Two Plays from the New Russia

Daniil Gink was born into a theatrical family in 1969. His father Kama Ginkas, and his mother, Henrietta Yanovskaya, are both directors who have gained worldwide recognition since the mid-1980s. Daniil is a 1992 graduate of the directing faculty of the Moscow Art Theatre School. Bald/Brunet, his first play, premiered in December 1991 at the Stanislavsky Drama Theatre where it still performs to sell-out houses today. His second play, Katerina Ivanovna, opened under the title K.l. from "Crime" at the Young Spectator Theatre in 1994. Alexei Burykin was born in 1968. After graduating from the acting faculty of the Moscow Art Theatre School in 1990, he worked for a short time as an actor. Since the sensational premiere of Nijinsky in February 1993, he has devoted himself primarily to writing. His most recent work is Basmachkin, a dramatization of Nikolai Gogol's classic story, ''The Overcoat". About the Translator and Editor: John Freedman holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He lives in Moscow where he is the theatre critic for the English-language daily, the Moscow Times, and is Co-Editor of the Russian Theatre Archive. He is the author of Silence's Roar: The Life and Drama of Nikolai Erdman. John Freedman is translator and editor of The Major Plays of Nikolai Erdman: The Warrant and The Suicide and A Meeting About Laughter: Sketches, Interludes and Theatrical Parodies by Nikolai Erdman with Vladimir Mass and Others, also published by Harwood Academic Publishers.