| About me...
I was born in 1974 and raised in T'bilisi, Georgia. I was trained as an actor and artist and have written more than thirty plays. I directed my plays, Sunday's Angel and The Ear in fringe venues in my native T'bilisi. These productions gained wide acclaim from the media and encouraged me in my directing ambitions.
In order to further my studies in the areas of directing and film-making, I came to England in 2002. During the summer of 2004 I staged and directed my own play, The Window, at M.C.C. North London. Written when I was only sixteen, this was the first of my plays to be performed in England.
During my directing course at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre I directed productions based on the works of the Russian fantasy writers: Alexander Grin, Anton Chekov and Alexander Kuprin. As a part of the course I directed and took to Edinburgh Fringe a new surreal play by Jan Hendrik Verstraten entitled Desperate Improvisations.
Since then I facilitated various drama workshops for different creative groups, and in 2008 I started teaching acting at the Russian International Theatre School (RITS). After becoming a member of Players and Playwrights I directed several productions that involved members of this particular creative group. Amongst them the radio play, Pandora's Boxes by Denise O'leary; Walking on Water by Kara May; A First Time for Everything by Roger Mayhew and the world premiere of Eamon McDonnell's new play, The Gift.
In 2010 I had a pleasure of working on my first musical, The S&M show, which I took to the Edinburgh Fringe. I also started collaborating with the Russian Theatre-Studio, Alkonost, and performed in their first production, About Fedot The Archer, this November.
While working with "Alkonost" I staged a show entitled Anton Pavlovitch is Joking, based on the short plays of Anton Chekov, one of my favorite authors. Some pieces performed in this particular production are almost unknown and rarely meet the audience, for example, Before the Eclipse, which shows a very different and surreal side of Chekov's writing.
That show was followed by various poetry based projects such as Poetry Bridge, and a literary composition dedicated to Marina Tsvetaeva. I was fortunate enough to meet a group of artists from Tomsk, a city of great poetic tradition, and to work with actor and sculptor Leonty Usov.
In parallel with 'Russian' projects I carried on with my English language productions and collaborated with The Rose Theatre. It was interesting to work in this unique historical place and it provided the perfect setting for a dark, yet deeply human play by Gareth Pilkington, Boy on The Bridge. As you can see, bridges seem to be a recurring theme for me, but what else is the theatre itself if not a bridge between the human soul and reality?
In 2012 in collaboration with my actor friend, Charles Church, I staged my own adaptation of Stanislaw Lem's iconic novel, Solaris. It was a great challenge and not the easiest journey, but I am proud of the final result. It would be really good to return to this piece one day.
In June 2013 I had a great pleasure of working with Carol Cleveland on a radio version of her war time baby diary. It is a genuine historical document written by Carol's parents and contains true grains of history. Our adaptation was produced with the assistance of Resonance FM. This was my third collaboration with this vibrantly creative radio station and I hope that our paths will cross many times again.
Another interesting project in 2013 was a short play by Luigi Pirandello, Man With the Flower in His Mouth. The work of this dramatist always fascinated me but this was the first time I came to such close contact with it. The encounter was incredibly interesting and I realised that Pirandello truly is a gem of a playwright and that his works should be performed much more often.
My own short play, Harmless, was performed at the Five Minute Play Festival on the 12th of December 2013 at the Lost Theatre. The Festival was an extremely vibrant international event that will remain in my memory for a long time.
Here I must mention the wonderful Canadian playwright Phil Setren, who's inspirational playwriting workshops encouraged me to start writing again.
In early 2014 I returned to collaboration with Tricolore Theatre and together we staged an event Six Characters in an Italian Space. The performance took place at Westminster Reference Library where our company received a great welcome and support from the staff members and in particular, Rossella Black. The evening consisted from two short plays: Luigi Pirandello's "Man With The Flower in His Mouth" and my own piece "A Spoonfull of Sadness", inspired by Commedia Del Arte. To our joy the event was very well attended and warmly received.
At present I am preparing to work with Tricolore for the third time. We will be presenting an extract from Penny Culliford's new play "Saffron Hill". It is a beautifly written piece and I am particularly happy to put it on at the Estorick Collection where the very walls of the building exude the vibe of creativity. |
