"The Synetic Theater traffics in rapturously surrealist stagecraft."
Bob Mondello
Synetic Theater is Washington DC’s premier physical theater company. Founded in 2001 by the husband and wife team of Paata and Irina Tsikurishvili, Synetic seeks to advance and enrich the theater arts in the Nation’s Capital through its unique performance style, which fuses the classical elements of drama, movement, dance, mime, and music into a distinct form of non-realistic theater. This form is simultaneously avant-garde and accessible, with a broad appeal to a wide, culturally diverse, and cross-generational audience. Synetic produces four original works for the Main Stage season and five shows for the Family Series per year, performs at area schools through its Outreach program, and offers classes for all ages through its Studio.
Synetic Theater made its artistic debut in 2002 with its wordless Hamlet…the rest is silence and quickly established itself as a dazzling, powerful, and innovative physical theater company, receiving the 2003 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Resident Play, Outstanding Choreography, and Outstanding Director. Synetic has continued to build upon its success with each season more impressive than the last. Overall, Synetic has earned 52 Helen Hayes Nominations and won 15 Helen Hayes Awards in only eight seasons, garnering acclaim for its wordless Shakespearean repertoire (Hamlet…the rest is silence, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream) as well as its text- and movement-based classical pieces, such as Host and Guest, Frankenstein, and Carmen.
In 2006, Synetic began its five-year partnership with The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to produce one show per season for The Kennedy Center and has recently extended its contract another three seasons. This season, Synetic has forged an alliance with the Shakespeare Theatre Company to produce its new adaptation of Antony and Cleopatra at STC’s Lansburgh Theatre, solidifying its position as a Washington fixture.
Paata Tsikurishvili
(Artistic Director, Founder)
Paata Tsikurishvili, a native of Georgia, holds an M.F.A. in Film Directing from Tbilisi State University and a B.F.A in Acting from State Institute of Theater and Film, Tbilisi, Georgia. From 1978 through 1991, he trained under and became a principal actor for Amiran Shalikashvili at the world-renowned Georgian State Pantomime Theater. In 1991, he co-founded and then served as artistic director for Mimodrama Theater in Germany, and toured their productions throughout Europe.
In 1997, he became a co-founder and artistic director of the Stanislavsky Theater Studio (STS) in Washington DC, where he co-directed and played leading roles in numerous productions, including The Idiot (nominated for the 2000 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Direction), Le Malade Imaginaire, Faust, and Don Quixote. For Synetic Theater, which he founded in 2002, he has directed and performed in Hamlet…the rest is silence, Host and Guest, The Crackpots, The Master and Margarita. He also directed Salomé, Faust, The Fall of the House of Usher, and numerous other highly successful Synetic productions.
Synetic's inaugural production, Hamlet...the rest is silence, received three Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Director, Outstanding Resident Play, and Outstanding Choreography. As Synetic Theater's Artistic Director, Mr. Tsikurishvili has directed and performed in The Master and Margarita, The Crackpots, Dracula, Host and Guest, and Frankenstein. He has also directed the company's productions of Salomé, Bohemians, Jason and the Argonauts, The Dybbuk, Faust, Frankenstein, Macbeth, Animal Farm, The Fall of the House of Usher, A Christmas Carol, and Romeo and Juliet. Mr. Tsikurishvili's work has received 14 Helen Hayes nominations, including Best Director, Best Sound Design, and Best Resident play. Mr. Tsikurishvili has taught several courses at Catholic University in Washington DC, and also teaches at Georgetown University.
Irina Tsikurishvili
(Resident Choreographer, Founder)
Irina Tsikurishvili graduated from the Tbilisi Chabukiani Ballet School, and she has performed as a principal dancer and mime in numerous productions at the Georgian State Pantomime Theater. From 1993-95, she served as choreographer for the Mimodrama Theater in Saarbrücken, Germany. For STS she choreographed and performed in numerous productions , including The Little Tragedies, The Idiot, Le Malade Imaginaire, Faust, and Don Quixote. She received the prestigious Helen Hayes Awards for Choreography in 2000 and 2001 for her work on The Idiot and Faust, and has also received nominations for The Little Tragedies, and Don Quixote. For Synetic Theater, she has choreographed Hamlet…the rest is silence, Host and Guest, Salomé, The Crackpots, The Master and Margarita and has performed in each of these productions, including the title role of Salomé. For her work on Hamlet…the rest is silence, she received the 2003 Helen Hayes Award for Choreography; she was also nominated for the same award for Host and Guest. Irina was nominated for the 2004 Helen Hayes Award for Choreography for Salomé. Most recently, Irina won the 2006 Helen Hayes Award for Choreography in Frankenstein, and has received three Outstanding Choreography Nominations for 2007, as well as a nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress.
Georgi Alexi-Meskhishvili
(Resident Designer, Co-Founder)
Georgi Alexi-Meskhishvili has been the chief designer for the Rustaveli Drama Theater and the National Opera in Tbilisi since 1975. He has created sets and costumes for more than 200 performances. In 1999, he represented Georgia at the Venice Biennale. In 1996, he became a professor of stage design at Dartmouth College. He has designed sets and costumes for the Moscow Art Theatre, La Fenice (Venice), Teatro Comunale (Bologna), Munich Opera, Habima (Tel Aviv), Teatro San Martin (Buenos Aires), National Theater (Helsinki), Kirov Opera and Big Dramatic Theater (St. Petersburg), Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf, and Metropolitan Opera (NYC). In Washington DC, he has designed sets and costumes for Shakespeare Theatre (King Lear) and for Synetic Theater (Hamlet...the rest is silence, Host and Guest, Salomé, Animal Farm and The Fall of the House of Usher). From The New York International Fringe Festival, Mr. Alexi-Meskhishvili received the Overall Excellence in Design award for Host and Guest.
Anastasia Simes
(Set and Costume Designer)
Ms. Ryurikov Simes was born in Moscow and graduated from the Surikov School of Fine Arts, Moscow, in 1987. She then acquired an MFA from The Russian Institute for Cinematography in 1994. Since her arrival in Washington, DC, in 1993, her art has been exhibited at several solo and group shows in Washington, New York, and Europe. Mrs. Ryurikov Simes' drawings have appeared regularly in film and literary magazines, and her work has been praised by a number of critics. Her theatrical works, Fathers and Sons, with The Stanislavsky Theatre Studio, The Master and Margarita, Bohemians, The Dybbuk, Frankenstein, and Macbeth with Synetic have won critical acclaim, and for her work on Macbeth she was nominated for Helen Hayes Awards in Outstanding Costume Design and Outstanding Set Design.
Irakli Kavsadze
(Resident Sound Designer, Resident Actor)
Irakli Kavsadze (Resident Sound Designer, Resident Actor) Mr. Kavsadze holds an M.F.A. in Acting from the Georgian State Institute of Theater and Film, and has been a company member at the renowned Shota Rustaveli Theater since 1991, where he made his stage debut at the age of seven in Robert Sturua's production of Caucasian Chalk Circle. Mr. Kavsadze has toured extensively, and film credits include Don Quixote and The Cook in Love.As a resident actor, Mr. Kavsadze was seen most recently as Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet. Other roles include: Sender in The Dybbuk, Dr. Van Helsing in Dracula, King Aetes in Jason in the Argonauts, Zviadauri in Host and Guest, Claudius in Hamlet…the rest is silence, Khuta in The Crackpots, and Pilate in The Master and Margarita. Mr. Kavsadze served as sound designer for Synetic Theater's productions including, Salomè, The Master and Margarita, Bohemians, Jason and the Argonauts, Dracula, Macbeth, Animal Farm, and The Fall of the House of Usher.
Yulia Kriskovets
(Business Manager)
Ms. Kriskovets has been with Synetic Theater as a Director
of Development for over 3 years, successfully developing fundrasing
and marketing strategies and writing grants. She took over
the position of Business Manager in December of 2006. She
received an MPA in Community Arts Management at the University
of Illinois and has administrative experience both in business
world and nonprofit environment. In the past, Ms. Kriskovets
worked at the International Festival-Institute at Round Top
and at the University of Illinois.
In addition to Bachelor’s degree
in Management, Yulia holds an MA in Art History from Central
European University, Budapest.
Ben Cunis
(Director of Development)
Ben Cunis has been Director of Development since October of 2007. He has been working and training with Synetic Theater as an actor since 2006. For Synetic, he has appeared in Macbeth, Animal Farm, Hamlet... the Rest is Silence, The Fall of the House of Usher, Romeo and Juliet, Carmen, Host and Guest, and Dante. For Synetic Afterhours he wrote, produced, directed, and acted in Last Tango With Rosie.
Other theatrical credits include Borrachio in Maryland Shakespeare Festival's Much Ado About Nothing, and Lysander in the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival's A Midsummer Night's Dream. His production company, Granite Kiss Productions, recently won the 2008 Washington, DC 24-hour Film Festival with their film "The Choices of Ghosts."
Ben practices parkour at Primal Fitness in Mt. Vernon Sq., Washington, DC, and studies Breakdance and Hip Hop at the DC Dance Collective in Tenleytown. He is a NASM certified personal trainer at City Fitness in Cleveland Park. He received a BA in Drama from the Catholic University of America in 2006, where he studied acting and theatrical production.
