Director, professor of the department of puppet theatre acting and directing at RGISI, winner of the Russian National Theatre Award THE GOLDEN MASK (2017, Kolya’s Composition).
For 12 years Yana was actress, co-author, and director at AKHE Theatre. In 2009 she started to direct shows as an independent director, inviting to her team well-known actors and designers.
She collaborated with such St. Petersburg theatres as Theatre of Satire on Vasilyevsky Island, Bolshoi Puppet Theatre, Priyut Komedianta [Shelter of the Comedian], Bolshoi Drama Theatre named after G. Tovstonogov, KontArt producing center, Osobniak [Mansion], Theatre Za Chernoi Rechkoi [Theatre Behind the Black River]. Yana Tumina’s productions numerous times became nominees for and winners of prestigious theatre awards: THE GOLDEN MASK, THE GOLDEN SOFIT, Edinburgh Festival Award, Grand Prix of Mimos Mime & Physical Theatre Festival, etc.
Yana is a dynamic teacher, delivering masterclasses in Russia and abroad.
She is one of the few directors-puppeteers working in the direction of “social theatre” today, combining it with the experimental spirit of her creative searches and continuing to elaborate the poetic, imaginative nature of the language of puppet theatre and the theatre of objects.
Name: Tumina Yana Markovna
Date and place of birth: 27 April 1972, Leningrad
Education: As an undergraduate, I majored in acting and directing at SPbGATI (department of puppet theatre, workshop of Roman Winderman and Mikhail Khusid); that was followed with graduate studies at the department of acting and directing – at the same department.
Career: Since the age of 11, I studied at the experimental theatre school under the guidance of Zinovy Korogodsky.
At 17, I met Boris Ponizovsky and discovered his theatre DaNet [YesNo], where
I started working as an actress. My performance as Miss Julie (Rehearsals with Jean and Miss Julie, after August Strindberg’s play) received awards at several festivals (including the award of Bergman festival in Stockholm, 1994).
In 1996, actress Elena Yunger invited me to take part in the project Three Tall Women after Edward Albee’s play (translated by E. Yunger). The same year I started actively cooperating with the group of artists and designers Maxim Isaev and Pavel Semchenko (AKHE Engineering Theatre). Actress and co-author of virtually all of AKHE’s projects.
In 1998, I started teaching at SPbGATI, where I worked with master teachers Grigory Kozlov, Sergei Tcherkasski, taught in the class of Ruslan Kudashov, was master teacher for two groups of acting students (Kalmyk and Russian-Mongolian groups).
From 2009 until present – an independent director, working with major theatres of Petersburg, the author of a number of social theatre projects and productions.
Favorite authors, subjects, stories: Life, love, and death.
Favorite system of puppets/texture: Theatre of objects and jigging puppets.
Does a performance need text? It depends.
Is the expression “puppet theatre” still relevant today? No.
What, in your opinion, is the difference between puppet theatre in Russia and the West? It is hard to answer this question in the format of interview… let us just say – they intersect.
What is useful about collaboration and cultural exchange? Mutual enrichment.