Bratko Kreft ( Maribor, 11 February 1905 – 17 July 1996,

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the are ...

) was a

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

n playwright, writer, literary and theater historian and director.

Biography

He grew up in

Prlekija Prlekija is a region in northeastern Slovenia between the Drava and Mura rivers. It comprises the eastern part of the Slovene Hills ( sl, Slovenske gorice), stretching from the border with Austria to the border with Croatia. It is part of the tra ...

. He studied Slavic Studies in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and

. In Ljubljana he also studied comparative literature and literary theory. Among other things, he was the editor and secretary of Kosovel's "

Mladina ''Mladina'' (English: Youth) is a Slovenian weekly left-wing political and current affairs magazine. Since the 1920s, when it was first published, it has become a voice of protest against those in power. Today, ''Mladinas weekly issues are dis ...

", the artistic director and director of " Delavski oder" in Ljubljana, and the director of the National Theater in Ljubljana. He was a professor of contemporary Russian literature at the Faculty of Arts and a corresponding member of

Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( la, Academia Scientiarum et Artium Croatica, hr, Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti, abbrev. HAZU) is the national academy of Croatia. HAZU was founded under patronage of the Croatian bishop Jo ...

(JAZU). He received the

Prešeren Award The Prešeren Award ( sl, Prešernova nagrada), also called the Grand Prešeren Award ( sl, Velika Prešernova nagrada), is the highest decoration in the field of artistic and in the past also scientific creation in Slovenia. It is awarded each yea ...

three times.

Works

As a playwright, Kreft preferred topics from Slovenian history. Rather than individual fates, he was interested in the relationships between social classes. Among his major plays are: * ''Celjski grofje'' * ''Kreature'' * ''Velika puntarija'' * ''Kranjski komedijanti'' * ''Tugomer'' * ''Balada o poročniku in Marjutki'' * ''V ječi življenja''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kreft, Bratko 1905 births 1996 deaths Slovenian Jews Slovenian editors Slovenian dramatists and playwrights Slovenian theatre directors 20th-century Slovenian historians Jewish dramatists and playwrights University of Vienna alumni University of Ljubljana alumni Academic staff of the University of Ljubljana 20th-century dramatists and playwrights Writers from Maribor