About Kirill Oleshkevich

I have always been interested in what happens when ideas move.

From one country to another.
From page to stage.
From research into practice.
From a local audience into a global conversation.

That curiosity has shaped my work as a producer, author, researcher, educator, and cultural professional.

My career has developed across theatre, entertainment, education, publishing, and international cultural projects - not as separate directions, but as different ways of understanding how culture is created, experienced, and shared.

a man riding a skateboard down the side of a ramp

BETWEEN
CULTURES,
INDUSTRIES
AND IDEAS.

01 / THE BEGINNING

My professional journey began in Russia (Moscow), where I worked in theatre, cultural production, entertainment, and education.

Over the years, I became involved in musicals, concerts, festivals, licensed productions, educational programs, and large-scale cultural projects.

Working inside the creative industries taught me that producing is never only about schedules, budgets, or logistics.

It is about turning an idea into a system.

A system of people, resources, creative decisions, risks, audiences, partnerships, and meaning.

That understanding continues to shape the way I approach every project today.

BUILDING PROJECTS

02 / INTERNATIONAL PRACTICE

International work became an important part of my professional development.

Projects involving foreign rights holders, creative teams, institutions, and cultural partners showed me how differently the same idea can be understood across markets and audiences.

Producing Death Note The Musical, working within the Stage Entertainment environment, and developing other cultural initiatives gave me practical experience with projects that spanned countries, industries, and creative traditions.

This is where my interest in cross-cultural production became more than professional experience.

It became one of the central questions of my work:

What allows a cultural idea to travel successfully from one context to another without losing what made it meaningful in the first place?

WHEN CULTURE CROSSES BORDERS

03 / FROM PRACTICE TO RESEARCH

At a certain point, producing projects was no longer enough. I wanted to understand the mechanisms behind them.

Why do certain stories cross borders while others remain local?
Why do audiences form powerful communities around particular cultural products?
How do theatre, publishing, fandom, education, technology, and popular culture influence one another?

These questions led me deeper into research, writing, and education.

My academic background includes an EdD and an MBA, combining cultural research, education, management, and professional practice. But I do not see research as something separate from the creative industries. For me, research is another production tool.

It allows us to see patterns, challenge assumptions, understand audiences, and build better cultural experiences.

WHY DO SOME IDEAS TRAVEL?

04 / UNITED STATES

Moving my professional practice into the United States opened another chapter.

The American environment brought new institutions, new audiences, new educational contexts, and new ways of thinking about cultural production and collaboration.

My work in the United States combines education, research, cultural entrepreneurship, producing, publishing, and the development of international professional relationships.

It also allowed me to look at my earlier experience from a new perspective - not as a career tied to one national industry, but as a foundation for building work across different cultural systems.

Today, the United States is an important base for my professional activity, while my work remains deliberately international.

A NEW PROFESSIONAL CONTEXT

05 / ASIA

Asia has become one of the most important areas of my current research and professional interest.

I am particularly interested in Japan and in the way Japanese cultural industries connect manga, anime, theatre, music, fandom, publishing, intellectual property, tourism, and live experience.

My research into 2.5D musicals, Japanese popular culture, adaptation, and creative industries grew from a desire to understand these phenomena not only theoretically, but directly.

That means going where culture happens.

Watching performances.
Visiting institutions.
Studying audiences.
Exploring cultural spaces.
Reading local research.
Observing how creative industries function from the inside.

This approach has gradually turned travel into a form of fieldwork. Asia is not simply a subject I study. It is an important part of the international network of ideas and collaborations I want to continue developing.

LOOKING EAST

06 / WRITING & PUBLISHING

Writing allows me to slow down and examine questions that production often forces us to solve quickly.

My books, articles, educational materials, and research explore producing, cultural management, education, theatre, contemporary culture, and creative industries.

I also founded Performing Culture Journal, an international publication designed to create dialogue between academic research and professional cultural practice.

I am particularly interested in work that exists between categories:

between scholarship and industry,
between creative practice and analysis,
between local culture and global audiences.

For me, publishing is another way of connecting those worlds.

FROM EXPERIENCE TO IDEAS

07 / EDUCATION

Teaching has been part of my professional life for many years, but I do not see myself primarily as a traditional academic. What interests me is the transfer of knowledge.
How can complex professional experience be turned into something useful?
How can research become applicable?
How can a lecture change the way someone approaches a project?
How can education become more active, practical, and memorable?

This perspective informs my lectures, masterclasses, professional programs, and work with students and practitioners.

The goal is not simply to explain.

The goal is to give people tools they can use.

KNOWLEDGE SHOULD MOVE TOO

08 / TODAY

Today, my work can be described through three simple verbs.

CREATE

I develop cultural, theatrical, entertainment, educational, and publishing projects.

RESEARCH

I study cultural industries, manga and anime, theatre, education, audience behavior, adaptation, and the movement of ideas across cultures.

CONNECT

I bring together people, organizations, institutions, creative professionals, and ideas across countries and disciplines.

These three directions continuously influence one another.

Production gives research practical questions.

Research gives production new perspectives.

International collaboration creates new possibilities for both.

CREATE. RESEARCH. CONNECT.

09 / A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

My professional experience has developed across different cultural environments, but I am increasingly interested in what exists between them.

Between Asian cultural industries and Western audiences.

Between European theatrical traditions and new international markets.

Between American institutions and global creative networks.

Between academic research and professional practice.

Between culture as heritage and culture as an industry.

That space between worlds is where many of the most interesting projects begin.

ASIA · UNITED STATES · EUROPE

10 / WHAT I BELIEVE

I believe cultural projects are strongest when they create movement:

movement between people,
between disciplines,
between industries,
between countries,
between ideas.

Some of that movement happens through theatre.

Some through books.

Some through education.

Some through travel and research.

And sometimes it begins with a conversation between people who would otherwise never have met.

That is the kind of work I want to continue building.

CULTURE SHOULD NOT STAY IN ONE PLACE.

CREDENTIALS

Producer of 100+ Cultural & Entertainment Projects

EdD / MBA

Author & Researcher
Author of 50+ academic and professional articles and a speaker at dozens of conferences across multiple countries. Author of 3 textbooks on cultural and event production, 2 of which have been translated into Mongolian and are used by cultural universities in Mongolia. Author of a research book exploring the global popularity of manga and anime, published in Moscow by one of Russia’s largest publishing houses, with an English-language edition currently in development.

Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Performing Culture Journal

International Experience Across Cultural Production, Education & Publishing

Professional Focus: United States · Europe · Asia

CURRENT INTERESTS

I am currently particularly interested in:

International Cultural Production
Manga, Anime & Japanese Cultural Industries
2.5D Theatre & Adaptation
Musicals
Creative Industries
Cultural Management & Producing
Education & Learning Design
Publishing & Research
Cross-Cultural Collaboration
Cultural Fieldwork & Travel

LET’S CONNECT

I welcome conversations with cultural organizations, universities, producers, publishers, researchers, conference organizers, investors, and creative professionals interested in developing meaningful work across cultures and disciplines.

Whether you are developing a project, looking for a speaker, exploring an international partnership, or simply believe our interests may intersect, I would be glad to hear from you.

THE MOST INTERESTING PROJECTS
OFTEN BEGIN WITH A CONVERSATION.

LET’S COLLABORATE →