Lev Shulimovich Shekhtman (born March 10, 1951) is an American

theatre director A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...

and

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

Life and career

Shekhtman received his earliest theatrical education at the local children's theater in his native city of

Chernivtsi Chernivtsi (, ; , ;, , see also #Names, other names) is a city in southwestern Ukraine on the upper course of the Prut River. Formerly the capital of the historic region of Bukovina, which is now divided between Romania and Ukraine, Chernivt ...

(Ukraine), under the supervision of the

Merited Artist of Ukraine Honored Artist of Ukraine (; also translated as Honored (Performing) Artist of Ukraine or Merited (Performing) Artist of Ukraine) is a state honorary title of decoration of the Ukrainian government. Originally awarded by the Ukrainian SSR, the ...

V. V. Bespoletova (В.В. Бесполётова). In 1969, he enrolled in a directing/acting class at the St. Petersburg State Academy for Theatre Arts (then Leningrad State Institute of Theater, Music and Cinematography), in the class of Professor A. A. Muzil (А.А. Музиль). Upon graduation, he spent three years working as a Master level Director at Vologda State Drama Theater. In 1978, he immigrated to the United States. His American directorial debut came in July 1979 with

Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; ; (; () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright of Ukrainian origin. Gogol used the Grotesque#In literature, grotesque in his writings, for example, in his works "The Nose (Gogol short story), ...

's "Marriage" (Н.Гоголь «Женитьба») at the Lexington Conservatory Theatre ( Lexington, New York), starring Michael J. Hume, Susan Smyth, Patricia Charbonneau and Lynne Charnay. It was praised for "inspired performances" and "brilliant direction" by Shekhtman. The same year he began teaching acting and directing at Sonya Moore’s Stanislavski Studio of the Theatre in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. His New York directorial debut was a 1980 Playwrights Horizons production of "Heat of Re-Entry" by Abraham Tetenbaum. The same year, Shekhtman and his former students opened Theater in Action, based in Manhattan, which he ran and managed up until 1990. The theater contained two spaces. One functioned as a main stage, and the other as a theater school, where Shekhtman taught acting and directing. The company’s repertoire included works by

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the three ...

Albert Camus Albert Camus ( ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, journalist, world federalist, and political activist. He was the recipient of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the s ...

Jack London John Griffith London (; January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors t ...

, Berthold Brecht, modern American playwright Michael McGuire, and Russian playwright Grigory Gorin. His Western Hemisphere premier of Gorin’s "The House That Swift Built" opened with the presence of the author in 1986. Shekhtman in the course of his career also collaborated with several famous theater companies ( Manhattan Theater Club,

The Public Theater The Public Theater is an arts organization in New York City. Founded by Joseph Papp, The Public Theater was originally the Shakespeare Workshop in 1954; its mission was to support emerging playwrights and performers.Epstein, Helen. ''Joe Papp: ...

, The American Place Theater and McArthur Theater in Princeton, NJ). Starting in 1986, and for the following seven years L. Shekhtman worked as an actor in various films produced by the Polish film and television director and Oscar winner

Zbigniew Rybczyński Zbigniew Rybczyński (; born 27 January 1949) is a Polish filmmaker, director, cinematographer, screenwriter, creator of experimental animated films, and multimedia artist who has won numerous prestigious industry awards both in the United Stat ...

. Among them was the 1990 Emmy award winning television film "Orchestra", in which Lev plays one of the main roles. He also played the leading role in Jennifer Montgomery’s film "Troika" in the role of the Russian politician

Vladimir Zhirinovsky Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky (, , né Eidelstein, ; 25 April 1946 – 6 April 2022) was a Russian right-wing populist politician and the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) from its creation in 1992 until his death in 20 ...

. His other film appearances include: the role of Vladimir in "Indocumentados", and KGB-1 in the film "The Life Experience". He was also featured in the Russian TV show "Citizen Boss-2." («Гражданин начальник-2») From 1995 to 2000, Shekhtman worked as a news writer and host for several Russian-language television and radio programs. In 2006, he made his debut at St. Petersburg State Molodyozhny Theatre on Fontanka (Russia) directing "Blue Roses”, («Синие розы») based on by

's “ The Glass Menagerie”. In 2008, at the same theatre he directed and adapted for stage a novel “Job” («Иов») by the Austrian writer Joseph Roth. In 2012, Shekhtman staged at The St. Petersburg State Molodyozhny Theatre on Fontanka his third production, his own adaptation based on a cycle of short stories by Sergei Dovlatov, "Ours" («Наши»), entitled "Abanamat!" («АБАНАМАТ!»). In 2014, Shekhtman staged a production of Jean Anouilh's "Antigone" at the Vladimir Regional Academical Drama Theatre in Vladimir, Russia. In 2017, the theater premiered Eugene O'Neill's "Desire Under the Elms", under Shekhtman's direction. In 2017, Shekhtman co-founded the Theater of Russian Actors (TRACT) in New York City, along with producer Mikhail Galkin. In 2017, under Shekhtman's direction, the theater showed the world premiere of "Raskolnikov and the Pawnbroker. A Love Story", by Edward Reznik -- a satire based on ''Crime and Punishment'' by F. Dostoevsky'','' and in 2018, ''Equation with Two Variables (Unknowns),'' after Jean Cocteau and August Strindberg. Lurye, Sharon
"New York theater fills Russian community’s hunger for drama"
, ''

Eurasianet Eurasianet is a news organisation based at Columbia University's Harriman Institute, the United States, that provides news, information and analysis on countries in Central Asia, the Caucasus region, Russia and Southwest Asia. Launched in 2000, ...

'', Jul 10, 2018.

Notes

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shekhtman, Lev 1951 births Living people American theatre directors Soviet theatre directors American male actors American television hosts American talk radio hosts Actors from New York (state) Actors from Chernivtsi Jewish theatre directors Jewish American male actors Jewish theatre people Soviet emigrants to the United States Ukrainian emigrants to the United States