Russian actress
Oksana Anatolyevna Mysina () (born 15 March 1961, Yenakiieve, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, USSR) is an actor, director and musician. She has been described by "The New York Times" theatre critic Margo Jefferson as one of Russia's greatest actors. She is the founder, lead singer, violinist, and lyricist for the rock band Oxy Rocks.
Personal life.
Oksana Mysina was born and lived in the Donbas region of Ukraine for the first eight years of her life. Her father Anatoly Vladimirovich Mysin, later to be a mining engineer, and her mother Lidia Grigoryevna Mysina (Bratus), subsequently a seismologist, grew up and were married in the Ukrainian city of Dnepropetrovsk (now Dnipro). Oksana credits both parents with giving her the necessary actor's sensibilities: "My irrepressible temperament is from my mother. My father... was a very emotional person." Oksana's sister Marina Yakut (Mysina), three years her elder, was a young talent on the violin and a teacher told the girls' parents that Marina needed to study in Moscow. As Mysina told the audience during a performance in Yekaterinburg in April 2019, the teacher "told my parents: 'Immediately! Immediately to Moscow! I've never had such a talent.' And they took me along too." The family moved to Moscow in 1969 where Oksana and Marina both studied violin and viola at the Gnesin School of Music. "I was admitted to Gnesinka in the hopes that I would be Marina No. 2," Oksana said in 2004. But Oksana had dreamed of acting since childhood, and, while still studying at the Gnesin School, she joined a well-known youth theater: "While still studying [violin], I worked with Vyacheslav Spesivtsev at the then-super popular Krasnaya Presnya Youth Theater." She subsequently studied professionally at the Shchepkin Institute of the Maly Theater under the famed Mikhail Tsaryov, who had acted for Vsevolod Meyerhold in the 1930s. She joined her first professional company, the Spartacus Square Theater-studio in 1986.
Oksana married American writer and translator John Freedman in 1989. They lived in Moscow until November 2018 when they relocated to Greece.
Stage.
Mysina was a member of the Spartacus Square Theater-studio (known as Theater Moderne since 1995) from 1986 to 1994. During this tenure she achieved her first international exposure, performing the title role in Lyudmila Razumovskaya's play "Dear Yelena Sergeevna" on tours to the BITEF festival in Serbia in 1989, and Chicago and Los Angeles in 1990. She began working independently at various Moscow theaters, starting at the Novy Drama Theater, where she performed from 1993 to 2000, and the Theater of Young Spectators (MTYuZ), where she performed from 1994 to 2020.
Mysina's starring role at MTYuZ as Katerina Ivanovna in Kama Ginkas's 1994 Moscow production of his son Daniil Gink's play "K. I. from Crime", a 90-minute monologue adapted from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment" was acclaimed as the best production of the Moscow season. "Critics widely agreed [that she] rose to the creative heights demanded by Dostoevsky." In tours around the world, she took the role to the Grotowski Center in Wroclaw, Poland, in 1995, the Avignon Festival, France, in 1997, the Belgrade International Theater Festival (BITEF) in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in 2000, the Midwinter Night's Festival in Tallinn, Estonia, 2000, the Mikhail Tumanishvili International Arts Festival in Tbilisi, Georgia, in 2002, Bard SummerScape in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York in 2003 the Foundry Theater on Off-Broadway in New York City in 2005, on a three-city tour of Brazil in 2006, and elsewhere.
Aside from her work with Ginkas, Mysina acted for many top theater directors, including Boris Lvov-Anokhin (Novy Drama Theater, 1993–2001), Vladimir Mirzoyev (Stanislavsky Drama Theater, 1997), Roman Kozak (Moscow Art Theater and Pushkin Drama Theater, 1997–2000), Oleg Menshikov (814 Theater Association, 2000–01), Dmitry Krymov (School of Dramatic Art, 2010–2018), as well as in the professional debut of Eugenia Berkovich 
(Kirill Serebrennikov's Seventh Studio at Winzavod, 2011). She was the first Russian-language performer of the Narrator in the Russian premiere of Valère Novarina's contemporary avant-garde classic "The Imaginary Operetta" at the School of Dramatic Art (2010). She founded her own theater, the Oksana Mysina Theatrical Brotherhood (2001-2010), directing and acting in two plays by Viktor Korkiya, "Don Quixote and Sancho Panza on the Island of Taganrog", and "Ariston", based on the myth of Oedipus. She was the first performer in roles of plays by numerous contemporary playwrights, including Lyudmila Razumovskaya, Yevgeny Kozlovsky, Alexei Kazantsev, Maksym Kurochkin, Korkiya, Alexander Chugunov, Vadim Levanov, Klim (pseudonym of Vladimir Klimenko), and Kira Malinina.
Television.
For her performance in Yelena Tsyplakova's 23-part miniseries "Family Secrets" (2001), Mysina received a Spolokhi award for best actress. Her performance in "The Other Mask" episode of the original "Kamenskaya" TV mini-series is recognized as a small masterpiece. In Oleg Babitsky and Yury Goldin's television movie of Mikhail Bulgakov's "Theatrical Novel" (2003), she offered an eccentric interpretation of Polixena. Her performance as Elzbieta in Alexei Zernov's ironic TV mini-series "All or Nothing", based on Joanna Chmielewska's "Wszystko czerwona" (All Red), was first aired in 2004. Mysina performed the lead in Arkady Sirenko's made-for TV movie "Wilting-Failing", based on stories by Vasily Shukshin (2004). She performed in Andrei Eshpai, Jr.'s TV mini-series of Anatoly Rybakov's novel "The Children of the Arbat" (2004) and in Yury Kara's "Star of the Age" (2005) in which she played the legendary Russian actress Serafima Birman.
Film.
For her performance in Vadim Abdrashitov's "A Play for a Passenger" (1995) Mysina received a Golden Ram award for best debut. Her performance as the Empress Marya Fyodorovna in Vitaly Melnikov's "Poor Poor Paul" (2003), a cinematic biography about Russian Tsar Pavel I, has been recognized for excellence on several fronts. It brought her awards at the 14th annual Vera Kholodnaya Women of Film festival, the Vivat, Russian Cinema festival, and the Artek International Children's Film Festival, all in 2004. For this role, she was nominated for a Nika Award (considered the Russian Oscar) as the Best Supporting Actress. She played the tragicomic role Hans Christian Andersen's mother Anna-Maria in Eldar Ryazanov's "Andersen" (2007). In 2012, she won the Special President's Prize at the 10th annual Amur Autumn Russian Film and Theater Festival in Blagoveshchensk, Russia, for her performance of the Poetess in Vitaly Melnikov's film "The Admirer".
After relocating to Greece, Mysina actively began directing experimental short and feature films for her own Free Flight Films production company. Her eight releases as of January 2024 have enjoyed success at international film festivals (see Film Awards and Nominations below).
Oksana Mysina and Oxy Rocks.
Mysina fronted the rock band Oksana Mysina and Oxy Rocks from 2003 until 2018. Oksana was the band's vocalist, electric violinist and lyricist. The music for most of their songs was written by bassist Dmitry Yershov or lead guitarist Sergei Shchetinin. Oxy Rock's Russian-language cover of Bob Dylan's "Things Have Changed" has been played by legendary Philadelphia DJ Michael Tearson several times on his World Wide Dylan in Translations shows, most recently in 2022, where, as the show ended, he commented, "I love how Oksana did that!" (No. 36/248 on radiothatdoesn'tsuck.com). In 2012 Ainars Virga, the leader of famed Latvian band Līvi, joined Oxy Rocks for a series of concerts in Moscow. Mysina has incorporated several of her band's songs into her films, including the song "Ivan Petrovich" in "Ivan Petrovich", "World on Edge," "The Last Drop" and others in "Red, Blue, and Asya," and "Blues-Rock Mood" in "Voices of the New Belarus". Oksana created her own music video of "Ivan Petrovich" in December 2023.
Political views and activity.
Oksana Mysina has repeatedly taken part in mass protests, including the public demonstrations titled "For Fair Elections", "March Against Scoundrels" and "March of Peace". She was the emcee of the "March of Truth" rally in 2014 and of Alexei Navalny's "For the Change of Power" rally in 2015. She advocated the release of the defendants in the Bolotnaya case and members of the Pussy Riot group. She participated in the work of the "Congress of Intelligentsia Against the War, Russia's Self-Isolation and the Restoration of Totalitarianism." She supported Alexei Navalny in Moscow's mayoral election in 2013, and has frequently spoken out against the persecution of Russian historian Yury A. Dmitriev. In December 2021 she organized and hosted an online marathon of prominent public figures speaking in defense of Yury A. Dmitriev.
In 2011, the actress signed the "Open Letter to Cultural Figures," opposing the presidential candidacy of Vladimir Putin. In March 2014, along with a number of other figures in the fields of science and culture, she expressed her opposition to Russia's annexation of Crimea. In May of the same year, together with other participants in a discussion platform titled "Round Table on 12 December", she issued a "Statement on the situation in the country, the responsibility of civil society and political elites", which declared that Russia was in "a transition to a fascist-type totalitarian regime is taking place".
Five of Mysina's films have been expressions of her political views: "Insulted. Belarus" (2020), based on a play by Andrei Kureichik, exposed the horrors of the failed Minsk Revolution in 2020 (2020-2021 Belarusian protests); "Voices of the New Belarus" (2021), based on a verbatim play by Andrei Kureichik about imprisoned Belarusian protesters, features a performance by Russian politician Ilya Yashin who, himself, was sentenced to eight years in prison in December 2022; "Escape" (2022), a true-life film short about a refugee from the Russian invasion of Ukraine; "Love is Stronger than Fear" (2022), a short version of "Voices of the New Belarus"; and "Cherry Orchard. War" (2023), a short mixing snippets of Anton Chekhov's writings with documentary interviews that reveal the struggles of Russian and Belarusian theater and film artists who have opposed Russia's war against Ukraine.
Credits.
Theater, acting.
1. 1979 — "I Came to Give you Freedom" by Vasily Shukshin, dir. by Vyacheslav Spesivtsev, Moscow Krasnaya Presnya Youth Theater. "Hysterical Woman, violinist"
2. 1980 — "Sadko", a Russian legend, dir. by Vyacheslav Spesivtsev, Moscow Krasnaya Presnya Youth Theater. "The Phoenix"
3. 1980 — "Tom Sawyer" after Mark Twain, a musical dir. by Vyacheslav Spesivtsev, Moscow Krasnaya Presnya Youth Theater. "Aunt Polly"
4. 1984 — "Thus Will it Be" by Konstantin Simonov, dir. by Rimma Solntseva, Shchepkin Theater Institute, Moscow. "Major Grech"
5. 1984 — "Talents and Admirers" by Alexander Ostrovsky, dir. by Natalya Petrova, Shchepkin Theater Institute, Moscow. "Domna Panteleevna"
6. 1985 — "Oliver Twist!" after Charles Dickens, a musical by Lionel Bart, dir. by Natalya Petrova, Shchepkin Theater Institute, Moscow. "Nancy"
7. 1985 — "The House" by Fyodor Abramov, dir. by Tatyana Yerokhina, Shchepkin Theater Institute, Moscow. "Yevdokia the Martyr"
8. 1985 — "The Rainmaker" by N. Richard Nash, dir. by Rimma Solntseva, Shchepkin Theater Institute, Moscow. "Lizzie"
9. 1987 — "Dear Yelena Sergeyevna" by Lyudmila Razumovskaya, dir. by Svetlana Vragova, Moscow Spartacus Square Theater-studio. "Yelena Sergeyevna"
10. 1988 — "Personals!" a devised performance, dir. by Svetlana Vragova, Moscow Spartacus Square Theater-studio. "Various"
11. 1991 — "Video: Box: Cell" after Yevgeny Kozlovsky, dir. by Svetlana Vragova, Moscow Spartacus Square Theater-studio. "Vera"
12. 1992 — "Rasplyuyev's Joyous Days" after Alexander Sukhovo-Kobylin, dir. by Svetlana Vragova, Moscow Spartacus Square Theater-studio. "Brandakhlystova"
13. 1993 — "The Aspern Papers" by Michael Redgrave (adapted from the Henry James story), dir. by Boris Lvov-Anokhin, Moscow New Drama Theater. "Tina"
14. 1994 — "K.I. from "Crime"" by Daniil Gink (adapted from Fyodor Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment"), dir. by Kama Ginkas, Moscow Young Spectator Theater. "Katerina Ivanovna (K.I.)"
15. 1995 — "A Heroic Comedy, or the Whims of Madame de Staël" by Ferdinand Bruckner, dir. by Boris Lvov-Anokhin, Moscow New Drama Theatre. "Germaine de Staël"
16. 1996 — "The Queen's Revenge, or, the Novellas of Margaret of Navarre" by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé, dir. by Boris Lvov-Anokhin, Moscow New Drama Theatre. "Margaret of Navarre"
17. 1997 — "That, This Other World" by Alexei Kazantsev, dir. by Vladimir Mirzoev, Moscow Stanislavsky Drama Theater. 
18. 1997 (joined cast) — "Teibele and her Demon" by Eve Friedman and Isaac Bashevis Singer, dir. by Vyacheslav Dolgachyov, Chekhov Moscow Art Theater. "Teibele"
19. 1999 — "Moscow Stories of Love and Marriage" by Alexander Ostrovsky, dir. by Boris Lvov-Anokhin, Moscow New Drama Theatre. "Serafima Karpovna"
20. 1999 — "The Main Thing" by Nikolai Evreinov, dir. by Roman Kozak, Chekhov Moscow Art Theater. "Barefoot Dancer"
21. 2000 — "Kitchen" by Maksym Kurochkin, dir. by Oleg Menshikov, 814 Theatrical Association. "Kriemhilde/Washerwoman"
22. 2001 — "Quixote and Sancho" by Viktor Korkiya, dir. by Oksana Mysina, Oksana Mysina Theatrical Brotherhood. "Sancho Panza"
23. 2002 — "The Black Prince" by Iris Murdoch, dir. by Roman Kozak, Moscow Pushkin Drama Theatre. "Rachel Baffin"
24.