Butler University, Jordan College of Fine Arts, Theatre Department

Butler International Theatre Exchange

In 2004, the International Theatre Exchange explored contemporary Russian Theatre with Alexander Anisimov and Tamara Anisimova.

Alexander Anisimov Alexander Anisimov is an actor, director and teacher. He holds the prestigious rank of “Honored Artist of Russia,” a rank bestowed upon him for his years of artistic excellence. He has worked as an actor and director in St. Petersburg’s Pushkin Theatre since 1976, playing a prominent role in the development and artistic vision of Russia’s first professional theatre.

As a much sought after actor both in Russia and Europe, Anisimov has played leading roles in plays by Russian and foreign playwrights, including such renowned artists as Pushkin, Chekhov, Gorky, Ibsen, Shaw, Brecht and Eduardo de Philippo. His ability to transcend both stage and screen has given him the opportunity to appear in over 30 movies.

Anisimov’s directing and teaching talents have allowed him to develop many of his great teacher’s skills and styles and to keep the traditions of Russian training alive. At the same time, he seeks and experiments with new forms and styles of acting, directing and teaching.

From 1975–1986, Anisimov was head of the dramatic studio at the USSR Academy of Sciences. He has directed many plays in his career, the most recent including Figeiredu’s Don Juan and Little Tragedies by Pushkin for the Austrian Drama School, A Concert for Your Soul for the Republic of Karelia, with his wife Tamara Anisimova, A Planet of Deviations after works by Shakespeare, Shiller, Dostoevsky and Chekhov, Tragic Poem after Mozart and Salieri and again, with his wife Tamara, Mozart’s Requiem and I Will Wait for You after Dostoevsky’s The Idiot.

Tamara Anisimova Tamara Anisimova is a teacher, producer and choreographer at the renowned Academy of Theatre Arts in St. Petersburg, Russia. She has produced and staged numerous productions for the Pushkin Theatre, the Academy of Theatre Arts, the St. Petersburg Academic Capella, the Children’s Philharmonic Theatre, and been a guest artist at theatres throughout Russia and Europe.

Anisimova’s experience is with productions of the greatest of Russian writers—Chekhov, Ionesko, Pushkin, Dostoevsky—in innovative staging of some of Russia’s most renowned classics.

After starting life as a dancer, Anisimova went on to study theatre and music in the St. Petersburg conservatory. During those years, she met and worked with many prominent musicians and choreographers. In 1992, she produced and restaged the ballet “Le Bale” in an international collaboration in memory of George Balanchine.

Most recently, Anisimova has produced and directed I Will Wait for You after Dostoevsky’s The Idiot, with her husband, Alexander, English Suite, music by Portnov, with English poetry, and Mozart’s Requiem for the St. Petersburg Academic Capella, again with her husband.