Co- Producing-Artistic Director - Actress - Director
GRADUATE of the THE RUSSIAN STATE INSTITUTE of the PERFORMING ARTS, ST. PETERSBURG, ACTING STUDIO of V. M. FILSHTINSKY
A 2020 Graduate (Suma Cum Laude) from the Studio of V.M. Filshtinsky at the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts in St. Petersburg, Diana Zhdanova played Zocha in the studio’s award-winning production of T. Slobodzianek’s Our Class, which took the Audience Choice and Special Jury prizes at Poland’s 2019 ITSelF International Festival, and St. Petersburg’s prestigious Золотой Софит (Golden Spotlight) Special Jury Prize for “Most Impressive Production of the 2020 Season.”
V.M. Filshtinsky’s exceptional conservatory program is known throughout Russia for its deep work on the Etude Method, the most important part of Stanislavksy’s system. This work on the art of acting is complemented by a full artistic training and cultural education in dance, singing, stage movement, hand to hand stage combat, fencing, voice and speech, theatre history, film history, and art history (with lessons conducted in the Hermitazh Museum).
Ms. Zhdanova has been working with AnomalousCo since 2018 when she appeared in The Biomechanics of Security, and has been a company member since 2019, when she traveled to the US to create and perform multiple roles in Augustine’s Dream, including the 13th century mystic, Elizabeth of Spalbeek. Ms. Zhdanova was Project Director of the St. Petersburg-Krakow-Wroclaw team, wearing multiple hats as actress, co-creator, writer, and co-producer, and driving the collaborative creation of multiple new works and productions, including Claudel - Rodin - The Kiss(in which she plays Camille Claudel), Indecent(which she co-translated, and in which she played the roles of Halina / Dorothy / Freyda), and The Stalking (Девушка, которую преследуют), a short film currently in post production, for which she wrote the screenplay.
In 2021 she successfully produced Beckett & the Virtual - an international laboratory/festival of Beckett one-acts, reconcieved for New Media - and directed “Rockaby,” seen globally online, at the 2021 Sopot Festival (Poland), and in person at the 2022 Beckett Festival and Symposium at Assumption University in Massachusetts. Since relocating to New York City a year ago, her work has been seen in numerous Manhattan locations including the Center at West Park, and forthcoming at the HERE Arts Center.
