Independent festival of Russian-language drama
New voices. New stories. Together.
2026 · SAVE THE DATES
Six plays. Two full festival days.
More space for new playwrights, directors, and actors.
More readings in English than ever before.
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Performance Space and GalleryMoscowTbilisiViennaStrasbourgLos AngelesMunichKirkenesYerevanPragueZurichTallinnWarsawHelsinkiFrankfurt am MainJyväskyläGranadaBakuBerlinIstanbulBelgradeParisTel AvivHaifaNarvaTartuTokyoLondon
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
Theater that starts
a conversation.
For over 35 years, the Lubimovka Festival has been introducing the world to emerging playwrights who write in Russian, regardless of their background or culture. Through staged readings, the festival explores urgent and relevant themes, drawing attention to what truly matters today. After each reading, there will be a Q&A session with the authors and directors. Our goal is to bring together local theater and film enthusiasts, and the professional community interested in contemporary issues and art. We are eager to collaborate with local directors, playwrights, actors, and producers to foster creative exchange and dialogue between cultures — to share experience, perspectives, and artistic approaches, building a bridge between the Russian-speaking and international theater scenes.
About the festival ↗NOVEMBER 21–22 · HIGHWAYS
Festival program
Six plays. Two full festival days.
NOVEMBER 21 · 2026
Confusion
Denis comes to psychotherapist Marta looking for help, but as their conversations unfold, it becomes increasingly difficult to tell who is the patient and who is doing the healing. Funny, vulnerable, and full of unexpected turns, Confusion is a story about two people trying to make sense of their fears, relationships, and themselves — and perhaps finding each other in the process.
PLAYWRIGHT
Aliaksei Makeichik
Aliaksei Makeichik was born in 1985 in Logoysk, Belarus. He graduated from Belarusian National Technical University, completed a screenwriting course at the Minsk Film School-Studio, and earned a master’s degree in playwriting and screenwriting from the Boris Shchukin Theatre Institute. His plays have been shortlisted for the Lubimovka, Remarka, Eurasia, and WriteBox contemporary playwriting competitions.
DIRECTOR
Dmitry Zimin
Dmitry Zimin is a theater director with over eighteen years of professional experience. He graduated from the Yekaterinburg State Theatre Institute in 2012, where he studied in the studio of A. V. Neustroev.
His work spans classical drama, prose adaptations, and contemporary and experimental plays. An active participant in inclusive and socially engaged theater, he has directed more than 40 productions at over ten theaters across Russia and Belarus.
A woman in her forties is starting over in a new country, struggling with money, work, loneliness, and the nagging fear that leaving home may have been a terrible mistake. Through it all, her young daughter remains fearless, curious, and determined to see the good in people. A tender and unexpectedly funny story about immigration, resilience, and the part of ourselves that keeps believing everything will be okay.
PLAYWRIGHT
Anna Vlasiuk
Anna Vlasiuk was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, where she lived until the age of 35. Trained as a philologist, she spent many years working on international projects ranging from equipment and textile distribution to theatrical productions. In 2022, she moved to London, where she earned a master’s degree in Film and Television Producing. She now works in the international film industry while also writing, translating books, and contributing to theater projects.
DIRECTOR
Jenna-Rose Hannah
Singer, songwriter, actress, comedian, and multidisciplinary storyteller Jenna-Rose Hannah began performing in musical theater at age six. A graduate of the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, she has performed jazz and R&B across Los Angeles, New York City, San Diego, and Baltimore, and has worked in radio and on-camera hosting.
Her original music includes “Daddy’s Little Girl” and “Out Of My Head,” and her one-woman musical 5150… A Musical was featured in the United Solo Festival and Hollywood Fringe Festival. This production marks her debut as a director.
AI can not only process data but also “live through” a story, provided it is given a sufficiently complex scenario. This prompts us to consider where the algorithm ends and something greater begins.
PLAYWRIGHT
Vasiliy Sigarev
Vasiliy Sigarev is a Russian playwright, screenwriter, and film director. He studied under playwright Nikolay Kolyada at the Yekaterinburg Theatre Institute. His plays Plasticine, Black Milk, and Ladybird were staged at London’s Royal Court Theatre. In 2002, Plasticine earned him the Evening Standard’s Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright. His films include Wolfy (2009), Living (2012), and The Land of Oz (2015).
DIRECTOR
Artёm Nasybulin
Artёm Nasybulin is a Russian film and television director and actor, born on September 4, 1977. He graduated from the acting department of the Boris Shchukin Theatre Institute and subsequently performed at the Nikitsky Gate Theater.
Since 2006, he has worked extensively in film and television, directing nearly thirty projects across genres including drama, mystery, and historical fiction. His directing credits include Love Is Love (2006–2007), The Provincial Girl (2008), Moscow Mysteries (2020), Doctor Preobrazhensky (2020–2025), and Alexander I (2025).
NOVEMBER 22 · 2026
How Sasha came to love a beer?
Law student Sasha lands an internship at a criminal investigation office, expecting paperwork, crime scenes, and the usual bureaucratic absurdity. What she doesn't expect is Ulya. Told with sharp humor and the clarity of a memory revisited ten years later, this is a coming-of-age story about first love, freedom — and acquiring a taste for beer along the way.
DIRECTOR
Angelina Podorozhnaya
Angelina Podorozhnaya is an award-winning documentary director with a decade of experience exploring social issues, human rights, and the lives of vulnerable communities. Her media projects have attracted more than 69 million views, and her films have aired on independent networks including TV Rain and Current Time TV.
Her work has received the Special Jury Prize at ArtDocFest/Riga, awards from the Canadian Embassy and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, and support from European foundations. She holds a U.S. EB-1A extraordinary ability visa in recognition of her professional achievements.
NOVEMBER 22 · 2026
A couple of thoughts in a matchbox
A young teacher enters the enclosed world of a boarding school for children with disabilities and discovers an entire universe inside it. Through funny, painful, and deeply personal encounters with his students, the play explores teaching, loss, acceptance, and what it means to truly see another person.
PLAYWRIGHT
Alexander Sokoltsov
Alexander Sokoltsov studied philology at Irkutsk State University’s Institute of Philology, Foreign Languages and Media Communication and earned a master’s degree focused on the analysis of literature, theater, film, and painting. He currently performs with Irkutsk’s Theater of Inner Practice and is a member of the Drama theater studio.
His theater work includes a staged reading of Circles on the Water at the Alexander Vampilov Cultural Center and a New Year’s comedy revue, Who Killed Dead Moroz?, based on his own script. His dramatic sketch A couple of thoughts in a matchbox won first place in the Criticism and Journalism category at the literary conference “Youth. Creativity. Modernity.”
DIRECTOR
Anastasia Demidova
NOVEMBER 22 · 2026
Open relationship
After moving from Russia to Germany, a couple decides to open their relationship. What begins as an experiment in freedom leads to dating apps, new encounters, jealousy, desire, and uncomfortable questions about what they actually want from each other. An intimate queer drama about immigration, identity, and how complicated honesty becomes when the familiar rules of love no longer apply.
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