Yevgeny Kamenkovich

Evgeny Borisovich Kamenkovich was born in 1954 in Kyiv into a theatrical family: his father, Boris Kamenkovich, was a director and choreographer, while his mother, Irina Molostova, was an opera director. In 1976, he graduated from the acting department of GITIS (Vladimir Andreev’s class), and in 1982 from its directing department (Andrei Goncharov’s class). He continued his professional education in postgraduate studies under Pyotr Fomenko.

He began his directing career in the early 1980s. He worked at the Vladimir Mayakovsky Theatre, the Moscow Theatre of Satire, the Oleg Tabakov Theatre, the Hermitage Theatre, the Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre, the Sovremennik Theatre, Sergei Zhenovach’s Studio of Theatrical Art, and other theatres. He has directed productions in Russia and abroad, drawing on plays as well as works of prose and poetry.

Theatre education has occupied a particularly important place in Evgeny Kamenkovich’s artistic career since 1983. From 1983 to 1992, he taught in Anatoly Vasiliev’s acting and directing workshop at GITIS. He also worked alongside Pyotr Fomenko, helping train three successive acting and directing classes admitted in 1988, 1992, and 1996. Graduates of the 1988 class went on to form the original company of the Pyotr Fomenko Workshop Theatre.

He subsequently taught in Sergei Zhenovach’s workshop at GITIS. In 2000, he recruited his own acting class at the Moscow Art Theatre School, which graduated in 2004.

A new chapter in Kamenkovich’s teaching career began in 2007, when he and director and designer Dmitry Krymov established an unusual workshop at GITIS, bringing together actors, directors, and set designers. While the joint training of actors and directors had a long tradition at GITIS, the inclusion of set designers within a single workshop represented a fundamentally new educational experiment. From their first years of study, students from different disciplines worked together, discovering theatre as a space for collective creativity. Kamenkovich and Krymov jointly recruited four classes, in 2007, 2011, 2015, and 2019. In 2023, Kamenkovich independently recruited a new acting and directing class at GITIS.

Over several decades of teaching, Evgeny Kamenkovich has helped train generations of actors and directors. His teaching combines the traditions of the directing schools of Andrei Goncharov, Anatoly Vasiliev, Pyotr Fomenko, and Sergei Zhenovach with his own experience in theatre directing and experimental theatre education. In 2010, his contribution to theatre education was recognised with the International Stanislavsky Prize.

Evgeny Kamenkovich was instrumental in the founding of the Pyotr Fomenko Workshop Theatre, playing a key organisational role in its creation. As early as 1990, he directed William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” with second-year students from Pyotr Fomenko’s workshop. Staging a full-scale production at such an early stage of training defied the established conventions of theatre education and became one of the first defining events in the artistic development of the future theatre. Kamenkovich subsequently became one of the principal driving forces behind the transformation of the student workshop into a professional theatre company, continuing to work with the newly established theatre as a director.

In September 2012, following Pyotr Fomenko’s death, Evgeny Kamenkovich was nominated by the company and appointed Artistic Director of the Pyotr Fomenko Workshop Theatre. Under his leadership, the theatre continues to develop the artistic traditions of its founder, preserving its repertoire while welcoming new directors, contemporary drama, and experimental theatrical forms. An important part of this work involves supporting young actors and directors, developing internship programmes, and maintaining close ties with GITIS. Graduates of Kamenkovich’s workshops have repeatedly joined the Pyotr Fomenko Workshop company, ensuring a living continuity between generations of theatre artists.

• Productions at the Vladimir Mayakovsky Theatre
• “Ivan Tsarevich” by Y. Mikhailov (1981)
• “The Magic Dream” by Y. Kim (1987)

• Productions at the Moscow Theatre of Satire
• “The Eighteenth Camel” by S. Alyoshin (1983)
• “The Fatal Mistake” by M. Roshchin (1985)
• “The Early Years of Louis XIV” after Alexandre Dumas (1993)

• Productions at the Oleg Tabakov Theatre
• “Surplus Packaging Barrels” by Vasily Aksyonov (1989; new version — 2007)
• “The Russian Teacher” by A. Buravsky
• “Art” by Yasmina Reza (1998)
• “Love as Militarism” by P. Gladilin
• “Love Letters” by A. R. Gurney (2000)

• Productions at the Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre
• “Yu” by O. Mukhina (2001)
• “The Storm” by Alexander Ostrovsky
• “The White Rabbit” by Mary Chase (2008)

• Productions at Other Russian Theatres
• “The Little Giant of Big Sex” by Fazil Iskander, Hermitage Theatre
• “The Body on the Tennis Court” by Anthony Shaffer, Moscow Variety Theatre
• “The Fifth Side of the World”, a one-man show starring Zinovy Vysokovsky, Moscow Variety Theatre (1988)
• “The Gentleman” by A. I. Sumbatov-Yuzhin, Sovremennik Theatre
• “Gorbunov and Gorchakov” by Joseph Brodsky, Sovremennik Theatre
• “Marienbad” after Sholem Aleichem, Studio of Theatrical Art (2005)
• “Pagans” by Anna Yablonskaya, Yermolova Theatre

• Student Productions
• “Europe — Asia” by the Presnyakov Brothers, Moscow Art Theatre School
• “Pearlescent Zinaida” by M. Roshchin, GITIS
• “Flying” by O. Mukhina, GITIS
• “The Malicious Tongues” after Richard Sheridan’s “The School for Scandal”, Evgeny Kamenkovich and Dmitry Krymov’s workshop, GITIS
• “The Fruits of Enlightenment” by Leo Tolstoy, American Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre School

• Productions Abroad
• “The Forest” by Alexander Ostrovsky, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, United Kingdom
• “The Bankrupt” by Alexander Ostrovsky, Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom
• “Body Shop” after A. Buravsky’s play “The Left-Handed Master”, California Repertory Company, USA

• Awards and Honours:
• Golden Mask National Theatre Award nomination for Best Director in Drama, for “The Most Important Thing” (2008)
• Golden Mask National Theatre Award nomination for Best Director in Drama, for “Ulysses” (2008)
• International Stanislavsky Prize for Theatre Education (2010)
• Moscow City Prize in Literature and Art (2013)
• Medal of the Order “For Merit to the Fatherland”, Second Class, for outstanding contributions to Russian culture and the arts and many years of dedicated service (2016)