woman as an actor

Zlatko Paković (1968) is one of the most influential directors and playwrights in the South Slavic cultural sphere. Hans-Thies Lehmann wrote about his originality as a completely new way of using Brecht’s learning plays, while Branislav Jakovljević, Professor and Chair at the Department of Theater and Performance Studies at Stanford University characterized his work as follows: “Paković’s theater does not look for its determinants in theatrical aesthetics, but in ethical relations between the stage and the audience. It is not a theater of superficial provocations, but of deep moral challenges. That is why it is difficult, almost impossible, to make aesthetic judgements about his performances. In other words, this is a sort of theater that sets its own standards.”

Over the course of his career Paković has received many prestigious awards for his work, including the Special Sterija Award for his directing work, the Ahmed Vali Lifetime Achievement Award, and the international Ibsen Scholarship for his theater project Ibsen’s Enemy of the People as Brecht’s Learning Play. He has also published several books, including Heretical Liturgy – ten dramatic pieces, Anatomy of Nationalist Morality, and On Authoritarian Conscience. His essay On Theatre’s Responsibility in the Spectacle of Climate Change was published in the 2023 spring edition of The Drama Review (TDR).