ACROSS

Olzhas Zhanaydarov (Playwright) was born in Almaty, Kazakhstan and moved to Russia when he was five years old.  He is a playwright, screenwriter and teacher.  Based in Moscow, Olzhas is a member of the Lubimovka Young Playwrights Festival Collective and Founder and Artistic Director of Drama.Kz Festival for young Kazakh playwrights.  His plays explore such topics as immigrants in Russia, teenage life, and the history of Kazakhstan.  Olzhas was awarded the Grand -Prix of the International Modern Drama Contest Free Theatre.  He won First Prize at both the international playwrights’ competition Eurasia and the modern drama for children and teenagers contest Little Premiere.  Olzhas received a National Theatre Golden Mask Award nomination for Best Play.  His plays have been staged in cities across Russia and Kazakhstan, including Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Ufa, Astana, and Almaty.  His work has been translated into English, German, French, Polish, Czech, Turkish and other languages.

Elena Nenasheva (Director) was born in Leningrad in 1987. She is a graduate of the Moscow Art Theatre School (class of Viktor Ryzhakov). In 2020 she was nominated for a Golden Mask Award. Selected works: Seagull Version, Lonely City, Distance Apart, POSLE, Trendsetters. She participated in such festivals as “Lubimovka,” “New Drama,” Alexander Volodin National Theatre Festival “Five Evenings,” “Our Theme.” Elena also participated in the following international Theater Labs: Summer School of Theater in Kaposwar (Hungary), Russian Theatre Lab in Tallinn (Estonia), Theater Lab in Ilkhom (Uzbekistan).

Stepan Belozerov (Young Man) is a native of Siberia, from Novosibirsk suburbs. He studied acting at the Moscow Art Theater Studio School and been snowboarding for eight years. Love to my mom and dad. Thank you!

Aleksandr Orav (Man) is an actor in theater and movies. Born in 1985 in Riga, Latvia, in 2003 he moved to Russia to study performing arts there: first in St. Petersburg, then in Moscow, in Boris Shchukin Theater College. He has served in By Stanislavsky’s House theater since 2006, and since 2007 he also works in films. His theater credits include Magadan, Wayfarers and Hussars and Seagull Version (Golden Mask award nominees and recipients). A certified Yoga instructor, Alexander hosted master classes for actors at the conference Actor and Yoga. He enjoys studying different approaches to acting, such as Meyerhold’s Biomechanics and Demidov’s étude. In 2010-2017 he studied Ikiru: Theatre of Awakening method with Robert Taylor.

Yulia Volkova (A Woman’s Voice) was born in 1982 in Ostrogozhsk. In 2008 she graduated from the Department of Pop Music Performance in the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts. She is an actress and also performs songs in the 1960s style. Her credits include such productions as: Life Is Good, Orchestra, I’m Afraid of Love, The Grasshopper, This Child, Communicators, Liolya and Minka, Seagull Version. For performing the role of Arkadina in Seagull Version, Yulia was nominated for 2020 “Golden Mask” Award.

Anna Khlestkina (A Woman’s Voice) actress, performer, director, born in 1986 in Moscow. In 2007 she graduated from Boris Shchukin Theater College with major in Stage and Film Acting; and in 2019 – from Boris Yukhananov’s Studio of Individual Directing (MIR–5). In 2007-2016 she was an actress in Taganka Theater. Acting credits: Electra, Woes of Wit, Brothers Karamazov, 1968. New World, Orchestra Rehearsal, Crows and many others. She worked with Yuri Lyubimov, Tadashi Suzuki, Boris Yukhananov and other famous directors. Performing (dancer) credits: Moments (Olga Tsvetkova), Verso la specie (Claudia Castellucci), numerous Kanako Suzuki’s projects and others. She worked as a choreographer on Marina Davydova’s project Constriction of the World, and as a professional singer and improviser – on the projects of such composers as Kirill Shirokov, Dmitri Kurlyandsky and others. Her directing credits include Fiorenza (Stanislavsky Electrotheatre) and a one-person show Psychosis 4.48. She participated in the Theater and Science Lab Annihilation-2019.

Oleg Krokhalev (Original Music & Sound Design) was born in Perm. In 2019 he graduated from Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory with the major in Composition (class of V.G.Tarnopolsky). He participated in such projects as SOTA (Golden Mask Institute, “Stanislavsky” Electrotheater), Performance (concerts on Trekhgornaya Manufactory), Underground Improvisation (commissioned by Berlin Academy of Arts), Suedseite Nachts (Stuttgart), Open Space Lab, (Young Composers Academy in Tchaikovsky). His compositions have been performed by such artists as Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble (MCME) , New Music Studio, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, New Russia Orchestra directed by Yuri Bashmet, ensemble Russia and others. Oleg writes music for many Russian theaters. Since 2020, he has served as the editor of the concert section of Your Leisure portal. He is a Curator of the music division of RemPut festival (November 1-4, 2020).

Sasha Ageeva (Costume Design) is a costume designer. She graduated from the School of Design in the National Research University Higher School of Economics with the diploma of “Artist for theater and film” (class of Anastasia Nefedova). She is in the art group apadakaladas. In 2019-2020 Sasha has been a design technician in “Stanislavsky” Electrotheater. She has worked with such directors as Elena Nenasheva, Sasha Denisova, Philip Grigoryan, Grigory Dobrygin, Dmitry Sergin, Fedor Levin and others.