{{short description|Russian writer and playwright}} {{Infobox writer | embed = | honorific_prefix = | name = Elena Anatolievna Gremina | honorific_suffix = | image = Elena Gremina.jpg | image_size = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = Elena Gremina in 2015 | native_name = Елена Анатольевна Гремина | native_name_lang = Russian | pseudonym = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1956|11|20|df=y}} | birth_place = Moscow, Soviet Union | death_date = {{Death date and age|2018|05|16|1956|10|20|df=y}} | death_place = Moscow, Russia | resting_place = | occupation = Writer, playwright | language = Russian | nationality = | alma_mater = Maxim Gorky Literature Institute | period = | genre = <!-- or: | genres = --> | subject = <!-- or: | subjects = --> | movement = New Drama | notableworks = <!-- or: | notablework = --> | spouse = {{ill|Mikhail Ugarov|ru|Угаров, Михаил Юрьевич}} <small>1993–2018</small> | relatives = {{ill|Anatoly Grebnev|ru|Гребнев, Анатолий Борисович}} (father)<br>Galina Mindadze (mother) | signature = | signature_alt = | years_active = 1983–2018 }} '''Elena Anatolievna Gremina''' (20 November 1956{{snd}}16 May 2018) was a Russian writer and playwright who was one of the founders of the documentary theatre {{ill|Teatr.doc|ru|Театр.doc}}. The fact-based approach to creating theatre that Gremina fostered made Teatr.doc a prominent place in the Moscow theatre scene and the New Drama movement in Russian theatre.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/new-drama-in-moscow/|title=A new drama in Moscow|last=Krizhevsky|first=Alexey|date=2015-01-14|website=openDemocracy|access-date=2019-08-19}}</ref>
==Early life== Elena Grebneva was born on 20 November 1956 in Moscow, Soviet Union, to Georgian translator Galina Mindadze and playwright {{ill|Anatoly Grebnev|ru|Гребнев, Анатолий Борисович}}. At an early age, Elena would write protests in verse, such as an early piece about children being prevented from seeing a film. She later adopted the surname Gremina, a combination of her parents' surnames so as to be able to write without being compared to them. Gremina studied at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute to become a playwright.<ref name="guardobit"/>
==Career== Gremina's first production was performed in 1983, but she only came to prominence in the 1990s after her plays were performed at the Moscow Pushkin Drama Theatre and she won awards from Westdeutscher Rundfunk. A favoured subject matter of Gremina in this period was conflicted women of history. Gremina married playwright {{ill|Mikhail Ugarov|ru|Угаров, Михаил Юрьевич}} in 1993. Together with her husband and father, she created the television series, ''{{ill|St. Petersburg Secrets|ru|Петербургские тайны}}''.<ref name="guardobit"/>
In 2000 Gremina and Ugarov, among other Russian authors, attended playwriting masterclasses that were conducted in Moscow by a group of Royal Court Theatre artists including Stephen Daldry, Elyse Dodgson,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://royalcourttheatre.com/cast/elyse-dodgson/|title=Elyse Dodgson|website=Royal Court|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-16}}</ref> Ramin Gray, and James Macdonald.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526126191|title=Manchester University Press - Witness onstage|website=Manchester University Press|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-16}}</ref> When Gremina and Ugarova heard Dodgson talk about the use of verbatim techniques in theatre to present factual stories on the stage, they decided that it was a way to reconnect Russian theatre with the public in their home country.<ref name="guardobit">{{cite news |last1=Dugdale |first1=Sasha |title=Elena Gremina obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/may/24/elena-gremina-obituary |accessdate=3 June 2018 |work=The Guardian |date=24 May 2018}}</ref> In 2001 Gremina and Ugarov produced Russia’s first documentary theatre festival, and in February 2002 the duo, together with several other Russian playwrights, started Teatr.doc in 2002, and soon began to present performances based on current events.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Senelick |first1=Lawrence |title=Historical Dictionary of Russian Theatre |date=2015 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |location=Lanham |isbn=978-1-44224-927-1 |page=464 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mx5lCgAAQBAJ&dq=%22Elena+Gremina%22&pg=PA485}}</ref>
The performances became more political in nature, which resulted in Gremina and her husband being visited by the police and having equipment confiscated.<ref name="guardobit"/> One such piece written by Gremina was on the death of Sergei Magnitsky, an anticorruption lawyer.<ref name="npost"/> After a police raid of Teatr.doc in 2015 that saw three members of the production temporarily arrested and sets destroyed, Gremina was summoned to the Ministry of Culture where she was threatened with further raids.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Ruble |first1=Blair A. |title=Putin's Punitive Theatre of the Absurd |url=http://www.newsweek.com/putins-punitive-theater-absurd-298179 |accessdate=3 June 2018 |work=Newsweek |date=1 September 2015}}</ref>
Ugarov died following a heart attack in April 2018.<ref name="npost">{{cite news |title=Russian playwright found dead after making play about anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky |url=https://nationalpost.com/news/world/russian-playwright-found-dead-after-making-play-about-anti-corruption-lawyer-sergei-magnitsky |accessdate=3 June 2018 |work=National Post |date=16 May 2018}}</ref> Gremina died six weeks later, also from a heart attack.<ref name="guardobit"/>
==References== {{reflist}}
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Category:1956 births Category:2018 deaths Category:Writers from Moscow Category:20th-century Russian women writers Category:21st-century Russian women writers Category:Russian political writers Category:Russian people of Georgian descent Category:Women television writers Category:Women theatre managers and producers Category:Maxim Gorky Literature Institute alumni