Biography
People's Artist of Russia, winner of four Russian State prizes, and of the Golden Mask, Golden sofit and TEFI awards, Merited Arts worker of Poland, Artistic Director of the A.S. Pushkin Russian State Academic Drama Theatre (Alexandrinsky), St. Petersburg, Artistic and General Director of the Vsevolod Meyerhold Theatre and Cultural Centre.
After completing his studies at the Shchukin Theatre School in 1970, he worked for 15 years as director at Moscow's Sovremennik Theatre where every new production by him riveted the attention of audiences and critics. He produced works by Nabokov, Vampilov, Gogol, Rozov, Albee and other leading Russian and foreign dramatists.
In 1985, he became principal director of Moscow's Yermolova Theatre. His first productions for the Yermolova, made it one of the most popular theatres in the city. The press were unanimous in declaring that his first programme work for the Yermolova - Speak! after Alexander Buravsky's 2nd Year in Freedom - marked a new approach to the concept of theatre in Moscow. It was for this production that he won his first State Prize of Russia.
Since 1988, he has been chairman of the Commission for the Creative Legacy of Vsevolod Meyerhold, the great director who created a new theatre language and whose pupils included Sergei Eisenstein, Ernst Garin, Sergei Martinson, Igor Ilinsky, Maria Babanova, M. Tsaryov.
In 1991, on the initiative of the Commission and with the support of the Union of Theatre People of Russia and the Union of Architects of Russia, the Vsevolod Meyerhold Centre was set up. Since the day of its foundation, Fokin has been the Centre's Artistic and General Director. In 1999, by decision of the Government of Moscow, the Centre became a state unitary (state-supported) enterprise. It opened its doors to the public on 12 February 2001.
Activities at the Vsevolod Meyerhold Centre cover a wide field. They include both Fokin’s own productions, for instance, Hotel Room in the Town of NN after Gogol, Metamorphosis after Kafka, Radzinsky’s The Last Night of the Last Tsar, More of Van Gogh, The Overcoat after Gogol, as well as major programmes of experimental work. Among the latter are: The Ancient World Programme (productions of Birds after Aristophanes, Philoctetes after Sophocles, Oedipus after Aeschylus, The Persians by Euripides, as well as lectures, master-classes, seminars), an Antonin Artaud programme (the plays Artaud et son double by Valery Semenovsky, Shakespeare's Macbeth, Mirror carp by Y. Urnov, Roberto Zucco by Koltes ).
In 2005, the programme Polish Theatre. Yesterday and Today was held. Under the auspices of this successful programme, there were demonstrations at the Centre of course works on contemporary Polish plays by director - masters’ degree students as well as the première of Pavel Safonov's production of Witold Gombrowicz's Yvonne, Princess of Burgundy; the Centre also hosted tours by the following two Polish theatres: the Gardzenitse with a production of Euripedes Antigone and the Provisorium with productions of Gombrowicz's Transatlantic and Tadeusz Różewicz's Bite the Dust! In October, there was a week-long celebration of the outstanding Polish director and artist Tadeusz Cantor, with video shows of 6 of his productions, documentary films, exhibitions, lectures and seminars. In turn, the Vsevolod Meyerhold Centre presented its production of The Overcoat at the National Theatre, Warsaw.
2006 marked the start of a new Vsevolod Meyerhold Centre programme Theatre Schools in Contemporary Theatre. Included under the umbrella of this programme on the interaction of different theatre schools a Meyerhold scholarship holders theatre festival featuring the latter's productions over the past ten years was held, while Meyerhold scholarships were presented to student-directors for 2006.
In 2001, under the artistic direction of Valery Fokin, a three-year experimental joint Vsevolod Meyerhold Centre and Alexandrinsky Theatre (St. Petersburg) programme New Life for Tradition was launched which envisaged five productions after plays by Russian classical playwrights, to be produced by major Russian and European directors at the Alexandrinsky Theatre. The first production in the series was a version of Gogol's The Inspector General, created by Valery Fokin. This much talked about production marked the start of a new era at the Alexandrinsky Theatre.
In 2003, Valery Fokin was appointed Artistic Director of the A.S. Pushkin (Alexandrinsky) Russian State Academic Drama Theatre.
In his work, Valery Fokin deals with acute, topical issues in our country's past and present, topics which for a long time were 'brushed under the carpet'. His productions, whether of contemporary or classical plays, are characterized by depth and scale of scenic metaphor, profound artistic thought, theatricality, a striving for detailed psychological analysis of character which is, no doubt, why his work arouses interest both at home and abroad. Plays produced by him may be seen at theatres in the USA, Poland, Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, France, Korea. His productions are distinguished by their skilful staging and original interpretation of well-known plays.
Fokin’s productions Hotel Room in the Town of NN after Gogol, Metamorphosis after Kafka, Tatyana Repina after Chekhov, Gogol's The Inspector General and Dostoyevsky's The Double - the latter production at the Alexandrinsky Theatre, have been acclaimed by theatre-goers the world over (in St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Kiev, Lvov, Poland, Switzerland, Finland, Germany, France, Belgium, Bulgaria, Sweden, the USA, Czechia, Slovenia, Japan, Serbia and Chernogoria, Korea). They have great visual impact and are characterized by dynamism, paradox and an ongoing search for new theatre language.
Valery Fokin has been teaching since 1976. His first experience of teaching was at GITIS (State Institute for the Performance Arts) with Oleg Tabakov's course which, after graduation, was to form the basis of the latter's Theatre. In later years he taught in Poland (1992-3) and Japan (1989-94).
In 2003, the Vsevolod Meyerhold Centre, together with the Moscow Arts Theatre Studio School, set up Higher Education Directors’ Courses. 2005 saw the graduation from these courses of the first group of directors from the countries of CIS and the Baltic States and the enrolment of a second batch of students. Also in 2005, Fokin recruited an actors-directors course at the Shchukin Theatre School.
Valery Fokin is an initiator of reform in theatre economics. His creative potential and his forty years of experience in theatre, an original mind plus a profound knowledge of all the mechanisms of acting, directing, staging enable him to successfully combine the latest economic ideas with the high artistic criteria typical of the Russian repertory theatre.
In debates and frequent articles in the press, Valery Fokin promotes a new conception of reform for society’s institutions, including theatre.
All this makes it possible to talk of Fokin as one of the leaders of contemporary Russian theatre to which he has devoted his entire life.
Theatre work
Dostoyevsky Another Man's wife with Husband under the Bed (Shchukin Theatre School, Moscow, 1968)
Victor Rozov From Evening to Noon (Shchukin Theatre School, 1968)
Leonid Filatov Time of Noble Intentions (Shchukin Theatre School, 1969)
Gogol The Nose, Guy de Maupassant Boule de suif (Shchukin Theatre School, 1970)
Misha Roshchin Valentin and Valentina (Sovremennik Theatre, Moscow, 1971)
Alexander Volodin Don't part from your loved ones (Sovremennik, 1972)
Alexander Vampilov Provincial Anecdotes (Sovremennik, 1973)
Victor Rozov Four Drops (Sovremennik, 1974)
Misha Shatrov Tomorrow's Weather (together with Galina Volchek and I. Reikhelgaus, Sovremennik, 1974)
Viktor Rozov Four Drops (Kokhanovsky Theatre, Opole, Poland, 1976)
Dostoyevsky And I Shall Go! (Sovremennik, 1976)
Gogol Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka (Central House of Theatre, Moscow, 1976)
Boris Vasiliev Don't Shoot at White Swans (Sovremennik Theatre, 1976)
Hamlet (Sovremennik Theatre, 1978)
Enn Vetemaa Monument (Sovremennik Theatre, 1978)
Alexander Vampilov The Elder Son (Kokhanaovsky Theatre, Opole, Poland, 1978)
Alexei Kazantsev I'll Be Back in the Spring (Tabakov Studio, Moscow, 1978)
Julius Semyonov SEARCH 891 (together with Galina Volchek and Misha Ali-Khusein, Sovremennik Theatre, 1979)
Agnieszka Osiecka Taste of Cherry (version, together with Misha Ali-Husein, Sovremennik, 1979)
Konstantin Simonov We Shan't Meet (Sovremennik Theatre, 1979)
Gogol The Inspector General (St. Yarach Theatre, Lodz, Poland, 1980)
Alfred de Musset Lorenzaccio (Sovremennik Theatre, 1980)
V.Gurkin Love and Pigeons (Sovremennik Theatre, 1982)
Gogol The Inspector General (Sovremennik Theatre, 1983)
M. Mishin Faces (Satirikon Theatre, Moscow, 1983)
Alexander Vampilov The Elder Son (Pech National Theatre, Hungary, 1984)
Edward Albee Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf (Sovremennik Theatre, 1984)
O. Kurayev Risk (together with Galina Volchek, Sovremennik Theatre, 1985)
G. Baklanov Nineteen - forever (Sovremennik Theatre, 1985)
Alexander Buravsky Speak! Based on V. Ovechkin’s works) (Yermolova Theatre, 1985)
Valadien Dozortsev The Last Visitor (Yermolova Theatre, 1986)
Eduard Radzinsky Sporting Scenes 1981 (Yermolova Theatre, 1987)
AlexanderVampilov Last Summer in Chulimsk (Hayudza Theatre, Tokyo, 1987)
Alexander Buravsky Second Year of Freedom (Yermolova Theatre, Moscow, 1988)
Vladimir Nabokov Invitation to a Beheading (Yermolova Theatre, 1989)
Alexander Vampilov Last Summer in Chulimsk (Saint Paul, USA, 1989)
Nikolai Klimontovich The Idiot (after Dostoyevsky) (Hayudza Theatre, Tokyo, 1989)
Vladimir Nabokov Invitation to a Beheading (new version) (Yermolova Theatre Centre, 1990)
Maxim Gorky Vassa Zheleznova (2nd version) (Tri-buhne Theatre, Stuttgart, 1991)
Nikolai Klimontovich Devilish (after Dostoyevsky) (Yermolova Theatre Centre, 1991)
Gogol. Marriage (St. Yarach Theatre, Lodz, Poland, 1991)
L.Ustinov Island of Snakes (Am Neumarkt Theatre, Zurich, 1992)
Sidur's Mysteries (Vsevolod Meyerhold Centre, Moscow, 1992)
Gogol Dead Souls (Y. Slovacky Theatre, Cracow, 1993)
Maxim Gorky Vassa Zheleznova (Higher Acting School, Cracow, 1993)
Dostoyevsky Bobok (Y. Slovacky Theatre, Cracow, 1993)
Alexander Ostrovsky Our Man (Y. Slovacky Theatre, Cracow, 1994)
Gogol Hotel Room in the Town of NN (Vsevolod Meyerhold Centre, 1994)
Kafka Metamorphosis (Vsevolod Meyerhold Centre together with Satirikon Theatre, Moscow, 1995)
Alexander Vampilov 20 Minutes with an Angel (2nd version) (Oleg Tabakov Jubilee, Moscow, 1995)
Nikolai Klimontovich Karamazovs and Hell (on the theme of Dostoyevsky) (Sovremennik Theatre, 1996)
Anecdotes (after Dostoyevsky and Alexander Vampilov) (Oleg Tabakov Theatre, 1996)
Eduard Radzinsky The Last Night of the Last Tsar (BOGIS Theatre Agency, Moscow, 1996)
Alexander Ostrovsky Our Man (Theatre Globus, Novosibirsk, 1997)
More of Van Gogh (Vsevolod Meyerhold Centre together with Oleg Tabakov Theatre, 1998)
Alexander Ostrovsky Our Man (Polsky Theatre, Vrotslav, 1998)
Chekhov Tatyana Repina (Avignon Festival together with the Moscow Youth Theatre, Avignon, 1998)
Chekhov The Three Sisters (National Theatre of Finland, Helsinki, 1999)
Nikolai Kolyada (after Gogol) Old World Love (Enterprise, Moscow, 1999)
Chekhov The Wedding (St. Yarach Theatre, Lodz, 2000)
Aristophanes Air City based on the play Birds ( open air stage version) (Co-production with the Novosibirsk Globus Theatre, the St. Bchvarov Drama Theatre and the Vsevolod
Meyerhold Centre, Bulgaria, Varna, 2000)
Aristophanes Air City (Theatre version) (Novosibirsk Globus Theatre, 2000)
Antonin Artaud Announcement (Vsevolod Meyerhold Centre, 2001)
Valery Sememovsky Artaud and his Double (Vsevolod Meyerhold Centre, 2002)
Aeschylus The Seven Against Thebes (Düsseldorf Drama Theatre, 2002)
Gogol The Inspector General (Alexandrinsky Theatre, Sankt Peterburg. 2002)
Kafka Metamorphosis (Theatre Centre in Shizuoka, 2003)
Gogol The Overcoat (Vsevolod Meyerhold Centre together with the Sovremennik Theatre, 2004)
Dostoyevsky The Double (Alexandrinsky Theatre, 2005)
Gogol The Marriage (Arko Arts Centre, Seoul, South Korea, 2005)
Tolstoy The Living Corpse (Alexandrinsky Theatre, 2006)
Television Plays
Dickens Dombey and Son (1974)
Gogol Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and his Aunt (1976)
Viktoria Tokareva Between the Sky and the Earth (1976)
Balzak Le Cousin Pons (1978)
Viktoria Tokareva Deficit on Mazaev (1979)
Television version of Plays
Konstantin Simonov We Shan't Meet Again (1981)
Lermontov The Tambov Treasurer's Wife (1982)
Krylov Fables (1983)
Alexander Buravsky Speak! (1987)
Vladimir Nabokov Invitation to a Beheading (TV Centre, Lodz, 1992)
Tancred Dorst Ich. Feuerbach (1993)
Television Films and Movies
L. Zorin Transit (1983)
Mysteries of The Inspector General (1998)
Kafka Metamorphosis (2002)
Gogol Hotel Room in the Town of NN (2003)
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