Oxana Smilková - Professional presentation

Oxana Smilková was born into a family of university professors – a doctor of economics and a teacher of languages and literature in Kiev, Ukraine. She studied acting at the Kiev State Institute of Theatre Arts (at the studio of Professors N. Rushkovsky and M. Reznikovitch) and later studied directing under Professor Andrey Goncharov at the A.V. Lunacharsky Institute for Theatre Arts in Moscow. After completing her studies for a doctoral degree in philosophy she defended her dissertation in aesthetics and gained the scientific title of Candidate of Philosophical Sciences – Doctor of Philosophy.

She began her directing career in Kiev in 1979, where she founded the Kiev Theatre of Poetry. She continued in the field of directing at various theatres in Moscow (Comedy Theatre, Moskoncert, MCHAT etc.). Since 1989 she has been the artistic director of the Theatre Mime and Geste in Moscow, as well as of the Centre of Visual and Theatre Art at the International Academy of Art. She founded the international arts programme “Europe – house of art”. She was appointed as a corresponding member of the International Academy of Art, and in 2007 an academic. Since 1996 she has been a member of MOIF Cambridge.

Since 1994 she has been living and working in the Czech Republic, which has granted her Czech citizenship. She works as a guest director at various theatres throughout the Czech Republic and European Union, and also as a teacher at the Theatre Faculty of JAMU Brno (head of the acting studio). She is also active in a number of universities in the Czech Republic. She has organised several international theatre and cultural events, such as the international theatre festival Labyrinths of Acting in 2007.  

Her professional interests also include the visual arts, in which she has been involved since her childhood. She exhibits her works in various galleries worldwide (Europe, the USA, Czech Republic, Russia). Her name is listed in the encyclopaedia of Czech and Slovak artists.