J.Jurašas was born in Panevėžys on the 19th of June, 1936. He graduated from A.Lunacharski Theatre Art Institute (GITIs) in Moscow in1964. The director has created performances at Vilnius, Kaunas, Šiauliai Drama Theatres, Lithuanian Opera and Ballet Theatres and abroad. He is the winner of the National Culture and Art Prize.
J.Jurašas was the principal director of Kaunas State Drama Theatre in 1967–72 and was dismissed from work due to political motifs. The majority of performances created by the director in Lithuania were defaced by political censorship. The director emigrated from Lithuania in 1974 and lived in Austria, Germany, USA. He has created performances at US, Japanese, Belgian, German and Canadian theatres.
The director returned to Lithuania in 1990–92 and directed performances at Kaunas State Drama Theatre. After the failure to reform this theatre in 1993, he went to the USA again but came back to Lithuania regularly for implementing creative ideas. J.Jurašas directed performances at Vilnius Drama and Opera Theatres in 1997-2009. He is an invited professor of US and Canadian Higher Schools. J.Jurašas was awarded with the Officer’s Cross of Gediminas Order in Lithuania in 2006. The National Culture and Art Prize was granted to J.Jurašas in 2009.
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Directed performances:
1963 Aleksandr Volodin. Appointment (Lithuanian State Russian Drama Theatre).
1966 Arkadij Arkanov, Grigorij Gorin. Look, Europe (Šiauliai Drama Theatre).
1967 Leonid Zorin. Warsaw Melody (Lithuanian State Academic Drama Theatre).
1967 Sławomir Mrożek. Tango (Lithuanian State Academic Drama Theatre).
1968 Michail Bulgakov. Moliere (Kaunas State Drama Theatre).
1968 Mar Baidzijev. Duel (Kaunas State Drama Theatre).
1968 Kazys Saja. Hunt of Mammoths (Kaunas State Drama Theatre).
1970 Michail Shatrov. Bolsheviks (Kaunas State Drama Theatre).
1970 Juozas Glinskis. Grasa’s Home (Kaunas State Drama Theatre).
1971 Chingiz Aitmatov. Mother’s Field (Kaunas State Drama Theatre).
1971 William Shakespeare. Macbeth (Sovremennik Theatre in Moscow, Russia).
1972 Juozas Grušas. Barbora Radvilaitė (Kaunas State Drama Theatre).
1976 Andrej Almarik. East–West (Hartman Conservatory Theatre in Stamford, USA).
1977 William Shakespeare. Macbeth (La Mama e.t.c. Theatre in New York, USA).
1978 Juozas Glinskis. A Walk in Moonlight (Theatre for the New City in New York, USA).
1979 Samuel Beckett. Endgame (Trinity Square Repertory Theatre in Providence, USA).
1980 Nikolaj Erdman. Suicide (Trinity Square Repertory Theatre in Providence, Anta Theatre in Broadway, New York, USA).
1981 Fernard Crommelynck. The Noble Dupe Man („Yale Repertory Company“ New Haven, USA).
1981 Maria Rasa. Zekai (Theatre for the New City, New York, USA).
1984 Anton Chekhov. Three Sisters (Tadashi Suzuki Company, International Toga Festival, Japan).
1984 Anton Chekhov. Three Sisters (Tadashi Suzuki Company, International Toga Festival, Japan).
1986 Maurice Maeterlinck. Princess Maleine (Dutch National Theatre in Ghent).
1986 According to Anton Chekhov and Vladimir Nabokov. Chorus Girl and Vagabond (Gasteig Culture Centre, Black Box hall in Munich, Germany).
1989 According to Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Idiot (Dallas Theatre Centre in Dallas, USA).
1989 According to Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Idiot (Trinity Square Repertory Theatre in Providence, USA).
1990 Aušra Marija Sluckaitė. Sand Claviers (Kaunas State Academic Drama Theatre).
1991 Harold Pinter. Mountain Language (Kaunas State Academic Drama Theatre)
1992 Ariel Dorfmann. Death and the Maiden (Kaunas State Academic Drama Theatre)
1993 Ariel Dorfmann. Death and the Maiden (The Canadian Stage Company in Toronto, Canada).
1997 Giuseppe Verdi. Aida (Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre).
1997 According to Jean Claude Grumberg, Serge Kribus. Jewish Stories: Paris–Brussels (Ubu Repertory Theatre in New York, USA).
2000 Bronius Kutavičius. Bear (Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre).
2006 Rebecca Ritchie. Memory Garden (Sarasota, USA).
2007 Christoph Willibald Gluck. Orfeo and Euridice (Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre)
2009 Amilcare Ponchielli. Opera Lithuanians. Vilnius Opera Festival.
2009 John Patrick Shanley. Doubt. Audronis Liuga Production, Vilnius.
2010 Aušra Marija Sluckaitė. Antigone in the Siberia. Kaunas State Drama Theatre.
