Andriy May

Andriy May is a director, actor, and theatre curator.

In 1976 he was born in Kherson, Ukraine. After graduating from high school, he studied finance at the Technical University. At that time he worked as an actor and model. In 2001 he founded the New Drama Theatre Studio, where he was engaged in the production of new dramatic texts. In 2003, he began studying at the Ivan Karpenko-Kary National University of Theatre, Cinema and Television in Kyiv, where he specialized in theatre directing, and after graduation continued his studies in the international master's program at the Moscow Art Theatre School-Studio in Moscow. During his studies, he completed an internship in London at the Royal Court Theatre. In 2008, he founded the Vsevolod Meyerhold Center and Lyutyi Theatre Festival in Kherson and began working in the field of documentary and site-specific theatre.  In 2011, he received a master's degree in theatre studies. In the same year, together with Natalya Vorozhbyt and Marisya Nikityuk, they organized the Contemporary Play Week drama competition-festival in Kyiv. In 2014 he became a member of the International Forum Teathertreffen and the Oxford University New Play Forum. From 2013 to 2016 he was a director and actor at the Ivan Franko National Theatre in Kyiv. In 2018, he received a fellowship at the Schloss Solitude Art Academy. Since 2020, he has been the director at the Mykola Kulish Theater in Kherson and has staged about 50 performances in various theatres and countries.

At the end of March 2022, he left Kherson, occupied by russian troops, with his mother and 7-year-old son for Germany, where he realized performances and projects at the Cologne Schauspielhaus, the Hans Otto Theater Potsdam and the Theater der Keller in 2022.

Photo by Helen Bozhko