Andrew Visnevski

• Theatre Director. Member of: Directors Guild of Great Britain, British Actors Equity, and the European Academy of Sciences and the Arts in Salzburg
• Former Head of MA Courses at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London; Former External Examiner for MA Actor Coaching and Training at Royal Central School of Speech & Drama, London; Member of the Validation Panel for Post Graduate Course at Rambert School of Dance
• Honorary Research Fellow at St Mary’s University, London 2015-2018

Trained in acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama (1973-76). Began his directing career at the Young Vic Theatre, London. In 1978 he created The Cherub Company London, a pioneering ensemble which, under his artistic leadership until 2003, re-discovered neglected classics such as Life is a Dream, The Two Noble Kinsmen and A Chaste Maid in Cheapside; introduced European drama to UK repertoire and toured its productions in 13 countries on 3 continents, in places as far apart as Holland and Zimbabwe, Spain and Iraq, and Pakistan and the Sudan; visited many festivals in Britain and abroad and mounted seven Edinburgh Festival Fringe premières.

His freelance work includes productions in Holland, Poland and Greece (Hamlet at the National Theatre in Thessaloniki and Wild Honey (Agrio Meli) by Chekov, Macbeth with music specially composed by Mikis Theodorakis, Hamlet - all with the Contemporary Theatre Co in Athens); the first British multiethnic Romeo & Juliet at the Young Vic in 1982; the British premières of two plays by Poland’s outstanding contemporary poet and dramatist, Tadeusz Różewicz, The Trap (1992) and Mariage Blanc (New End, London, 1995); a revival of Brecht’s The Life of Edward II of England at BAC, Riverside Studios, The Place and on UK tour. He has written the award-winning stage adaptation of Kafka’s THE TRIAL which formed the basis for an opera at Dartington in 1986, also of Kafka’s THE CASTLE, of Lokis by Prosper Merimee and, in collaboration with Barbara Bogoczek and Tony Howard, of Mikhail Bulgakov’s cult novel The Master and Margarita. The 2003 season at the Menier Theatre in London opened with The Master and Margarita and a new play by Jeff Lewis, Akhmatova's Salted Herring, which marked the end of Andrew's 25-year association with The Cherub Company.

He runs Theatre Alive! promoting and supporting the work of new professionals and creative aspiration in theatre. His continuing exploration of text-based physical theatre led him in June 2009 to direct French actor Marc-Antoine Damidot in Gogol’s Diary of a Madman in Paris then, afterwards, in 2010, in London and at the Mayfield Festival in a newly-commissioned English translation by RADA alumnus, Jeff Lewis. In September 2010, in a new Greek translation of the same play, he directed Greek actor Laertis Vasiliou for the Balkan Theatre Festival at the Albanian National Theatre in Tirana. A production of a new adaptation of the play in French premièred at the Avignon Festival in July 2014, and was revived in Paris, again with Marc-Antoine Damidot. In 2012 he directed RADA graduate and former RSC actor Brett Brown in Phaedra by Yannis Ritsos, a multi-cultural project with music by Javanese gamelan instrumentalist, Aris Daryono, and in collaboration with graduates of the RADA MA courses, Guillaume Pigé from France (Artistic Director of Theatre Re) and Huan Wang from China. Most recently, he developed Macbeth. A Dialogue as the first stage in his research into the tension between the language of early modern poetic drama and the language of the body and the training of the contemporary actor; he presented the work at the 2016 Bloomsbury Festival in London and at a special performance for the students of the Royal Ballet School, Covent Garden, as part of its Creative Artist Programme. His latest production is Opium, based on the book and drawings of Jean Cocteau, premièred at the RADA Festival, 28th June 2017.

Andrew’s long-standing association with RADA goes back to 1987 and his wide-reaching educational work includes many productions of classics and new plays, courses and projects as guest director for RADA and other leading drama schools in London, as well as design projects for the Slade School of Fine Art.

Professional Skills: Director (text-based physical theatre) - Classical and Early Modern Text, Classical and Continental Theatre; stage adaptation, devising; international workshops in interpreting Shakespeare in the UK, Belgium (annual encounters with the Brussels Shakespeare Society), Israel, France (collaboration with young actors-in-training of the Théâtre IRIS in Lyon) and Greece (masterclasses for UTE Decentralised Academy).