DIANA ZHDANOVA

A New York-based, queer dissident Russian theatre artist, Diana Zhdanova graduated Summa Cum Laude from the renowned V.M. Filshtinsky Acting Studio of the Department of Acting and Directing in the St. Petersburg Institute of Performing Arts (Russia). Filshtinsky’s exceptional conservatory program is globally recognized for its deep work on the Etude Method, the most important part of Stanislavsky’s system. Training includes 4 years of singing, voice and speech; dance, movement, combat and fencing; and theatre history, film history, and art history (with lessons conducted in the Hermitazh Museum). This rich artistic preparation deeply informs Diana's approach to directing.

 

Since immigrating to the United States, Zhdanova has been working as a director, producer and actress. She is a 2025 recipient of the Boris Sagan Directing Fellowship at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, where she served as Assistant Director on Spirit of the People, a new work by Tony-nominated playwright Jeremy O. Harris (Slave Play).

 

Since 2020, she has served as Co- Artistic/Producing Director of AnomalousCo, New York’s queer-women led, immigrant, feminist theatre ensemble. As Co-Artistic Director of AnomalousCo, Diana is a recipient of multiple grants, from the Brooklyn Arts Council, ART/NYC Small Theatres Fund, The Puffin Foundation, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and the Nancy Friday Foundation.

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Zhdanova’s work with AnomalousCo includes Beckett.Women., an evening of three Beckett one-acts: “Footfalls,” “Not I,” and Rockaby” at HERE Arts (as director and co-producer); (beyond) Doomsday Scrolling at Center at West Park, HERE Arts, and Off-Broadway at the American Theatre of Actors (as co-director, co-producer and performer); and Beckett & the Virtual, an international laboratory and festival of Beckett one-acts reimagined for New Media, which she conceived and co-produced. Beckett & the Virtual streamed globally online and was featured in the Beckett Symposium at Poland’s 2021 Sopot Theatre Festival. Zhdanova’s production of Beckett’s “Rockaby” — originally directed for new media and live streamed as part of the festival — was presented live, on stage the Brick Box Theatre in Massachusetts, as part of the 2022 "Not I @ 50" Beckett Festival and Symposium sponsored by Assumption University.

 

As an actress, Zhdanova has performed in Russia, Latvia, Poland, and the US. Russian theatre credits include a lead role in T. Slobodzianek’s Our Class, winner of the Audience Choice and Special Jury prize at Warsaw’s 2019 ITSelF Festival, and St. Petersburg's prestigious Golden Spotlight Award for “Most Impressive Production of 2020.” In New York, she has performed in numerous Manhattan theaters, including 59E59 with Labyrinth Theatre; Culture Lab; and with AnomalousCo at Center at West Park, HERE Arts, and Off-Broadway at the American Theatre of Actors.