Unprotected Senses

Kama Ginkas was born in Kaunas, Lithuania, in 1941, a few weeks before the German armies crossed the border. He and his family were among almost thirty thousand Jews confined to the Kaunas ghetto. Of the thousands of children in the ghetto, just SIX survived the war. And one of them was Kama Ginkas. His family managed to escape. The little boy was hidden from the Nazis by various people, including an actress and a Catholic nun.

Sixty years later Kama Ginkas is one of the most groundbreaking theater directors of his time.

His path to prominence was complicated. Though he graduated from the Leningrad Institute of

Theater, Music and Cinematography in 1967 (his teacher was the great director, Georgy Tovstonogov), he wasn’t able to conform to the requirements of Soviet “socialist realism” and almost didn’t work professionally until the late 1970s.

Almost twenty years after his professional debut, with dramatic political changes taking place in Russia in the second half of eighties, his talent flourished. His real trademark became prose adaptations. He is famous for his trio of Dostoevsky adaptations, Notes from Underground, We Play “Crime” and K. I. from “Crime.” They were followed by two adaptations of Chekhov’s short stories, The Black Monk and The Lady with the Lapdog.

During the last two decades Ginkas has frequently worked abroad, and his productions have earned him international recognition. He is a professor of directing at Moscow Art Theater School and at the Helsinki Academy of Arts.

In the past few years he has become a significant presence in the American theater scene.

In 2003 he directed The Lady with the Lapdog at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA and his famous production of K.I. from “Crime” played on tour at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, New York.

In January 2004 he finished directing the last of his Chekhov trio, an adaptation of “Rothschild’s Fiddle.” The world premiere took place January 15 at the Yale Repertory Theater in New Haven, CT. After that it took up residence in repertory at the New Generation Theater in Moscow.

In June 2004 he directed The Lady with the Lapdog at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, MN.

In January 2005 he brought K.I. from “Crime”to the Freight Entrance Theater in New York.

Tatyana Gessen graduated from the Moscow Art Theater School in 1990. She worked as an actress at Moscow theaters for nine years. In 1999 she relocated to the United States where she studied filmmaking at the New York Film Academy. Her insider’s understanding of the stage production process made her uniquely qualified to film a documentary about theater director Kama Ginkas.

Her insider’s understanding of the stage production process made her uniquely qualified to film a documentary about the extraordinary Russian theater director Kama Ginkas.

John Freedman, an American, has lived in Moscow since 1988. His articles for The Moscow Times (of which he has been the Theater critic since this English-language daily was founded in 1992), the New York Times and many other publications have established him as the leading American authority on contemporary Russian theater.

He is the co-author, with Kama Ginkas, of Provoking Theater: Kama Ginkas Directs. Among his eight other books is Moscow Performances: The New Russian Theater 1991-1996. His translations of Russian drama have been performed in the United States and Australia and he has published in numerous books and journals.

To order a copy of Protected Senses on DVD send a check or money order for $19.00* to:

Pushkin Studio, 30 Sippewissett Road, Falmouth, MA 02540, USA

(*Price includes shipping to North American addresses. Overseas customers add $3.)