Graduated from the Acting Department of the Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre School under the Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre in 1980. He then worked as an actor at the Bryantsev Youth Theatre in Leningrad. He has never been trained as a professional designer.
He has designed costumes and sets for over 200 productions including Boris Godunov for the Bolshoi Theatre; The Cherry Orchard, Three Comrades, Pygmalion, The Storm and A Gentleman for the Sovremennik Theatre, Tartuffeand Masquerade for the Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre; Cyrano de Bergerac, and Amphitryon for the Vakhtangov Academic Theatre; Two Women for the Lenkom Theatre, N-Nezhinsky for the Bogis Theatre Company; Wit Works Woefor the 814 Theatrical Partnership; Catherine the Great for the Sverdlovsk Theatre of Musical Comedy; Cerceau and Six Characters Looking For the Author for the School of Dramatic Art; Caligula for the Mossovet Theatre ; Khlestakov, The Twelfth Night and The Taming of the Shrew for the Stanislavsky Drama Theatre. As a designer he worked on the following films: Sokurov’s The Russian Ark, Khamdamov’s Anna Karamazoff, Lungin’s Taxi Blues, Evstigneyev’s Migrant Workers, Aleinikovs’ Tractor Drivers 2, Bondarchuk’s The Inhabited Island to mention but a few.
In 2000, he was awarded the Avant-Garde King title for his clothes collection called Nonbirds at the Alba-Moda festival.
As an art director he has participated in the Golden Mask and Triumph opening and awarding ceremonies. He designed the Russian Pavilion at the Book Salon exhibition in Paris in 2006. He was the art director of the opening and closing ceremonies at the Russian Culture Days in Thailand, Poland and France.
In 2017, he created the media project The Appealof Appearance at the Tretyakov Gallery.
Pavel Kaplevich was the creator, librettist and producer of the Chaadsky performance at Helikon-Opera (2017). Kirill Serebrennikov’s production was awarded the Golden Mask in the category Opera/Directing Work and the award of the national newspaper Muzykalnoe obozrenie in the category Production of the year — Opera.
Awards and Honours:
- Honoured Art Worker of the Russian Federation
- Prize-winner of the Golden Mask award (for Catherine the Great, 2009)
- Prize-winner of the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper award (for Tartuffe, 2005)
- Prize-winner of the Chaika Award (for Amphitryon and Two Women, 1998)
- Prize-winner of the Crystal Rose Award (as one of the N-Nizhinsky producers, 1993)
Productions:
Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. An Opera — Costume Designer, Librettist
Puccini's Madama Butterfly — Costume Designer