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, before founding Theatre Novi Most, 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 and co-founded the Sleeveless Theatre School.  Her directing and performance work has been seen at the Joseph Papp Public Theatre, WOW Café, Organic Lab Theatre (Chicago), Yale Repertory Theatre, The Market Theatre (Boston), Illusion Theatre, Playwrights Center, Open Eye Figure Theatre and Red Eye Theatre (Minneapolis), IT’s Festival (Amsterdam), Old Museum Arts Centre (Belfast) among others. Her work has been supported 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. She has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar Award for a new project in Russia in spring 2011.

Lisa is currently having her research supported by the University of Minnesota’s Institute for Advanced Study for her work on a new play based on the epic of Gilgamesh (premiering Sept 2010). She is directing the upcoming Earthbeat by the Vanaver Caravan at The Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival this August. Producing credits include 2007 Birmingham Fringe Festival of New Theatre in Alabama and associate producer of The Meyerhold Project, a bilingual, multinational project about Russian director Vsevelod Meyerhold. 

She has an 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. She is an assistant professor in the University of Minnesota Department of Theatre Arts and Dance.

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).