Januss Johansons

Born: April 19, 1956

Born in Riga, graduated from Riga Secondary School No. 6 (1974). Since graduating from the Theatre Faculty of the Latvian State Conservatory (1978), he has been an actor at the Valmiera Drama Theatre.
In 2006, in Germany (Bonn), Januss Johansons, together with three colleagues from the Valmiera Theatre, participated in a joint project between Valmiera and two German theatres, a version of A. Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. One of the production’s most vivid moments was precisely Januss’s monologue when, performing multiple roles while simultaneously speaking the text in Latvian, German, and Russian, he created the story of a fantastically chaotic, self-confident, and at the same time slightly confused person. This project and his work in it is also a story about Januss himself – about his fantastic ability to mobilize, fit into a different environment, and do his job with a great sense of conscientiousness and responsibility.

He has three sons, three granddaughters, and two grandsons. And an unyielding vitality. Without thinking about the consequences, he will go and shout, and fight. Many Latvians would stand in silence, but he, like a hot-blooded Estonian, will defend his cause to the end. He is the head of the Latvian Association of Professional Actors, has led the trade union at the Valmiera Theatre, and has been a deputy of the Valmiera City Council. In his free time, he translates from Estonian and vice versa.

To the question of what theatre means to him, Januss answers: „Probably life. Translating, the actors’ association – that is just work, the rest of the time is occupied by life – theatre”. He appeared on the stage of the Valmiera Theatre as a guest already at the age of seventeen, when he danced in the Pioneers’ Palace actor ensemble in Pēteris Lūcis’s production What Kind of People Were Those Who Sang.
Januss Johansons is an elegant character actor and mimic, in whose persona beautiful dramatic and comic roles have settled more or less perfectly, regardless of the size of the given task.

Januss Johansons was awarded the Class V of the Order of the Three Stars and appointed a Cavalier of the Order (2017).