Theatre teacher from the UK opens this year’s project “Theatrical windows. Work in progress”

Lana Biba, a teacher and a director from the UK, opens this year’s project “Theatrical windows. Work in progress”. Together with the students of Kharkiv I.P. Kotlyarevsky National University of Arts, she is going to stage a play in the spirit of physical theatre of Jacques Lecoq.

On 28 and 29 October, she will conduct physical theatre workshops for the students of the Theatre Faculty of Kharkiv I.P. Kotlyarevsky National University of Arts. The classes will be streamed online. Over the next 10 days, she and the students will be working on a new show.

So far, the teacher is vague about the topic she intends to offer to the students for joint work, so this might come as a surprise to participants of her laboratory.

Lana Biba is a Swede of Ukrainian descent who lives and works in the UK. Since childhood, Lana dreamed of performing on stage. She was particularly drawn to the art of pantomime and clowning. Her dream came true: as luck would have it, she became a student of the famous French mime Marcel Marceau in Ecole International de Mimodrame (Paris). According to the media reports, she proved to be one of the top students out there. She went on with her post-graduate studies in the Jacques Lecoq physical theatre techniques at London International School of Performing Arts (LISPA).

Lana Biba is a co-founder of 2theatre company. She and her troupe won awards for two performances from such distinguished theatre forums as Edinburgh International Theatre Festival  (Fringe program) and London Solo Festival Award. She worked in Cirque du Soleil; took part in the world tour SOAP The Show; she performed on the stage of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden (London, UK) and the Teatro Arriaga in Bilbao (Spain); worked together with prominent theatre directors such as Tim Supple (National Theatre London), Akram Khan (Akram Khan Dance Company), Chris Evans (Gecko Theatre) and Cal McCrystal (Spiderman2 Hollywood).

Her career of a teacher covers physical theatre, ensemble, mask, pantomime, dancing and puppet theatre. She taught at the Central School of Speech and Drama (London), Stockholm University of Dramatic Arts (Sweden), Drama School Mumbai (India), Horse Trade Theatre Group (NYC, USA) and Cirque du Soleil (Montreal, Canada).

Lana Biba is giving classes in Kharkiv within framework of the “Theatrical windows. Work in progress” – a project initiated by the Theatre na Zhukah (Kharkiv, Ukraine) and supported by the International Relief Fund-2021 of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany. The project further intends to invite directors from Germany, France and Poland. All of them will not only hold workshops, presenting their schools and methods to the students, but will stage blitz shows with the future actors as well. The same shows will be open to public later on. The schools of Grotowski, instrumental actor and commedia dell’arte will be presented during the following stages of the project. And all “work in progress” blitz shows created in the course of the project will be integrated into one big students’ play in February 2022.

This year, the project is financed by the International Relief Fund-2021 that provides assistance to organizations conducting their activities in the sphere of culture and education with the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany, Goethe-Institut and other partners: www.goethe.de/hilfsfonds.