Paata Tsikurishvili, Founding Artistic Director / CEO

A native of the Republic of Georgia, Paata Tsikurishvili is an innovative, award-winning international Artistic Director, director and educator with over 20 years of experience fusing the classical elements of drama, movement, dance, mime and music.

Since Synetic Theater’s founding in 2001, Mr. Tsikurishvili has directed and performed in Hamlet...the rest is silence, 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, Romeo and Juliet, Carmen, Dante, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Antony and Cleopatra, Othello, King Arthur, King Lear and Don Quixote.

Synetic’s inaugural production, Hamlet...the rest is silence, received three Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Director, Outstanding Resident Play and Outstanding Choreography. Over the past ten seasons, Mr. Tsikurishvili’s work has drawn critical acclaim and garnered 79 Helen Hayes Award Nominations and 21 Helen Hayes Awards, including three awards for Outstanding Resident Play. Personally, Mr. Tsikurishvili has earned 26 individual Helen Hayes Award Nominations and nine individual Helen Hayes Awards, receiving the Award for Outstanding Director four times (Hamlet...the rest is silence, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Othello).

As an educator, Mr. Tsikurishvili has trained hundreds of actors in physical acting, mime and movement technique through Synetic Theater and through teaching at leading universities, such as American University, Catholic University of America and Georgetown University. He holds an MFA in Film Directing from Tbilisi State University and a BFA in Acting from State Institute of Theater and Film, Tbilisi, Georgia.