Dmitry Anatolyevich Krymov is a Russian artist, scenographer, pedagogue and theater director, awarded with the "Golden Mask" award 5 times.in 1976 Krymov started working as a set designer at the Malaya Bronnaya Theater. In collaboration with his father, Dmitry staged Shakespeare's "Othello", "A Month in the Country" based on Ivan Turgenev's play, Alexei Arbuzov's "Memories" and many others. in 1985 transferred to the Taganka Theater, where he created scenography for Svetlana Aleksievich's The Unfeminine Face of War, Boris Mozhaev's One and a Half Square Meter and Molière's The Misanthrope. By the end of the 1990s, he had amassed a portfolio of more than 100 plays staged in Russia and abroad.In the 1990s, when his parents died, Krymov left the theater and devoted himself to painting. He worked as an artist, graphic designer, created installations. His paintings have been exhibited in many countries and have been bought into private and museum collections. At that time, he painted a portrait of Pope John Paul II. The portrait was made from a photograph and later sent as a birthday present to the Pope. As witnesses recalled, the cardinals in the room were shocked when the painting was revealed, as it was done in a surrealistic manner reminiscent of Modigliani's style. But the Pope responded positively, saying: "Noli timere, quia ego sum" ("Fear not, it is I").in 2002 Krymov started a new chapter in his career and tested himself as a teacher and director. The Russian Institute of Theater Arts invited him to its scenography department. At the same time, he produced Hamlet with Valery Garkalin in the lead role. However, critics viewed the play coldly and wrote in the media that Krymov should better return to designing and painting. The following year, Krymov produced Nedozkaski (Not a Tale).in 2004 Krymov entered the Moscow School of Dramatic Art [ru], where he founded his own experimental laboratory with a group of undergraduate students. Together, they published Donkiy Hot (2005), Demon, Seen from Above (2006), Death of a Giraffe (2009) and several other plays, which were widely recognized as a new breath in theater art, an outstanding visionary and multidisciplinary poetry, synthesis of music, art and performance. in 2007 Krymov's laboratory was awarded the Golden Triga for the best national exhibition at the Prague Quadrennial.in 2011 Krymov collaborated with Mikhail Baryshnikov on the production of Ivan Bunin's novel in Paris.in 2016 Krymov was invited to conduct a master class at Yale University. Together with the students of the drama department, he staged the play "The Square Root of Three Sisters" based on Chekhov's novel.In 2014, Krymov signed a collective letter of Russian cultural workers condemning Russia's annexation of Crimea. in 2018 he was forced to leave the Moscow School of Dramatic Art due to pressure from the new director, Olga Sokolova, who censored his plays and expelled students from her laboratory. Until 2018 Krymov was a multiple winner of the Golden Mask and other major theater and art awards. According to Valery Fokin, head of the Russian Directors' League, Krymov's dismissal from the Moscow School of Dramatic Art meant its inevitable collapse.
