Stage designer
Jurate Paulekaite studied stage design at Vilnius Academy of Arts from 1984 to 1990. She created set designs for the productions of the leading Lithuanian directors Jonas Vaitkus, Dalia Tamuleviciute and Gintaras Varnas at Kaunas Academic Drama Theatre, State Youth Theatre in Vilnius, Lithuanian State Academic Drama Theatre and others.
Since 1998, having created the set design for the performance Roberto Zucco by Bernard-Marie Koltes directed by Oskaras Korsunovas, Jurate Paulekaite has become the director’s constant creative partner. She is the author of the set designs for the most important productions directed by Oskaras Korsunovas - Shopping and fucking by Mark Ravenhill, 1999; Fireface by Marius von Mayenburg, The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, both in 2000, Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, 2002, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, 2003, Playing a victim by The Presnyakov Brothers, 2005 – all of them produced at the Oskaras Koršunovas Theatre. She also collaborated with Koršunovas in his productions staged at other theatres in Lithuania and abroad: The Road to Damascus after August Strindberg at Oslo National Theatre (2006); The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at Teatro Regio Torino, Italy (2006); and The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare at Comedie Française in France (2007).
Jurate Paulekaite is a co-author of several experimental productions of OKT/Vilnius City Theatre (together with the actor Dainius Gavenonis). She has collaborated with the famous Finnish director Kristian Smeds.
A creator of a particularly conceptual and actively interpretative set design, Paulekaite has been awarded with a number of highest Lithuanian theatre prizes, including the Prize of the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture for the stage design for Oedipus Rex (2003) and the Golden Cross of the Stage (2004, 2007). In 2004 the set designer received the Lithuanian National Prize of Culture and Art. She also received the Norwegian Hedda prize for the best set design for The Road to Damascus at Oslo National theatre in 2006.