Irina Kruzhilina is a New York-based director, scenographer, visual dramaturg, experience designer and educator, creating work at the intersection of visual art, live performance, and civic engagement. Her creative endeavors range from interdisciplinary downtown theatre to large scale parades, from opera to site responsive installations. Since 2005, her work has been shown, locally and globally, at Times Square, Tokyo Disney, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Prague National Theatre, the NY Philharmonic, the XXI Commonwealth Games, Barbican Center, and many others. Irina has collaborated with acclaimed artists and organizations including Doug Fitch, Lars Jan, Dmitry Krymov, Geoff Sobelle, En Garde Arts, Mabou Mines, and Arlekin Players.
Irina is the founder of Visual Echo, a New York-based performance organization dedicated to facilitating generative dialogues among people from diverse backgrounds. As the artistic director of Visual Echo Irina has conceived and directed several original productions, including Journey of a Dream, a cross-generational venture developed in collaboration with Peace Child International in commemoration of the UN’s 75th Anniversary, and “Мис”Translation, an interactive installation delving into the artistic potential of verbal and artistic mis-matches.
As an educator, Irina is dedicated to facilitating collaborative artistic exchange among theatre makers from different backgrounds, fostering generous creative educational environments that value a diversity of approaches and ideas. Irina holds the position of associate professor at the New School of Drama, where she co-developed a new MFA program in Contemporary Theatre and Performance. In addition to her work at the New School, Irina serves as a guest lecturer at various educational institutions in the US and worldwide.
Irina is a former NEA/TCG Career Development Program recipient and Target Margin TheatreInstitute Fellow. She holds an MFA in design from California Institute of the Arts, and an MFA in fashion design from the Textile University of Moscow.
Image Gallery
Video Gallery
SpaceBridge explores the impact of political and cultural polarization. It consists of a pre-show installation that interrogates the effect that polarization has on youth, and a live performance that maps the consequences that adults must face for creating a hyper-polarized society and denying younger generations the opportunity to form connections with ‘the other’. SpaceBridge is a deeply personal project which addresses the universal problem of polarization through the lens of the US-Russia conflict. The project invites youth from countries now engaged in conflict, to see one another as human beings separate from the actions of their governments, using the power of personal story to understand the ways in which we are all more similar than different.