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Galina Bazhenova

Galina Bazhenova

Galina Bazhenova (12th of September 1956, Sverdlovsk/Yekaterinburg, Russian SFSR, USSR) – a theater and film actress. Since 1983 – in the troupe of the  Mikhail Chekhov Riga Russian Theatre.

In 1979, Galina Bazhenova graduated from the Boris Shchukin Higher Theatre School in Moscow, where she studied in the class of Yevgeny Simonov and Vera Lvova. From 1979 to 1982, she had been performing on the stage of the Leningrad Lensovet Theatre (now Saint Petersburg).

Galina Bazhenova worked at the Riga Theatre for Young Audiences during the period when its chief director was Adolf Shapiro. One of her most significant roles there was Iskra in the production Tomorrow Was the War, based on the novella by Boris Vasilyev.

In 1983, the actress joined the company of the Riga Russian Drama Theatre (now the Mikhail Chekhov Riga Russian Theatre), where she continues to perform to this day.

She has appeared in the following productions at the Mikhail Chekhov Riga Russian Theatre:

  • The First Citizen of Güllen (The Visit by Friedrich Dürrenmatt);

  • The Governess (A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt);

  • Mathilde, a Lady-in-Waiting (the musical production Robin Hood, by Dace Puce, Zane Dombrovsky, and Elena Sigova).

Theatrical roles performed by G. Bazhenova in previous years include:

  • Venus (The Theatre of Nero and Seneca by Edward Radzinsky);

  • Ophelia (Hamlet by William Shakespeare);

  • Liza (Poor Liza, based on the novella by Nikolai Karamzin);

  • Polina (The Gambler, based on the novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky);

  • Ninka Kurzova (Chonkin, based on the novel by Vladimir Voinovich);

  • Magda Peters (Camera Obscura, based on the novel by Vladimir Nabokov);

  • Miss Mabel Chiltern (An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde);

  • Vera (A Month in the Country by Ivan Turgenev);

  • Coralie (When a Horse Faints by Françoise Sagan);

  • Jessica (Bedroom Farce by Alan Ayckbourn);

  • The Maid (The Seagull by Anton Chekhov);

  • Kapa (The Scarlet Flower, based on the fairy tale by Sergey Aksakov);

  • Arina Panteleimonovna (Marriage by Nikolai Gogol);

  • Feona (It’s Not Always Shrovetide by Alexander Ostrovsky);

  • Filitsata (…And Happiness Is Better, by Alexander Ostrovsky);

  • Slezinka (Love as a Diagnosis, based on The Madmen of Valencia by Lope de Vega);

  • Zhenya (Zhenya, Zhenya, based on the film novella by Bulat Okudzhava and Vladimir Motyl);

  • Mouse (Playing with the Cat by István Örkény);

  • Olya (By the Sea by Maria Arbatova);

  • Sandra, the Telephone Operator (Mr. Puntila and His Man Matti by Bertolt Brecht);

  • Zoe (My Wife Is a Liar, based on the play by Margaret Mayo and Maurice Hennequin);

  • Mama Alma Svensson (Emil’s Pranks, by Igor Shprits, based on works by Astrid Lindgren);

  • Aunt Lita (Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, based on the novel by Jorge Amado);

  • Minnie Hanson (the musical Carrie, based on Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie, music by Raimonds Pauls);

  • Pustyakova (Onegin, My Good Friend, based on Alexander Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin);

  • A Prostitute (the musical Odessa, the Enchanting City…, based on works by Isaac Babel, music by Raimonds Pauls);

  • The First Neighbor (the musical Tango Between the Lines by Alexei Shcherbak, music by Oskar Strock);

  • Zhilichka (the operetta Bridegrooms by Isaac Dunaevsky), and others.

Filmography:

  • The Princess – in the children’s television film Fairy Tale after Fairy Tale/And the Pebbles Keep Jumping… (director Vladimir Latyshev, Leningrad Television, USSR, 1980);

  • Galina Perfilieva – in the social drama The Formula of Memory (directors Alexander Krivonos and Mikhail Novitsky, Lentelefilm Studio, USSR, 1982);

  • Masha, Kuklin’s wife – in the short feature film Three Lemons for My Beloved (Trīs citroni mīļotajai) (director Oleg Rosenberg, screenplay by Georgy Daneliya, starring Andrey Ilyin; a joint production of the Riga Film Studio and the experimental youth studio “Debut” of Mosfilm, 1983), and others.

Award:

  • Laureate of the Latvian Theatre Society Award — Best Actress of the Year for the 1985/1986 season.

Family:

Her husband was Alexander Barinov (28 February 1952, Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, USSR – 25 July 2022, Riga, Republic of Latvia), a ballet dancer, ballet teacher, and theatre and film actor.

Galina met her future husband while studying at the Boris Shchukin Higher Theatre School in Moscow. Ballet dancer and Riga native Alexander Barinov was also studying there at the time, having decided to pursue a career as a dramatic actor. It was him who persuaded her to move to Riga from the Lensovet Theatre in Leningrad, where they worked together after graduation.

Their son, Grigory Barinov (born 25 June 1978, Moscow, RSFSR, USSR), is a ballet dancer.

In 1996, he graduated from the Riga Choreographic School. From 1996 to 1999, Grigory Barinov had been a soloist with the ballet company of the Latvian National Opera. Since 2001, he has been a soloist with the ballet company of the New National Theatre Tokyo (Japan). As of 2018, he lives and works creatively in Japan.

Sources of information:

Рижский русский театр им. М. Чехова 

Галина Баженова

Галина Баженова (Gaļina Baženova) – актриса  биография – актрисы театра Ближнего Зарубежья – Кино-Театр.Ру