Aleksandr Borovskiy

Designer

Born in Kiev into the family of theatre designer, David Borovsky-Brodsky. In 1983, he completed his studies at the Staging faculty of the Moscow Art Theatre Studio-School (I. Malygina’s class).

Since 1986, he has been chief designer at Moscow‘s Oleg Tabakov Theatre (up to 1992 - Theatre-Studio). In 2000, he was also appointed chief designer at Moscow’s Vsevolod Meyerhold Centre.

Among his productions are

at the Oleg Tabakov Theatre:
Neil Simon’s Biloxi Blues (1987)
Galich’s Matrosskaya tishina (Matrosskaya Silence) (1990)
Strasti po Bumbarashu (Bumbarash’s Passion) after Gaydar (1993)
Antonov’s Smertelny nomer (Salto mortale) (1994)
Gladilin’s Love as Militarism (1998)
Aldo de Benedetti’s Sublimation of Love (1997)
Fokin’s Yeshcho Van Gogh (Van Gogh Again) (co-production with the Meyerhold Centre, 1998)
Strindberg’s The Father (1999)
Gorky’s Lower Depths (2000)

at the Vsevolod Meyerhold Centre:
Vosdushny gorod (Aerial Town) after Aristophanes’ play Birds (co-production with the Novosibirsk Globus Theatre and the Varna Stoyan Bchvarov Theatre, Bulgaria, 2000)
Semenovsky’s Arto i evo Dvoynik (Arto and his Double) (2002)

at Moscow’s Malaya Bronnaya Theatre:
Volodin’s Pyat vecherov (Five Evenings) (1997)
The Night before Christmas (1998)

at the Maly Theatre:
Griboyedov’s Woe from wit (2000)
Ostrovsky’s Truth is good, but happiness is better (2003)

at the Sovremennik:
Ariel Dorfman’s Death and the Maiden (1992)
Galin’s Titul (Title) (1993)
The Overcoat after the story by Gogol (2004)

at the A.P. Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre:
Ray Coony’s No 13 (2001)
Mukhina’s Yu (2001)
Galin’s Retro (2002)
Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen (2003)
Kalinoski’s Lunnoye chudovishche (Moon Monster) (2004)
The White Guard after the play by Bulgakov (2004)

at the A.S. Pushkin Drama Theatre (Alexandrinsky):
Gogol’s Inspector General (2003)
The Double after the play by Dostoyevsky (2005).

He has often worked abroad - at theatres in the USA, Great Britain, Finland, Denmark, Austria, in particular he designed Solzhenitsyn’s The Victor’s Feast for Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre (1989), The Mechanical piano after Chekhov for Helsinki’s City Theatre (1994), Chekhov’s Three Sisters for the Finnish National Theatre (1999).

He has worked in cinema and for television, and has done several programs for the Circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard (with Valentin Gneushev).

He has participated in international theatre exhibitions. He has worked with many famous theatre directors including Valery Fokin, Adolph Shapiro, Sergei Zhenovach, Galina Volchek.

Among the hits he has designed in recent times are: Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera, in a production by Vladimir Mashkov (Satirikon, 1996), Old World Love based on the tale by Gogol in a production by V. Fokin (the Voropaev Producers’ Centre Enterprise, 1999), The Overcoat, directed by V. Fokin, The White Guard directed by Sergei Zhenovach.

Awards

He is winner of the following prizes: Crystal Turandot for his scenography for Smertelny nomer, 1995; Golden Mask for his scenography for The Inspector General (Alexandrinsky Theatre) and the State Prize of Russia for his scenography for the same production and also for Truth is good, but happiness is better (Maly Theatre), 2004; in 2005, he was nominated for a Zolotoy sofit award (The Double at the Alexandrinsky Theatre).