Nyamgavaa Ichinkhorloo (born September 18, 1950) is a Mongolian theater artist, writer, film director, and film producer. He is president of Mongolian National Academy of Art and was named an Honored Artist of Mongolia for his contributions to film and theater in 2013 by the Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj (Mongolian: Цахиагийн Элбэгдорж).
Early life
Nyamgavaa Ichinkhorloo was born on September 18, 1950, in Khuvsgul province, Mongolia to two teachers, Ichinkhorloo Jamyan and Yanjinsuren Mijid. He was the first of the couple's eight children. His father, Ichinkhorloo taught history and geography; his mother Yanjinsuren taught Mongolian language and literature. Nyamgavaa credits his parents with instilling in him a great respect for education and a love for language and story. He notes that, by the Mongolian lunar calendar, the moment he was born was the Tiger year, the Tiger day, and the Tiger hour; this is traditionally thought to be very auspicious. Mongolian tradition is that “triple tigers” are very brave, competent, and unpredictable. Khulan Tsoodol, a famous Mongolian poet, spoke to these qualities as they manifest in Nyamgavaa: “ To make a metaphor, Nyamgavaa is an artist like an erupting volcano. …He is always restless, burning from inside and finding his ideas in his passion and sufferings.”
He completed secondary school in 1965, two years after his father's death. He had begun working while still in school to help support his family. After graduation, when he was fifteen years old, he began acting in Mongolia's Youth and Children's Theater in Ulaanbaatar (Mongolian: Улаанбаатар) Between 1965 and 1969, he acted in over 10 productions, including playing Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet.
Education in Moscow (1969-1974) In 1969, Nyamgavaa received a scholarship from the Mongolian government to study directing at the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts - GITIS, in Moscow, Russia. He studied with Andrey Goncharov, famed Russian theater director and writer. He graduated in 1974 and returned to Mongolia.
Nyamgavaa's professor Goncharov believed he saw the influence of playwright, and poet Bertolt Brecht on Nyamgavaa's work, even though Nyamgavaa himself had no idea who Brecht was at that time. Goncharov admired Nyamgavaa's direction of Alexander Pushkin’s play Mozart & Salieri (Russian: «Моцарт и Сальери) at GITIS. After this project Goncharov told Nyamgavaa, " I thought you were like Stanislavsky, but I can feel the style of Brecht in your work as well.” Goncharov recognized Nyamgavaa’s interest in making the theater a place for intellectual engagement and not just storytelling or melodrama. Another affinity with Brecht was the blending of eastern and western styles and ideas. Much later, this same tendency to connect cultures would be admired by Bundan Boldsaikhan (Mongolian: Бунданы Болдсайхан), honored doctor of Mongolia: “He has two horses, from the Eastern and Western worlds.” Goncharov continued to appreciate Nyamgavaa's work even after the latter left the university. Andrei Borisov, famed Russian director, recalls: “During my studies, our teacher Goncharov often praised a former student named Nyamgavaa on his creative skills and talent. Nyamgavaa’s skills to deliver his art in a unique style through his creative imagination had not been forgotten by his teacher Goncharov. Ever since his student days his vision and talent shone through his passion, time after time, with unpredictable twists to his storytelling.” Borisov and Nyamgavaa would later work together on the film By the Will of Chingis Khan.
Theater Directing Career in Mongolia (1973-2006) In 1973, while still a student at GITIS, Nyamgavaa returned to the Youth and Children's Theater in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, where he had acted from 1965 to 1969. He wanted to direct Soviet novelist, playwright, and journalist Vera Panova’s Vstuplenie (based on the story "Valia and Volodia”, Mongolian: (Гэнэн залуу нас) as his first project, which would also be part of his GITIS thesis, as a director at the theater. The modernist style was threatening to the Mongolian government because it was seen to reject the communist system and traditional culture. It led at first to the cancellation of the play. Ultimately, he chose to make the changes suggested by the government to enable him to reopen the play. After the changes, the production blended Mongolian tradition styles with modernism, still satisfying the censors. He also adapted the novel Five Fingers of One Hand (Mongolian: "Гарын Таван хуруу ) by famed Mongolian writer Chadraabal Lodoidamba (Mongolian: Чадраабалын Лодойдамба) into a play which he directed for Youth and Children's Theater, also as part of his GITIS thesis in 1974.