Eimuntas Nekrošius (born November 21, 1952 in Pažobris village, Raseiniai district municipality, died in November 20, 2018) was one of the most renowned theatre directors in Lithuania.

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Career

In 1978 Nekrošius graduated from Lunacharsky Institute of Theatre Arts in Moscow. After returning to Lithuania Nekrošius has been working in the Vilnius State Youth Theatre from 1978 until 1979. In 1979 he moved to the Kaunas State Drama Theatre, where he stayed for a year until 1980. 1980 he returned to Vilnius State Youth Theatre, where he staged series of notable plays:

Among the features characteristic to his plays are the soothing background music of a repetitive pattern throughout the performance, extensive use of dance and movement and unique props on stage, as well as an employment of natural substances as water, fire, wind, ice and stone. The length of a single performance often exceeds conventional viewing time, since Nekrošius favours complex and challenging pieces to stage, such as the Song of Songs or The Seasons by Kristijonas Donelaitis.

Notable plays

• The Square (1980),
• Pirosmani, Pirosmani (1981),
• Rock opera Love and Death in Verona by Sigitas Geda and K. Antanėlis’ (1982, renewed in 1996),
• Chinghiz Aitmatov's The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years (1983),
• Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya (1986),
• Nikolai Gogol's The Nose (1991),
• Little Tragedies by Aleksandr Pushkin,
• Hamlet by William Shakespeare (1997),
• Macbeth (2002) (Bolshoi theater, Moscow)
• The Children of Rosenthal (2005) (Bolshoi theater, Moscow)
• Johann Wolfgang Goethe's Faust (2006).
• "The Idiot" by Fiodor Dostojevski (2009);
• "Caligula" by A.Camus (Theater of Nations, Moscow, Russia) (2011);
• "Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri (2012);
• "Paradise" by Dante Alighieri (2013);
• "The Book of Job" based on The Old Testament (2014)

Awards

Plays by Nekrošius were awarded diplomas of various theatre festivals in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia and other countries. Nekrošius is a laureate of numerous state awards.

• 1994 Nekrošius received a special prize of the Lithuanian Theatre Union as the Best Director of the Year, and the Baltic Assembly Prize for Literature, the Arts and Science for Aleksandr Pushkin's Little Tragedies (Mozart and Salieri. Don Juan. Plague) as the best theatre performance in the Baltic States.
• 1997, Nekrošius produced one of his most successful directions – Hamlet by William Shakespeare, starring Lithuanian music idol Andrius Mamontovas. The play took part in nearly all main European theatre festivals and received numerous awards including Lithuanian National Prize.
• 1997, Nekrošius received prestigious polish prize for directors - Konrad Swinarski Award of miesięcznik "Teatr", polish theatre monthly journal - for "Hamlet".
• November 2002, Nekrošius produced Giuseppe Verdi's opera Macbeth at Teatro Comunale Florence.
• In 2001, Nekrošius received the prestigious international Konstantin Stanislavski's award in Moscow.
• In 2005 he received the Herder Prize. In January 2008, Italian theater critics recognized Nekrošius' staged play Faust as the best foreign production in Italy and awarded UBU Prize, a third one in Nekrošius carrier.
• 2008 Nekrosius received the third Honorary Award of the 16th International Istanbul Theater Festival