“About Fears”. Photo by Laura Vancevičienė

The director and educator Olga Lapina (b. 1988) graduated from the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts in Moscow in 2011 with a degree in directing. In 2014, she received an MA from Centro Universitario de Teatro UNAM in Mexico. In 2018, she earned a PhD in Art at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. Lapina has taught at the Faculty of Arts of Klaipėda University and the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre.

Lapina’s debut on the professional theatre scene was in 2010, and since then she has directed a number of productions and led creative seminars in Italy, Brazil, France, Germany, Estonia and Russia. This director creates work predominantly for children, and is constantly searching for new forms of dialogue with audiences from different age groups.

As many as four productions directed by Lapina have been awarded a Golden Cross of the Stage: the interactive play for children Stebuklingoji kreidelė (Magic Crayon, 2012), created at the Russian Drama Theatre of Lithuania, another production for children staged at the State Small Theatre of Vilnius Brangusis atrakcionų parko dėde (Dear Uncle from the Amusement Park! 2013), Kodas: Hamletas (Code: Hamlet), an interactive stage play/game that explores various spaces of the Russian Drama Theatre of Lithuania (2016) and an installation performance Apie baimes (About Fears, 2017) created at the State Youth Theatre.

The installation perormance About Fears, created by Lapina in collaboration with the dramaturgist Teklė Kavtaradzė and the scenographer Renata Valčik, is accessible for the whole family. This performance encourages us to not be afraid. The town made up of “fear rooms” born out of the starring actors’ childhood experiences and private stories, invites viewers to travel through it exploring their own experiences and sharing them.

olgalapina00@gmail.com www.olgalapina.net