Eimuntas Nekrošius

Eimuntas Nekrošius is one of the most significant contemporary Lithuanian directors and also the founder and artistic director of the Meno Fortas theatre company. He was born in 1952 in a small Lithuanian village. As a child, he lived on a farmstead with his family. At 18 years of age, he was admitted to the Vilnius State Conservatory. One year after having completed his studies, he was admitted to the Lunacharsky Institute of Theatre Arts (today the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts), where he studied directing under Andrei Goncharov. His first position as a director was with the Kaunas Drama Theatre, and he later worked at the Vilnius State Youth Theatre. Gradually, he developed a distinctive and highly metaphorical approach to the language of the theatre, which was later to become the hallmark of some of his most important productions based on the works of Chekhov and Shakespeare. One year after his 1997 production of Hamlet, which was arguably epoch-making, he founded the Meno Fortas (Fortress of Art) company, which became a member of the Union of the Theatres of Europe. Nekrošius has been won numerous awards for his work. His play Othello won the Golden Mask Award in the category of Best Foreign Production, and he was the recipient the Stanislavsky Award for his work as a director. Beginning in 2002, he directed several operas in cities such Florence, Milan (in La Scala), Moscow (in the Bolshoi Theatre), and the Lithuanian National Opera House. His most important distinctions include the State Prize of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Lithuania (1983), the State Prize of the Soviet Union (1987), the State Prize of the Russian Federation (1999), and the Europe Prize for New Theatrical Realities (1991). In 1992, he was named the best European director of the Union of the Theatres of Europe. He died in november 2018. Sons Of The Bitch is his latest performance.