Sunday, February 21, 2021, 6.00 P.M. (GMT + 2 hours)
Russia
Director: Sofia Nikiforova / Russia
Actor: Geni Macsim
Episode: Day 5, Story 1
about the Director
Sofia Nikiforova
Sofia Nikiforova (born in 1988) is a theatre actress and film director from Saint Petersburg. After stydying Russian Literature at the Saint Petersburg State University, she’s been accepted into the Saint Petersburg Theatre Academy.
In 2014 she became an actress of the new young troup of Lensovet’s Saint Petersburg Academic Theatre, headed by Yuriy Butusov.
During the period from 2014 to 2017, the Lensovet Studio got a lot of popularity and awards because of their performances. Sofia plays Helena Weigel in Cabaret Brecht (musical by texts of B. Brecht and songs by K.Weil, directed by Y. Butusov, 2014), the Fox in The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (M. Romanova, 2015), Henryk in Wedding (by the same play of V. Gombrovich, directed by B. Koc, 2016), Elena in The Sheakspeare’s Room (by the Midsummer Night’s Dream of W. Shakespeare, directed by Y. Butusov, 2016) and many others. For three years, Sofia played about 20 plays.
Sophia’s roles were awarded with leading theater awards in Russia such as The Golden Soffit: Saint-Petersburg Theatre award for the role of Medea; The Harlequin Theatre award in category Best Actress for the performance Birds; The Breakthrough – Saint-Petersburg Youth award (nomination for the roles of Henrik in the play The Wedding and Elena in the play Shakespeare’s Room) etc.
In 2015 she studied the Filmmaking at NYFA (Florence) and started to experiment with video in her theatre works and started shooting her art-documentaries such as DANCE DAY (it was released in Moscow in 2017) and Chronicles of My Love (this theatre documentary is still in it’s post-production process).
The Dance Day film was marked at the International Film Festival in Sochi, the film was included in a screening program of the Inspiration – 2018 Arts Festival, and was also shown on Greek television.
The creative process is a special form of existence and thinking, and both films are dedicated to that. Art is the only driving force that stands in opposition to human ignorance.
As a director, Sofia is mostly interested in the processes of inner transformation of a person, his/her ability to destroy and create and the most important is the search of inner strength in nature and creation.
Since 2018 Sofia is working as an acting couch. There are about 100 online and offline students, both professional and non-professional actors, succecfully managed her stage-speech program Technique of a Conscious Word and now there is another monologue course on – A Hero’s Path. In both of these programs Sofia mixes different deep techniques taken from Russian dramatic system and Eastern meditation culture.
about the actor
Geni Macsim
Geni Macsim graduated from the University of Theatre Targu Mures in 1994 and since then she has been an actress at “Marin Sorescu” National Theatre in Craiova. She made her debut in the musical of Animal Farm by Peter Hall, after George Orwel’s novel, directed by Cristian Hadjiculea, music by Nicu Alifantis.
Both charming in comedies, and impressive in tragic roles, Geni Macsim is one of the most admired and loved actresses of the theatre in Craiova.
During he career of almost 30 years, Geni Macsim has created numerous memorable roles such as: Mița Baston in D’ale carnavalului by I.L.Caragiale, directed by Mircea Cornişteanu (2001), The Nurse in Medea by Euripides, directed by Yiannis Paraskevopoulos (2006), Una in Doi pinguri – written and directed by Mircea Daneliuc (2007) etc.
Geni Macsim performed in Craiova National Theatre’s productions directed by Silviu Purcarete: Oresteia after Aeschylus (1998), Phaedra after Euripides and Seneca etc, and participated in the world’s most important theatre festivals: International Theatre Festival in London – LIFT, The Euro-Scene Festival in Leipzig, Germany, Edinburgh International Festival, Scotland, Theatre of Nations Festival in Seoul, South Korea etc.
Charismatic, feminine, endowed with a statuary beauty, Geni Macsim has worked with famous directors such as Silviu Purcarete, Vlad Mugur, Tompa Gábor, Mircea Cornișteanu, Yiannis Paraskevopoulos, Mihai Măniuțiu, László Bocsárdi, Claudiu Goga, Mircea Daneliuc, Janusz Wiśniewski etc.
Her most recent premiere took place a couple of months ago: Inimă și alte preparate din carne by Dan Coman, directed by Radu Afrim. In the current season she also plays in 7 productions: Talk Radio by E. Bogosian, directed by Bobi Pricop, 1,2,3…Bébé and Gaițele – two very successful performances, as well as in Ajax. An Essay on Dementia after Sophocles directed by Mihai Măniuțiu – in which she can be admired playing the violin. Geni Macsim is also part of the cast of the performances of Fête, Salvatorii melcilor and Occident Express.
Geni Macsim thinks that a director can mold an actor like plasticine is molded by the hands of a child and she states that her aim in her career has always been to reconcile Geni the PERSON with Geni the artist.
