MAKSYM KUROCHKIN

Maksym Kurochkin, a playwright and screenwriter, is one of the most respected writers in Ukraine. Born in Kyiv, he graduated from the Shevchenko National University where he studied history and archaeology. In the late 1990s, he graduated from the Gorky Institute of Literature in Moscow and split his time between Kyiv and Moscow for the next 18 years. One of his first staged plays was Fighter Class Medea in Vilnius, Lithuania in 1996. His early iconic productions include Kitchen (Moscow, 2000), Stalova Volya (Kyiv, 2001), Repress and Excite (Moscow, 2008), The Schooling of Bento Bonchev (Moscow, 2010; Austin, Texas, 2012), Dulcey and Roxy at City Hall (Austin, Texas, 2014), Vodka, Fucking, and Television (Moscow, 2006; Austin, Texas, 2012; Kyiv, 2017), Titus the Immaculate (Moscow, 2016), and Be Silent, Oedipus (Moscow, 2016). He returned to live and work permanently in his native city of Kyiv in 2017. Some of his major works during this period were Russophobia, Kherson, Asexuals, Laurels, and Tolik the Milkman (a free riff on Tevye the Milkman). His plays have been translated into many languages and performed around the world. Kurochkin is the co-founder and artistic director of the Theater of Playwrights in Kyiv.