Seagull Variations

Alexander Molochnikov is a Russian filmmaker and theater director who has been actively working in Moscow for the past decade and relocated to New York in 2022. At the age of 22, he directed 19.14 Cabaret, an anti-war play about World War I at the Moscow Art Theater of Chekhov. This production was nominated for Russia's prestigious theater award, the Golden Mask. From 2014 to 2018, he produced two more significant works at the MAT. One of these, 19.17 The Bright Path, served as a commentary on the totalitarian regime, the revolution of 1917, and contemporary Russia. His debut film, Myths, featured some of Russia's most renowned actors at the time, including Ivan Urgant, Fedor Bondarchuk, Ksenia Rappoport, and Sergey Bezrukov. His second film, Tell Her, an autobiographical family drama, filmed in St. Petersburg and LA, was nominated at the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) and the Kinotavr festival in Sochi, receiving an enthusiastic response in theaters. From 2018 to 2021, he worked at the Bolshoi Theater, where he directed Carlo Menotti's opera Medium and the ballet The Seagull, which won the Golden Mask award for "Best Ballet of the Year." Just before the outbreak of war, he began filming the series The Monastery, which he both wrote and directed, that ultimately became the highest-grossing series of the year in Russia. While filming, Molochnikov publicly denounced the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, which now prevents him from returning to Russia. In 2024-2025, he plans to direct Crime and Punishment at the Gesher Theater in Tel Aviv and to shoot a short film about political prisoner Sasha Skochilenko.

Part of Under The Radar, the annual festival of experimental theater.

Under the Radar is the United States' premier festival of experimental theater and performance art. As a long-time New York City-based platform for cutting-edge work hailing from around the globe. Produced by ArKtype with Festival Director Mark Russell, UTR has been reimagined in its 20th annual season as a city-wide celebration that incisively speaks to our moment. Rather than being tied to a single host institution, Under the Radar's current iteration is curated collaboratively with an array of renowned arts organizations and curators, each harnessing the connective nature of the festival format to introduce some of the world's most innovative multidisciplinary voices to wider audiences. The 2025 edition of UTR will include over 33 distinct programs at 24 theater spaces, presenting more than 250 performances in only 16 days from January 4 to 19. The depth, breadth and excellence of this year's festival serves as proof that collaboration can power the American theater through this era of existential crisis into a reinvigorat

ed future of conjoined artists ready to embrace diversity, challenge and reinvention.

Staff Festival Founder + Director:  Mark Russell 

Co-Creative Director/Producer-in-Residence:  Meropi Peponides 

Co-Creative Director/Artist-in-Residence:  Kaneza Schaal 

Festival Producer:  Thomas O. Kriegsmann & Sami Pyne | ArKtype 

Producer, Symposium & Coming Attractions:  Iyvon E. 

Producer, Marketing & Public Programs:  Bryn Herdrich 

Director of Development:  Kendall Masson 

Director of Production:  Brian Freeland 

Marketing and Communications Strategy:  Sapphire Stubbs | general population 

Communications Manager, Copywriting & Strategy: John Seroff | GreenHouse Publicity Digital 

Engagement and Social Media Lead:  FAILSPACE 

Press Representation: Blake Zidell & Adriana Leshko | Blake Zidell & Associates 

Website Design: Abigail Browde 

Producing Fellow: Joy Chen 

Dramaturgy Fellow: Anastasia Ellis 

Artist & Presenter Services Fellow: Carolina Hurtado Castro 

Public Programs Fellow: Margot Anderson-Song

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