Adolf Shapiro

Adolf Yakovlevich Shapiro (Russian: Адольф Яковлевич Шапиро, Latvian: Ādolfs Šapiro, born July 4, 1939, Kharkov, USSR (now Kharkiv, Ukraine)) is a Soviet, Latvian and Russian theater director, acting teacher, playwright and author. People's Artist of the Latvian SSR, Merited Master of the Arts of the Russian Federation (2019), Laureate of the State Prize of the Latvian SSR (1987). Adolf Shapiro was a student and successor of Maria Knebel, who was a student of Konstantin Stanislavsky and Michael Chekhov. Shapiro has earned a worldwide reputation as a preeminent interpreter of Chekhov's work. For more than half a century, Mr. Shapiro has staged highly acclaimed productions across three continents.

From 1962 to 1992 he worked in Latvia as the Artistic Director of the Latvian State Theater of Young Spectators (TYuZ), renamed the Youth Theatre in 1989. His most notable works at that time include Ivanov and Wood Demon by Anton Chekhov, City at Dawn by Alexei Arbuzov, The Forest by Alexander Ostrovsky, Golden Horse by Jānis Rainis, Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen, The Prince of Homburg by Heinrich Kleist, Fear and Misery of the Third Reich by Bertolt Brecht, Tomorrow There Came War by Boris Vasilyev, Democracy! by Joseph Brodsky. The theater had two buildings and two troupes (Russian and Latvian) and was widely known both at home and abroad. The company has won numerous awards at international festivals, including the Grand Prix and Gold Medal at the Theatre on Screen festival in Rome, Italy for the adaptation of The Waltz Invention by Vladimir Nabokov.

Shapiro works extensively in Estonia

Titles and awards

People's Artist of the Latvian SSR (1986) Baltic House Festival Laureate (Best Director, The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht, Linnateater, Tallinn) Laureate of the Union of Theater Workers of Russia Award Hit of the Season Golden Horse by Jānis Rainis (1976)

Bolshoi Theatre

Manon Lescaut by Giacomo Puccini (2016) (Anna Netrebko as Manon. The highest national theater award Golden Mask for the best opera duo – Anna Netrebko and Yusif Eivazov)

Other Theaters of Moscow

The Last Ones by Maxim Gorky (Tabakov Studio Theater, 1995) (the highest national theater award Golden Mask for the best female role – O. Yakovleva as Sofia Kolomiytseva, special jury prize – OlegTabakov as Ivan Kolomiytsev)

The Great Capitulation. The Evening of Bertolt Brecht, 2017

Poland – A Danish Story based on Hans Christian Andersen’s tales, 1992 Israel – The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht, 2002

A Love Story by Isaac Bashevis Singer, 2005

France – An Actor Prepares by Konstantin Stanislavsky, 2006

Right You Are (if you think so) by Luigi Pirandello, 2005

Brazil – Chekhov’s Space based on Anton Chekhov’s plays, 2010

Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev, 2012

China – Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov, 2013 Greece – Rose by Martin Sherman, 2011

Old Times by Harold Pinter, 2014 (Zoe Laskari, Greek theater and cinema celebrity,

starring in both productions)