Losev Semyon (23 October 1946, Leningrad) — theatre director, drama teacher.

In 1969 Semyon Losev graduated from the Directing Department of the Leningrad State Institute of Culture (class of Prof. A. Pergament). After graduating, he taught acting and directing at the Leningrad Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinematography and at the Institute of Culture. From 1972 to 1975 he undertook postgraduate studies under the supervision of Georgy Tovstonogov, Chief Director of the Bolshoi Drama Theatre. In 1976–78 he continued his teaching work.

In 1978–80 he worked as staff director at the A. Lunacharsky Sevastopol Drama Theatre, where he staged The Last Term by V. Rasputin, The Rowan Bush by S. Alyoshin, The Old House by A. Kazantsev, Phenomena by G. Gorin, and The Visitors by V. Shukshin.

In 1980 Semyon Losev was invited to the Riga Russian Drama Theatre as a director. His first production there was Retro by A. Galin. Among his best works were the stagings of D. Wasserman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, B. Vasiliev’s Whose Old Folks Are You?, the fairy tale Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by L. Ustinov and O. Tabakov, and the political satire Fathers-66 by Ye. Grigoryev.

From 1988 to 1990 he served as Chief Director of the Sverdlovsk Theatre for Young Audiences, where he staged a series of successful productions. In 1991 he returned to the Riga Russian Drama Theatre and presented one of his most subtle, complex and powerfully acted productions — Of Mice and Men by J. Steinbeck. He also staged Same Time, Next Year by B. Slade, ’night, Mother by M. Norman, Monsieur N. by C. Chaplin, The Fall from Grace by H. de Balzac, The Unattainable by W. Somerset Maugham, The Autumn Garden by L. Hellman, A Game with a Cat by I. Örkény, French Passions at a Dacha near Moscow by D. Razumovskaya, Spring Torrents by I. Turgenev, and The Miracle Worker by W. Gibson.

Alongside his theatre work he trained and taught young people in the theatre’s studios and at the Latvian Academy of Culture. He published the book Georgy Tovstonogov Rehearses and Teaches.

In 2000 Semyon Losev became the artistic director of the Theatre for Children and Young People in Stary Oskol (Russia).