanislavsky Summer School in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. His unique system of training combines Meyerhold's
biomechanics, Stanislavsky's Method, and the achievements of other
great Russian directors such as Vakhtangov and Tairov. His widely
recognized technique has become an essential part of theatre training
programs throughout the world. In addition to serving as Professor of
Stage Movement at the MXAT School and the Vakhtangov School in Moscow,
Mr. Droznin has directed movement in more than 140 theatre productions
and movies in the former Soviet Union and abroad. His international
appearances include teaching, directing, and conducting seminars in
Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Malta,
Spain, Italy, Ireland, Norway, Switzerland, the United States, Vietnam,
and Yugoslavia. Mr. Droznin is the only Russian member of the Grotowski
Council in Wroclav, Poland. He has published numerous articles on the
issues of stage movement in Russia and abroad. Mr. Droznin is also the
founding board member of the International Stage Movement Center in
Moscow. He is the founder and the member of the Russian Guild of stage
movement directors and teachers. In 1998, Mr. Droznin received the
title of the Distinguished Artsmaker of Russia.
Natalia Fedorova (Movement)
Graduate of the Moscow State Institute of
Culture (BA in Directing) and the Vakhtangov Theatre Institute (MFA in
Stage Movement), Natalia is one of the disciples of Dr. Andrey Droznin,
an internationally acclaimed movement coach and director. She began her
teaching career at the MXAT School in 1991 where she is now the
Associate Professor of Stage Movement and Jazz Dance. Her other
teaching credentials include Eugene O'Neill Center (Connecticut,
USA), London School of Speech and Drama, Carnegie Mellon University
(Pittsburgh, PA), Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard
(Cambridge, MA) and in Fordham University (New York City), as well as
movement workshops at the Actor’s Studio (New York City) and in
Princeton University. Certified Member of the Russian Guild of
Movement Teachers and Directors, she is also an accomplished
choreographer. Her directing and choreography credits include the
modern ballets Dancing in the
Moonlight and Train Station
Roundabout at the Alytus Drama Theater in Lithuania. She has
also staged movement and combat pieces in variety of theaters in
Russia, Lithuania and the USA.
Mikhail Lobanov (Acting)
Mikhail Lobanov is Professor of Acting at the Moscow Art Theatre School. For many years he was a core company member of the Moscow Art Theatre, and has developed his own system of training that incorporates Michael Chekhov’s research, Vakhtangov and Meyerhold exercises with the Stanislavsky System. This unique course is aimed at awakening actor’s imagination, emotional memory and stage awareness. One of the founding members of the Stanislavsky Summer School, he joined the program in 1992. Mr. Lobanov is the recipient of the honorary title of Distinguished Artist of Russia.
Alexander Marine (Acting)
Alexandre Marine is the founding member of the Tabakov Studio Theatre in Moscow where he was an actor and a resident director. Among his acting credits are Khlestakov in The Inspector General, Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment, Alan in Equus. His productions there include his own adaptation of The Idiot by Dostoevsky and The Sand Man by Hoffmann. He directed Uncle Vanya, Master and Margarita (in his own adaptation), Anthony and Cleopatra and The Winter’s Tale (awarded the Best Production of the year in Quebec in '97) at the Centaur Theatre in Montreal. Mr. Marin taught acting and directing at Carnegie Mellon University, National Theatre School of Canada, McGill and Concordia. He is now working in Montreal, Quebec, where he has recently directed The Emigrants, Swan, We and Hamlet for his own theatre company, Theatre Deuxieme Realite. Mr. Marin is the recipient of the honorary title of Distinguished Artist of Russia.
Alla Pokrovskaya (Acting)
Alla Pokrovskaya had joined The Sovremennik [Contemporary] Theatre in Moscow in 1959 after graduating from the Moscow Art Theatre School. Her acting credits include Allison in Look Back In Anger by Osborne, Matilda in Henry IV by Pirandello, Natasha in Gorky’s The Lower Depths, Fru Alvig in The Ghosts by Ibsen, Mrs. Page in Merry Wives of Windsor. Ms. Pokrovskaya is Professor of Acting at the Moscow Art Theatre School where she directed The Fifth Column by Hemingway, Look Back in Anger by Osborne, Woe of Wit by Griboedov, The Cherry Orchard by Chekhov, and At the Bar of Tokyo Hotel by Williams. She has appeared on Broadway in 1996 in the Sovremennik production of Into the Whirlwind by Ginsburg (NY Drama Desk Award of ‘97.) She is a recipient of several national awards including the title of People’s Artist of Russia and the Stanislavsky Award for excellence in teaching. Dr. Pokrovskaya has joined the Moscow Art Theatre company in 2004 and since then has appeared
Kirill Serebrennikov (Acting)
Kirill
Serebrennikov is directing on professional stage since early
1990s, first in his native Rostov-on-Don, and later in Moscow.
Currently Mr. Serebrennikov is actively working in Moscow Art Theatre,
were he directed 4 plays including the recent successful production of
Ostrovsky's Forest. His work in theater, movies and on TV
has
received nation-wide recognition and numerous awards. Kirill
Serebrennikov is teaching in the Stanislavsky Summer School since 2004.
Anatoly Smeliansky (Drama History & Criticism)
Anatoly Smeliansky is the Head
of the Moscow Art Theatre School and MXAT Associate Artistic Director.
Russia’s leading theatre writer, scholar, and critic, he is the
Editor-in-Chief of the Complete Works
by Stanislavsky and The Moscow
Art Theatre Encyclopedia. Dr. Smeliansky’s books, Our collocutors:
Russian classics on Stage, Is
Comrade Bulgakov Dead?.. (on the best 1995 theatre publications
list of
the American Theatre Magazine), Russian
Theatre after Stalin and Given
Circumstances were published in Russia, Great Britain and the
United
States. He taught Russian & Soviet theatre in major American
schools (Columbia, CMU, Georgetown, Harvard, Princeton, Yale), as well
as in France (the Sorbonne) and the UK (Cambridge and Oxford). Dr.
Smeliansky participated in numerous international theatre symposiums
and conferences all over the world, and has facilitated the centennial
celebration of the Moscow Art Theatre in 1998. He is the recipient of
several National awards for artistic excellence including the title of
the Distinguished Artsmaker of Russia.
Oleg Tabakov (Founding Director, Acting)
Oleg
Tabakov is one of the most celebrated Russian stage and film actors.
Artistic Director of the Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre (since 2000) and
the Tabakov Theatre (since 1986), he was among the founding members of
The Sovremennik [Contemporary] Theatre. Mr. Tabakov has been seen in
about 200 roles at the Sovremennik and at the Moscow Art, including
Malvolio in The Twelfth Night,
Brother Lymon in Ballad Of A Sad
Café by Albee, Salieri in Amadeus by Shaffer, Moliere in
Bulgakov’s Moliere. His most
well-known appearances in front of the Western audiences are Oblomov in
Oblomov, Scherbuk in Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano, Pyotr
Rostov in War and Peace, and Iskremas in Glow, My Star, Glow! He directed
over 30 productions in Europe and the United States. Mr. Tabakov was
the head of the MXAT School between 1986 and 2000. His teaching
credentials include Paris Conservatoire, British American Drama
Academy, Akademie Der Künst in Hamburg, Max Reinhardt Seminar in
Vienna, Carnegie Mellon, Harvard, Julliard School and NYU. Mr. Tabakov
is the recipients of the highest national and international awards for
artistic excellence, including the title of People’s Artist of the
Soviet Union, USSR and Russian State Prizes for the Arts.
Yuri Yeremin (Acting)
Yuri
Yeremin is one of the leading Russian directors and master teachers of
acting and directing, he directed a number of productions that
acclaimed highest national and international awards, including The
Idiot and Possessed by Dostoevsky, The Old Man by Gorky, The Inspector
General by Gogol, Madame Bovary by Flaubert and The Silver Age by
Roschin. His award-winning production of Ward No. 6 has toured all over
Europe, the USA and Canada, and was a part of the New York Theatre
Festival. Mr. Yeremin has been directing and lecturing in Europe and
the United States (where he directed at the A.R.T. and The Hartford
Stage). He is the recipient of highest awards for artistic excellence
including Russian and French decorations and the title of People’s
Artist of Russia.
Staff
Alexander Popov (Executive Director)
Mr.
Popov holds MFA in
theatre history from the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts
(GITIS). In his freshman year at GITIS, he started his association with
Oleg Tabakov and his Studio in Moscow.
After a two-year internship at the MXAT under Anatoly Smeliansky, he
returned to the Tabakov Studio Theatre as the Executive & Literary
Director. He was an intern at the
Royal National Theatre in London (1989) and at the A.R.T. (1991). In
1990-91 Mr. Popov co-produced The Acting Company/Tabakov Theatre
touring exchange in 1990-91. He served as Russian coordinator for The
Ford Foundation Theatre Management Program, and as Project Director of
the
USIA/The Soros
Foundation 'Arts in Russia' project. Mr. Popov taught drama
history at Carnegie Mellon University, where he was also Program
Manager for the Graduate
Acting Program. In 1997-2000 he was Administrative Director of the
A.R.T./MXAT Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard. In 2000
he
was appointed the General Manager of the Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre.
His translation credits include Ostrovsky's Diary
of a Scoundrel, Robert Brustein’s Nobody
Dies on Friday, as well as Copenhagen
by Michael Frayn and Beast of the
Moon by Richard Kalinoski (currently playing at the Moscow Art
Theatre).
Marina Belenky (Program Director)
For several years,
Marina was Head of Design
at the Russian Theatre Union in Moscow. She has served as an advisor to
the Ministry of Culture of Russian Federation, where she has organized
and led numerous workshops, symposia and seminars. Before moving to the
United States in 1990 she has co-produced and developed a variety of
international cultural projects in Poland, the former Czechoslovakia,
Japan, France and the United Kingdom. Since 1995 Ms. Belenky has been
affiliated with the School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University in
Pittsburgh where she has served as Graduate Program Coordinator, and
taught course in Russian History and Language for drama
majors. She is also teaching courses in History of Set
Design and European Art History in colleges and universities in the
Pittsburgh area while developing various international educational and
cultural project between Spain, Argentina, Venezuela, Israel and the
United States.
*Faculty of the program is subject to changes at managament's discretion. All teachers of the program are employees and/or affiliates of the Moscow Art Theatre and/or the Moscow Art Theatre School.