Stas Zhyrkov

Stas Zhyrkov is a director and theatre manager. He studied acting and directing at the National University of Culture and Arts in Kyiv. In 2008, he founded the independent Open View Theatre in Kyiv together with Ksenia Romashenko. From 2014 to 2019, he was artistic director of the Golden Gate Theatre in Kyiv and then moved to the Left Bank Theatre there as artistic director from 2019 to 2022. Since 2021, he has also been head of the theatre department at the City Academy for Estrada and Circus Arts in Kyiv. His international working relationships include the Theater Magdeburg, where he participated in the Wild East Festival in 2016 with Pavlo Arie's play »Am Anfang und Ende der Zeit«. Zhyrkov's directing work has received numerous awards: in 2011, he won the Kyiv Pectoral Theatre Award in the category Best Directorial Debut for the play »Natasha's Dream«. In 2017, he was awarded the honorary title of Honoured Artist of Ukraine. He has directed around 50 plays in Ukraine, Lithuania, Germany and Switzerland. In Germany, he has worked at the Schaubühne Berlin, the Nationaltheater Mannheim, the Münchener Kammerspiele and the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, among others, since 2022. Ukrainian theatre makers Stas Zhyrkov and Pavlo Arie have already made guest appearances at the 2017 Heidelberg Stückemarkt. The world premiere of »König Lear – der letzte Gang« by Pavlo Arie, based on an idea by William Shakespeare, is Stas Zhyrkov's first directorial work at Theater und Orchester Heidelberg.