Stage Designs by Vera Mednikova: From Pushkin to Hawthorne

Thursday, January 26, 2017 - Sunday, February 12, 2017

Lower Gallery

The exhibition presents set and costume designs by Vera Mednikova, covering the period from 1969 to 1988. Mednikova’s theatrical career is shared, almost equally, between the Russian and American theater worlds. Vera studied at the prestigious Leningrad Institute of Theater, Music, and Cinematography and, after her graduation, worked in the city of Sverdlovsk, where she designed sets and costumes for fourteen productions. Vera’s Russian designs are distinguished by an imaginative and evocative approach, reminiscent of Appia’s innovative ideas of modern stage design. In Pushkin’s Little Tragedies, her reticent designs are purely suggestive, adding elegance and mystery to the presentation of the famous drama. Immigrating to the US in 1979, Vera Mednikova continued her work as a stage designer for Minnesota’s theaters. On American soil, Vera’s designs explored a more realistic approach. She also ventured into innovative structural designs of ladders and platforms as well as experimented with conceptual design, such her brilliant Terra Nova sets.