Robert Savina grew up on Lake Erie in the shadows of the steel mills of Ohio. After high school, Robert started college, dropped out after one semester and joined the U.S. Navy. He  was trained as a Chinese interpreter at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA. and stationed in the Far East.  His professional background has always been wildly varied but has always returned to the Arts. He moved to NYC in 1985 and worked as an Art PA for the film unit as Saturday Night Live for two years. His formal training included two years in Houston as an assistant to scenic designer, Robert Howery, and a Masters degree in Theater Arts from The State University of New York at Stony Brook with emphasis on directing and scenic design. 

​

For the past 15 years, Savina has worked as a production designer for feature film, television, theater and special events.  Film projects include:  Fall to Rise, Christmas Hours, Video Girl, The Neighborhood, Burning Blue, Blowtorch, Fall To Rise, The Rig, Dark Circles, and My Alien Mother.  Recently, he designed the set for Conquest of the Universe or When Queens Collide by Charles Ludlam with the incomparable Everett Quinton at the LaMaMa Theatre in NYC. 

​

Savina has directed all of Michael Dorn Moody’s plays - The Shortchanged Review, The Fool, and SPILL.  Other directing credits include, Assassins, Fool For Love, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Whiskeyville, American Diner, The Family Continues,  He also facilitated Liz Lerman’s Hallelujah Project (MacArthur Genius Award Recipient) that originated in Eastport, Maine for the millennium, Sarah Pearson and Patrik Widrig’s If Wishes Were Horses Beggars Would Ride at the Portland Museum of Art, and Bates Dance Festival at Bates College. 

​

Savina is currently developing a new play, THE LOST KEITH HARING MURAL OR HOW TO SURVIVE THE APOCALYPSE and a screenplay adaptation of his play, Wheels Over Indian Trails, based on his 1987 cross-country bicycle journey.

​

His produced plays include, Four Brothers, Wheels Over Indian Trails, and Whiskeyville.