MISSION
Theatre Novi Most (Theatre of a New Bridge) combines the artistic traditions of Russia and America to create performances in which seemingly disparate ideas, languages, cultures and ideologies can clash, commingle and cross-pollinate.  We believe theatre is at its most engaging when it is charting unknown territory. Therefore we seek to build works for the stage that conjure new theatrical languages and build innovative bridges across artistic and linguistic barriers.  Our work tends to have a multi-lingual approach to language and text, rich physical vocabularies and a broad and visually complex interaction between what is said and what is seen.  We are continually interested in the bridge between the tragic and the comic, the real and the fantastical.  We also seek active engagement with our audience, fellow artists and the larger community as a whole through performances, educational programs and discussions.

HISTORY
Founded in 1998 by Russian director Vladimir Rovinsky and American director Lisa Channer, Theatre Novi Most is based in Minneapolis and consist of associate artists from New York, Los Angeles, Russia and Minneapolis. Since 1998 we have worked to adapt or create new works for the stage through a rigorous and expansive process of exploration and improvisation.  Our methodology combines Russian theatre techniques and traditions and physical theatre methods from the U.S. and Europe as well as integration of story and narratives through playwriting.  Our plays tend to use multiple languages and theatrical traditions allowing language to exist side by side with physical expression in the communicating of stories and ideas.  Because of the extensive physical and scholarly research involved, our plays develop over an extended period of time, taking from one to three years to reach a final form.

Theatre Novi Most is a member of the Network of Ensemble Theatres.

ABOUT THE FOUNDERS

Lisa Channer was co-founder and co-artistic director of Sleeveless Theatre, a political theatre company based in Northampton Massachusetts from 1989 – 1997. With Sleeveless she directed and toured six world premiere plays dealing with a variety of social and political issues.  She was producer last year of the First Birmingham Fringe Festival of New Theatre in Alabama and was from 1997-2000, associate producer of The Meyerhold Project,  a bilingual project about the great Russian director Vsevelod Meyerhold.  Her directing and performance work has been seen at the Joseph Papp Public Theatre and WOW Café in New York, Organic Lab Theatre in Chicago, Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, The Market Theatre in Boston, Illusion and Red Eye Theatres in Minneapolis and at many clubs, theatres and odd spots throughout the U.S. Amsterdam, Russia and Ireland. She has been fortunate to have her work supported over the years by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New England Foundation for the Arts, Artslink International, the Fund for Women Artists, the Edith Markson Travel Fund, and the Fox Foundation among others. Ms. Channer earned her B.A. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and her M.F.A. in Directing from the Yale School of Drama.  She received additional training at the Dell Arte School of Physical Theatre in California and the St. Petersburg Academy of Theatre Arts in Russia.

Lisa was a tenured associate professor of theatre at Auburn University between 2002 and 2006 and a visiting associate professor at the University of Alabama/Birmingham for 2006/07. She is currently an assistant professor of theatre at the University of Minnesota.
She is originally from New Paltz N.Y.

Vladimir Rovinsky attended the St. Petersburg Academy of Theatre Arts, Russia, graduating with an MFA in Directing in 1999. In addition, he trained with Alexei Levinsky in the system of Biomechanics, which was created by Vsevelod Meyerhold as a non-realistic physical training system for actors. He studied with Dutch director Willem Kuvenhoven and performed in his production BECKETTS HEAD at the Alexandrinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg (1996) and was a company member for THE MEYERHOLD PROJECT, a biligual examination of Meyerhold that toured to America, Holland and Russia under the direction of Gennadi Trostianetsky and David Chambers (1997-2000).  He was co-founder of Studio WE in St. Petersburg from 1991-1993 and was associate artist at the Turgenev Drama Theatre in Oryl Russia from 1998-2001 (Directed OLD WORLD LOVE by Nikolai Gogol, STRANGE FLOWERS by Ivan Bunin and THE PETERSBURG ANECDOTES by Aleksandr Grigoriyev).  Additional directing and performance credits: THE LUCKY EVENT by Slawomir Mrozek at The Theatre Commediens in St. Petersburg 2000 (director) and JASPER JOHNS, Skewed Vision Theatre, 2008 (performer/creator).