Biography

Polina Klimovitskaya’s international career as actor, director, producer, and most importantly Master Teacher, has spanned over half a century, throughout which she developed her original training, Kinetic Mind, for actors, directors, and performers.

Polina was born and trained in Moscow, Russia. She began studying classical Russian acting consistently at the age of 13 and performing on stage at 16. She was fortunate to know and to learn from an old generation of Russian greats who preserved pre-soviet culture and worked in theater with some of its best artists. Along side learning traditional Stanislavsky technique through the work of Sergei Yutkevich (a student of Meyerhold) and Rozovsky, she was exposed to  different approaches  to acting and theater pioneered by legendary Meyerhold, Vachtangov, and Michael Chekhov, including studying with Borris Ravenskich, an assistant of Meyerhold. It was also during these years of the classical training that many of her classmates asked her to help and coach them.

Polina participated in dissident movement for freedom of expression, as the Soviet Government censored her own shows. Thus in 1975, she left Russia and arrived America as a political emigrant. She received an MFA and PhD from Yale University and performed with Yale Repertory theater, working with Alvin Epstein and Andrzej Wajda, and she performed in the Oscar winning film Molly’s Pilgrim. In the US and Europe, she continued to train and work with Ryszard Ciezlak, Eugene Barba, Michael Howard, Elaine Summers, among more, and in a lifelong collaboration with Lee Breuer and Ruth Maleczech of Mabou Mines and the American Avant-Garde. 

Polina has directed theater at major venues including The Kennedy Center, leading stages in Portugal and Greece, and shows that travelled through Europe and Brazil.  She was an artist in residence at Mabou Mines Theatre and Leimay Art Organization, and she received grants, reviews in the New York Times, and awards including the Roothbert Fund Award for Innovative Teaching at Yale.

Since leaving Russia, Polina has taught as faculty at institutions including Yale for 20 years, NYU, Bennington College, Hunter college, Shakespeare Conservatory, Stella Adler, ESMAE, and for her mentor Michael Howard for 20 years at his acting studios. She has also given recurring workshops in progressive institutions in Europe, including l’Ecole du Jeu in Paris, Grotowski Institute in Poland, the Conservatory of Dramatic Arts, Gulbenkian Foundation in Portugal, and the Michael Chekhov Studio in Moscow and St. Petersburg. 

With over 50 years of teaching, Polina has trained numerous actors who are working now in theater; some on big Broadway stages and major film and TV; some who head leading innovative theater groups like The Grotowski Center; some in fascinating experimental groups like Mabou Mines, Wooster Group, and Split Bridges; some have become theater or film directors, and some who use her teachings in their own respective fields.

Living in New York City, Polina continues to teach, evolve her methods, and encourage her students to become creators in their own right and stimulate the unique talent present within each. Polina seeks to develop in her students aesthetic sensibilities particular to the art of acting, and she loves to share with her students the stimulating heritage of her Russian culture, to widen their personal horizons, and to stimulate innovative development and techniques in the world of dramatic art.