Tbilisi university students win Bulgarian prize with director Data Tavadze’s play
Tweet 
Share
A theatre play staged by acclaimed young director Data Tavadze and featuring students of Tbilisi’s principal theatre university was distinguished with a major prize at the International Student Theatre Festival on Saturday.
Faces, a production based on short stories by Nobel Prize laureate Yasunari Kawabata, claimed the Best Company award at the Bulgarian theatre event.
It was presented at the UNESCO-supported event by students of the Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film Georgia State University.
[Faces is a] minimalistic, extremely emotional performance which preserves the delicacy of [Kawabata’s] ‘Palm-of-the-Hand Stories’.
The performance tells us about our ephemerality in time and how problematic it is for the human being, about loneliness, love and death”, said a summary of the play from the festival.
The staging is a co-production between the Shota Rustaveli university and Tbilisi’s Royal District Theatre, where Tavadze works.
It was part of the festival — named after actor Danail Chirpansky — alongside six other productions from companies including the National Theatre of Greece Drama School, High School of Dramatic Arts of Madrid and the Russian University for Theatre Arts.
The Best Company prize received by ‘Faces’ at the festival. Photo: Royal District Theatre.
Tavadze’s staging features Shota Rustaveli university students Natalia Gabisonia and Nika Gogidze in principal roles.
The award marks the latest international success for Tavadze, who was honoured with the main award of the Fast Forward European Festival for Young Stage Directors in Germany last year.
Born in 1989, Tavadze joined the Royal District Theatre in 2008 and has staged celebrated productions including Women of Troy and Miss Julie.
The International Student Theatre Festival is supported by UNESCO’s International Fund for the Promotion of Culture.
Tbilisi's Nodar Dumbadze Professional State Youth Theatre will become the first Georgian troupe to perform for theatre-goers flocking to the UNESCO World Heritage Site city of Butrint in Albania to attend International Festival of Theatre 'Butrinti 2000'.
Theatre-goers visiting the international festival 'Melpomene of Tavria' in southern Ukraine will see Tbilisi’s Griboedov Theatre with their award-winning play The Government Inspector this week.
Young Georgian theatre director Data Tavadze has been recognised as one of the most promising European theatrical creators after being awarded the top prize at a German theatre festival on Sunday.
A Georgian theatre’s staging of an ancient Greek tragedy in Poland has drawn praise by reviewers.
The young Georgian director and playwright Data Tavadze will be presenting the German classic Love and Intrigue at the Dresden State Theatre next month.
Acclaimed young theatre director Data Tavadze has premiered his newest work on a German stage, as the brightest talent of Georgian stage art oversaw a production of Intrigue and Love at the Staatsschauspiel Dresden over the weekend.