Oskaras Korsunovas was born in Vilnius in 1969. In 1993 he graduated in theatre directing (under the direction of Jonas Vaitkus) from the Lithuanian Music Academy. Since 1990 he has staged around 30 performances in Lithuanian and foreign theatres. From the earliest stage, he created his own personal style and established the concept of his theatre. Korsunovas takes the present-day reality of chaos and paradox, absurdity and fragmentation and turns it into his main principle for generating meaning, thus applying the breath of current life to the theatre. Korsunovas is the winner of the National Art and Culture prize, the Europe Prize for New Theatre Realities, and a laureate of several Lithuanian theatre seasons. His productions have toured to many international festivals in Europe, America, Asia, and Australia. He belongs to the generation of directors that attracted the attention of organizers of many international projects and initiatives after the fall of the Berlin Wall, as a source of energy in new theatre. His first performances (a trilogy based on works by early 20th century Russian avantgardists Daniil Kharms and Aleksandr Vvedensky, 'There To Be Here', 'The Old Woman' and 'Hello Sonya New Year', 1990-1994) won acknowledgement in Lithuania and abroad. Since 1997, the director has turned to analysis of the socio-cultural environment of his contemporaries, organizing a group of his peers and announcing the manifesto of a new theatre - a theatre that would not limit itself to aesthetic quests, but rather search for contacts with people experiencing drama in the context of a new time. His international success has enabled Oskaras Korsunovas to continue his work in his homeland, presenting the Lithuanian public with a number of new names in contemporary dramaturgy (Mark Ravenhill, Marius von Mayenburg, Sarah Kane, Sigitas Parulskis, the Presnyakov brothers), and continuing to educate young artists. In 2004 and 2005 OKT arranged the international theatre festival 'Sirens'. So, after intensive expansion abroad, he returns to Vilnius to give the local public its proper due. In recent years, regional relationships have again become intensive, involving close contacts with the neighbouring countries: Poland, Latvia, Russia, Finland, Sweden, and Norway. In the National Theatres of Stockholm and Oslo, Korsunovas stages Jon Fosse, Sarah Kane or his favourite Russian modernists of the 'Oberiu' movement, and systematically explores classics such as Shakespeare or Strindberg. Korsunovas is one of the founders and the artistic director of a public institution, the Oskaras Korsunovas Theatre (OKT). As of 2004 it has changed its name to OKT/ Vilnius City Theatre. Photo by Dmitrij Matvejev