Haris Pašović facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Haris Pašović
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| Born | 16 July 1961 |
| Occupation | Director |
| Years active | 1980–present |
Haris Pašović (born on July 16, 1961) is a famous Bosnian theatre director. He is known for his amazing stage productions. Besides directing, he has also written plays, produced shows, created dances, performed, and designed sets. He leads the East West Theatre Company in Sarajevo. He is also a Professor of Directing at the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo.
Contents
Haris Pašović's Story
Haris Pašović was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1961. He studied at the Academy of Performing Arts in Novi Sad. He also received a special scholarship, the Fulbright Scholarship, to study in the USA. He learned a lot about theatre from different experts around the world.
Early Theatre Magic
Pašović directed plays in many important theatres in the former Yugoslavia. He also took part in festivals all over the world. His plays like Spring Awakening and Calling the Birds were very important. They changed how people saw theatre in the region.
He also directed classic plays like Waiting for Godot and Ubu Roi. These shows are still remembered as special moments in theatre history. Pašović also led a theatre group called Promena (which means "Change"). With this group, he directed many successful plays. One unique show, Simon the Magus, was performed on a lake in a sand desert! Another, Hamlet, was set in a fortress by the Adriatic Sea.
Art During Difficult Times
During the Siege of Sarajevo (1992–1996), Pašović stayed in Sarajevo. He managed the MES International Theatre Festival. He directed plays and produced many shows. One famous show was Waiting for Godot, directed by the American writer Susan Sontag.
In 1993, while the city was still under siege, he started the first Sarajevo Film Festival. It was called “Beyond the End of the World.” Pašović also worked hard to have a square in Sarajevo named after Susan Sontag. In 1994, he even managed to take his theatre group on a tour to Europe. They performed plays he had directed in the besieged city. These plays were Silk Drums and In the Country of Last Things.
After the War
After the war, Pašović directed several documentaries. A documentary is a film that tells a true story. He made a film called Greta about a woman who survived both a concentration camp and the siege of Sarajevo. He also made a series of documentaries about American journalists who reported from the Bosnian War. He also made an art documentary about the Sarajevo International Jazz Festival.
In 2002, Pašović made a big return to theatre. He directed Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in front of the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo. This was a modern and brave show. It featured a Muslim Romeo and a Christian Juliet. The show had 25 actors, live musicians, and a huge stage. It even used fireworks and video projections on the Parliament building! It was so big that it stopped traffic in the city for four hours each night.
East West Theatre Company
In 2005, Pašović started the East West Theatre Company. He has directed many shows with this company. He also writes his own plays. Some of his plays include Rebellion at the National Theatre and Football, Football. He has also changed many famous books and plays for the stage. He also writes essays and articles about theatre.
Pašović often gives workshops and master-classes for young directors and actors. He also gives public talks at universities and festivals around the world.
Teaching and Legacy
Haris Pašović helped start the Directing Department at the Performing Arts Academy in Sarajevo. Some of his former students are now famous film directors. These include Danis Tanović, who won an Academy Award, and Jasmila Žbanić, who won a Golden Bear award. Pašović lives in Sarajevo. He teaches Directing at the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo. He also teaches Arts and Leadership at the Bled School of Management in Slovenia.
In 2012, Haris Pašović led a huge event called Sarajevo Red Line. This event remembered the 20th anniversary of the Siege of Sarajevo. It was a special drama and music poem for the people of Sarajevo who died during the 1992–1996 Bosnian War. The event featured 11,541 red chairs placed on the main street of Sarajevo. Each chair represented a person who died. It also included an exhibition and a concert. Many TV stations around the world broadcast the event live.
Works
- Buñuel's Hamlet, 1984
- Marat/Sad, TV drama, TV Novi Sad (adapted and directed by), 1985
- Paradise, now!, TV drama, TV Novi Sad (screenplay adaptation and directed by), 1985
- Frank Wedekind's Spring’s Awakening, 1987
- Calling the Birds (based on Aristophanes’ play “The Birds”), 1989
- Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot
- Ubu Roi (based on Alfred Jarry's play)
- Wiess’ Marat/Sade
- Wedensky's The Christmas Three at the Ivanovs’
- Kis’ Simon the Magus
- Silk Drums (based on the Noh plays), 1994
- In the Country of Last Things (based on Paul Auster's novel), 1994
- Greta ”, feature documentary (director and producer), 1997
- Iz Albanije, documentary (screenwriter and director), 1998
- Home, a documentary trilogy, 1999/2000
- Love Thy Neighbor, a documentary trilogy, 1999/2000
- The Balkans – Blood and Honey, a documentary trilogy , 1999/2000
- Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, 2002
- À propos de Sarajevo, documentary (screenwriter, director and producer), 2003
- Rebellion at the National Theatre (inspired by McCoy’s novel “They Shoot the Horses, Don’t They?”), playwright and director, 2004
- Ulysses (playwright)
- Bolero, Sarajevo
- Hamlet by William Shakespeare (director), 2005
- Victor or the Children Take Over, 2006
- Faust (adapted and directed by), 2006
- Class Enemy based on Nigel Williams’ play (adapted and directed by), 2008
- Nora (Henrik Ibsen's Doll's House), 2009
- Football, Football, 2010
- Europe Today, 2011
- Sarajevo Red Line, 2012
- The Conquest of Happiness, new work theatre production, 2013
Awards
- BITEF award for the Best Director
- ‘’Bojan Stupica’’ award for Best Director in the former Yugoslavia
- Best Director Award at the MES International Theatre Festival
- UCHIMURA Prize
- The Best Director at the Festival of Bosnian Theatres
