Oleg Kisseliov - Director

Oleg Kisseliov is a graduate of the Novossibirsk Conservatory in Russia. He graduated as an actor and a director. Oleg Kisseliov has developped Creative Impulse, his own method of physical and psychological training. After working with one of the most reknowned and contraversial companies La Taganka de Moscow, he formed his own official theatre studio in 1982.

His studio has been recognized for its alternative and innovative style. Oleg Kisseliov has given workshops in many countries throughout Europe, notably Belgium, Bulgeria, Germany, Greece, Holland, Italy and Portugal. He also studied at the Superior School of Cinema in Moscow.

From 1995 to 1997 he was the Artistic Director of Koy-Koy Theatre in Montreal. He has received public and critical acclaim for his direction of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, presented in the fall of 1998 by le Groupe de la Veillé. In addition to La Leçon, he has also directed his own adaptation of Nabokov's Laughter in the Dark called Camera obscura, which was presented at Théâtre Prospero in January 2001.

"Since the beginning of my career, I have developed an acting technique called Creative Impulse. I have applied this method on many occasions as both director and teacher in Quebec and in other parts of the world.

This method values the personality unique to the acting profession with the goal of developing the theatre as a contemporary art form still inspired by and connected to its historical and universal roots. Here in Quebec I have found actors particularly open to my approach and their reception has stimulated my work. Francophone theatre should conserve its unique identity faced with American and anglophone theatre, creating links to traditional theatre and global culture.

I seek to establish a verbal structure of the author's ideas through improvisation of the text. Within the concrete form of the show, I will identify the multiple interior processes (psycho-physical) to create a mental space and help bring the actors to an understanding of the essential theme and emotional subject matter. It is important that the actor is at ease in extreme dramatic situations. My work necessitates intense preparation so that actors are equally at ease in front of an audience as in a workshop environment."

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