Distinguished Artist of Russia

Yelena Zimina graduated from the drama department of the Leningrad State Institute of Theater, Music, and Cinematography in 1990 (Ye. Padve’s class). Since 1992, she is actress at the Leningrad Academy Drama Theater named after A. Pushkin. The very first season of Yelena Zimina at the theater showed the broad scale of the young actress’s line of roles: she has the rare today capacity to impersonate lyric characters, and at the same time she is capable of playing comedy and sharp character roles. She had debuted practically simultaneously in two performances: W. Shakespeare’s tragedy “Hamlet,” where she impersonated Ophelia (director Rostislav Goryaev, 1992), and C. Goldoni’s comedy “The Mistress of the Inn” (director Vladimir Vorobiev, 1992), where she played the role of Deyanira. Her Ophelia looked like a tender and naive child, for the first time in her life encountering the ruthless laws of surviving among the people. In the midst of a noisy mixed crowd of vagrant musicians performing a public theater action about the Prince of Denmark, she was the only one who was not following the rigid rules. Her openness, fragility, and vulnerability withstood the world of a ruthless and rude show-booth. On the contrary, the role of adventurous Deyanira pretending to be a noble lady allowed Yelena Zimina to plunge deep into festivity of theatrical actions and impersonation. The actress built up her role on the contrast of eternal simple-heartedness and mischievous slyness of her extremely funny and charmingly feminine heroine.  

Yelena Zimina has this special stage grace, exquisiteness and lightness, some internal volatility and liveliness in the shadows of her feelings and emotions. Her roles are marked with the sharpness and exquisiteness of the stage pattern. These qualities equally reveal themselves in her major stage jobs, and in bit part roles, where the actress manages to create a bright and memorable stage character in just a few pointed features. In the years of her work at the Alexandrinsky Theater, Yelena Zimina played more than 20 roles, among which there are Desdemona (“Otello,” W. Shakespeare, 1993), Sofia (“Ignoramus,” D. Fonvisin, 1995), Mary (“The Cricket on the Hearth,” C. Dickens, 1994), Lady Windermere (“Lady Windermere's Fan,” O. Wild, 1998), Sonyushka (“A Pair of Chestnuts,” 2000), Marya Antonovna (“Inspector General,” N. Gogol, 2002), Amelia Sedley (“Vanity Fair” by W. Thackeray, 2002), Gladice (“The Thirteenth Number,” R. Kuni, 2003). A special place among Yelena Zimina’s theater personages belongs to Natalya Ivanovna from A. Chekhov’s performance “The Three Sisters.” In a detailed psychological performance of Rostislav Goryayev the actress has happily avoided the common life motivations for her heroine’s behavior and managed to create a grotesque image. Her Natasha has the paradoxical combination of vulnerability and female self content, feebleness and power, common life pragmatism, exact accounting and fantastic idiotism.  The sharp grotesque manner of impersonating and ability to exploit the masque theater approaches had also revealed themselves in Thomas Yonigk’s play “The Rottweiler” performed at the “Modern German Drama” festival in the Alexandrinsky Theater (1999).       

The bright and creative individuality of Elena Zimina has organically enrolled into the complex stage ensemble of the Alexandrinsky Theater, while her high professionalism and extraordinary stage charm allowed her to play the most diversified roles both in modern and classic plays.  Presently, the actress’s repertoire includes the role of the Unknown in Oleg Eremin’s performance Vampilov. Plays (2009). She is engaged in the group scenes of W.Shakespeare's Hamlet (Director Valery Fokin, 2010).