Oskaras Koršunovas
Oskaras Koršunovas (born 6 March 1969) is a Lithuanian theatre director. Biography. Oskaras Koršunovas was born on March 6, 1969, in Vilnius, Lithuania. He began his career as a theatre director in 1994 at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, where he obtained his master's degree in directing. During his studies he established already his individual signature in the most important theaters in Lithuania by producing a trilogy of plays such as the There to be Here (1990), The Old Woman (1992) and Hello Sonya New Year (1994), which were based on the work of Daniil  Kharms and Alexander Vvedensky, both Russian avant-garde writers of the twentieth century. From early stages on Oskaras stood out for his unique theatrical language and new contemporary approach to stage performances that theatre critics envisaged as the inevitable emergence of a new theatre. Henceforth, Oskaras went on with like-minded colleagues and founded in 1998 the renowned repertory theatre the Oskaras Koršunovas Theatre (OKT) with the purpose to distance themselves from the artistic reality of that time and create a new reality which was based on a contemporary theatre language. The intention was to find new ways to communicate  with the audience by implementing controversial ideas. His perception that contemporary plays should reflect present time and predict the future as a warning element caught the attention of the audience. Oskaras became the first director to examine independent, post-communist Lithuanian society, and its relationships and conflicts and he kept looking for new forms and ways of communicating by stepping beyond the borders of the traditional understanding of theatre. For his work, Oskaras received the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts in 2002, the Europe Prize New Theatrical Realities in 2002, the Meyerhold Prize in 2010 and national Golden  Cross Awards in three different years 2004, 2011 and 2012. He has produced and directed over 70 plays. Among them stand Shakespeare’s Hamlet in 2008, The Lower Depths in 2010 which was awarded as The Best Performance of 2010 and Miranda, based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest in 2012 that gained international fame and received three national awards of the Golden Cross in 2012: for best directing, best leading actress (Airida Gintautaite) and the best composer (Gintaras Sodeika). The Oskaras Koršunovas Theatre toured amongst the famous Lithuanian theaters and produced projects that were staged in France, Germany, Spain, Italy , Portugal, Australia, Japan, China, Israel, South Korea, Brazil, Argentina and the United States. Also he has participated in festivals worldwide including the prestigious Edinburgh International Festival and the Festival d’Avignon. Moreover, Oskaras was awarded the Cross of Officer of Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas and the honorable title of Chevalier of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the European New Reality Prize.