Prior to coming to Cambridge, Julia Smeliansky (Lady with a Lapdog co-translator and administrative director of the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training) co-produced and participated in numerous international cultural projects and exchanges, including the Centennial American Tour of the Moscow Art Theatre at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the American Tour of the Boris Eifman Ballet Theatre of Saint Petersburg, the Maya Plisetskaya Gala at The City Center in New York, the Stars of Bolshoi and Kirov Ballet at Lincoln Center, the tour of The National Japanese Noh Theatre in Moscow, and the Revizor Project between the Yale School of Drama and the St. Petersburg Theatre Academy. She was also an associate producer of a three-part documentary on the MXAT and Konstantin Stanislavsky in collaboration with Channel 7 in Paris. Ms. Smeliansky has contributed as a cultural correspondent to several Russian magazines and newspapers, including Moskovsky Nabludatel, Teatr, Domovoi, Moskovskie Novosti, Kultura, and Argumenty I Fakty. Her translations of contemporary American and European playwrights have been produced at major Russian theatres including the Moscow Art Theatre, the Pushkin Theatre of Moscow, and the Komissarzhevskaya Theatre of St. Petersburg, among many. She currently teaches a course in the history and practice of set design at the Institute. Ms. Smeliansky is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama in theatre management and holds an M.F.A. in art history from Moscow State University.
American Repertory Theatre