Meeting with Alvis Hermanis
Alvis Hermanis, born in Riga in 1965, is one of the most significant directors of his generation in European theatre. Since 1997 Hermanis has been the Artistic director of the New Riga Theatre, a lively young theatre with a contemporary repertoire. His productions are consistent in being orientated around the work of the actor and showing a scrupulous precision in the choice of their form and theatrical vocabulary.
Hermanis trained as an actor at the Latvian State Conservatory. He began directing in 1990. His first projects - Marquise de Sade after Yukio Mishima, The Portrait of Dorian Gray after Oscar Wilde, Fire and Night after Rainis - were acclaimed by the critics as “The best production of the season” and meant a spectacular European debut but also tours in Canada and the USA.
In April 2007, the director Alvis Hermanis was awarded the prestigious Europe Prize for New Theatrical Realities.
