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Marina Krapivina

MIKHAIL OVCHINNIKOV

Program Bio
October 2010: New Haven, Connecticut, and New York
Back to More Open World Past Participants in Theater

Mikhail Ovchinnikov, born in Moscow in 1985, was exposed to the performing arts from the very first days of his life: “My mother was studying to be a juggler at a circus arts institute, so when I was just a baby she would either take me with her to the circus or hand me off to my father, who acted at the Lenkom Theater.” With such an upbringing, a career in theater seemed like the obvious choice for young Mikhail, and he enrolled at the Studio School of the Chekhov Academic Theater, where the influence of Pyotr Fomenko shaped his ambition to be a director. After graduating, he acted at the Youth Theater in Moscow before an obligatory period of military service took him to the Theater of the Russian Army for a year. He then joined the directing program at the Meyerhold Theater. His production of Gogol’s “Viy,” for which he also penned the music and designed the set, is currently running at the Meyerhold.