Timofei Kulyabin was born in 1984. In 2007 he graduated from the directing faculty of the State Institute of Theatre Arts in Moscow in the class of O. Kudryashov. While still a student he made his professional stage debut with the production “On Nevsky Prospect” by Nikolai Gogol at the Omsk Drama Theatre (2006). Since 2007 he has worked at the Novosibirsk Academic Theatre “Red Torch”, and in 2015 he headed the theatre, becoming the youngest chief director in Russia at that time. He was head of the “Red Torch” Theatre until February 2022 and during this time carried out a number of productions offering radical contemporary interpretations of A. Pushkin’s “The Queen of Spades” (2007) and “Onegin” (2012), with which he became a winner of the National Theatre Award “Golden Mask”. Also “Hedda Gabler” by Henrik Ibsen (2012), “KILL” (based on “Treachery and Love” by Friedrich Schiller, 2013), “Three Sisters” by Anton Chekhov (2015) - a performance awarded with the National Theatre Award “Golden Mask” and “Best Performance” for 2015. “The Trial” by Franz Kafka (2016), “Children of the Sun” by Maxim Gorky (2018, winner of the National Theatre Award “Golden Mask”), “The Wild Duck” by Henrik Ibsen (2021).
Among Timofey Kulyabin’s productions in other theatres in Russia are: “Dress-code” at the “Comedian’s Shelter” Theatre (St. Petersburg, 2012), “Elektra” (2013), “Ivanov” (2016) and “The Broken Cannon” (2020) at the Theatre of Nations (Moscow). He has also worked in a number of drama theatres in Europe, where he has staged productions of “Livejournal” (Russian Drama Theatre, Riga, 2007), “Kolyma Stories” by Varlam Shalamov (Residenztheater, Munich, 2018), “Nora or A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen (Schauspielhaus, Zurich, 2019), “Miss Julia” by August Strindberg and “Platonov” by A. Chekhov (Deutsches Theater, Berlin, 2020 and 2022).
In 2022, on the stage of the Dailes Theatre in Riga, he directed “In the Loneliness of the Cotton Fields”, based on the play by Bernard-Marie Koltes, starring Ingeborga Dapkunaite and John Malkovich - a show that is already going on a world tour this year and can be seen in many different countries.
Timofey Kulyabin directed his first opera production - “Prince Igor” by A. Borodin, performed in 2009 at the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre. His second production in this theatre - “Tannhäuser” by R. Wagner, provoked a political scandal with the church in 2014 and the performance was pulled down. Nevertheless, the director continues to work successfully on the stages of a number of opera houses such as. Donizetti (2016) and A. Donizetti’s “Rusalka”. Verdi (2017) and “Oedipus Rex” by I. Stravinsky (2019), and at the Prague National Opera “Distant Bell” by F. Schreker (2022).
In connection with his unequivocal anti-war stance, Timofey Kulyabin was forced to leave his post as the chief director of the “Red Torch” Theatre and all his productions planned for the coming years in Russia were cancelled. He currently lives and works in Europe. His upcoming productions include “Fear and Misery in the Third Reich” by Bertolt Brecht (Tallinn Drama Theatre, Estonia) and “Macbeth” by W. Shakespeare (Frankfurt Drama Theatre, Frankfurt am Main, Germany).
