Andrei is an acting teacher and director. He has spent 20 years working in Poland, the UK, the US and Australia. In Poland he worked with companies in the post-Grotowski lineage, including Gardzienice, Song of the Goat Theatre, and was an actor touring internationally with Theatre ZAR, resident company at the Grotowski Institute in Wroclaw.
In Poland he also trained with Zygmunt Molik, one of Jerzy Grotowski's main actors from the Laboratory Theatre. He has taught acting and directed at numerous drama schools in the UK and internationally, including, in the UK, RADA, East 15, ArtsEd, Guildford School of Acting, Drama Studio London and Fourth Monkey Acting Training Company, teaching the Demidov work at the latter two schools.
Andrei teaches the Demidov Technique through DSL in classes and one to one sessions, and is also Director of the DSL LAB, a research space that works with select actors committed to exploring the technique more deeply.
Today, we would like to ask him some broader questions.
Q: Do you direct and/or act in parallel with your teaching, and how do these activities help or interfere with one another?
A: I am also a director, but the last production with my company was a couple of years ago now. There just hasn’t been the time in the last couple of years to come back to directing. My main teaching role now is within Demidov Studio London and the Demidov Association. I do still teach at a couple of the major acting schools in London, but I only teach Demidov now, so this is certainly a benefit to my other teaching.
Q: Which modern actors in your opinion show acting that is in tune with Demidov School?
A: There are many actors I admire, and a few with a sense of freedom and spontaneity that would somewhat align with Demidov.
Q: Russian acting school is one of the most influential in the world - why do you think that is?
A: What was happening in Russia in the late 19th century/early 20th century under Stanislavsky was unique in the world. Nowhere else had attempted to systemise, to anywhere near the same degree, a school of truthful experiencing for actors. For western acting traditions, right down to today, everything that came after Stanislavsky was largely either a so-called ‘development’ of it, or a reaction against it.
Q: Is there a book that you reread over and over again?
A: Well, of course I’m going to say Nikolai Demidov: Becoming an Actor Creator. The other one I return to quite often is Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment.
Q: If you won a big amount of money in a lottery or a prestigious contest, what would you spend it on?
A: Probably a massive bed for my massive dog.
Thank you, Andrei!