Pavol Liska

Pavol Liska began collaborating with Kelly Copper in 1997, and together they founded Nature Theater of Oklahoma in 2006. The company is committed to “making the work they don’t know how to make,” an approach yielding new amalgams of opera, dance, theatre, and film. Starting out in dirty basements working with zero subsidy, borrowed costumes and cardboard sets, Nature Theater of Oklahoma has, since 2008, been commissioned by theaters and festivals around the world, including Rhurtriennale, Burgtheater Wien, Festival d’Avignon, Kampnagel Hamburg, Wexner Center for the Arts, Mousonturm, steirischer herbst, and Salzburger Festspiele. Liska and Copper have each been recipients of the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, and have received the Alpert Award in the Arts, the Nestroy Special Prize in Theater, as well as two OBIE Awards for No Dice and Life and Times. In addition to live performance, the two have also created multiple works in film and video. Their latest project, Die Kinder der Toten, premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and received the International Federation of Film Critics FIPRESCI Award for Best Film (Forum Section) 2019.