Kaća Čelan (born August 5, 1956 in

Ratkovo Ratkovo ( sr-cyr, Ратково) is a village located in the Odžaci municipality, West Bačka District, Vojvodina, Serbia. As of 2011, the population of the village is 3,411 inhabitants. Name The former name of the town was Parabuć (). In Ge ...

SR Serbia The Socialist Republic of Serbia ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, separator=" / ", Социјалистичка Република Србија, Socijalistička Republika Srbija), previously known as the People's Republic of Serbia ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, separator=" / " ...

FPR Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

) is a writer,

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

, theatre and acting expert,

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

and

actress An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

. She is internationally known for being awarded the first prize for the best German-language play from the Bund der Theatergemeinden (Alliance of the German Theatre Community) for her play ' among other awards.Theater TAS Official, Kaca Celan Biography
/ref>

Biography

Early life

Kaća Čelan ( sr-cyrl, Каћа Челан) was born and grew up in

Ratkovo (Odžaci) Ratkovo ( sr-cyr, Ратково) is a village located in the Odžaci municipality, West Bačka District, Vojvodina, Serbia. As of 2011, the population of the village is 3,411 inhabitants. Name The former name of the town was Parabuć (). In Ge ...

; an area in the multicultural and multifaceted region of

Vojvodina Vojvodina ( ; sr-Cyrl, Војводина, ), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an Autonomous administrative division, autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia, located in Central Europe. It lies withi ...

, dominated by five cultures and languages: Serbian, Hungarian, German, Ukrainian (Rusyn) and Czech, which influenced and shaped her early childhood. She graduated from the scientific high school in

Odžaci Odžaci ( sr-cyrl, Оџаци, ; ) is a town and municipality located in the West Bačka District of the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. The town of Odžaci has a population of 7,556 people, while the population of the municipality of ...

and its rigorous classical curriculum with straight A's as best student of her generation.

Move to Sarajevo

After finishing her high school education, she chose the city of

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...

as her "home of choice". Her studies in the Olympic metropolis included

comparative literature Comparative literature studies is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across language, linguistic, national, geographic, and discipline, disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role ...

, theatre studies, and acting at the

University of Sarajevo The University of Sarajevo (Bosnian language, Bosnian, Croatian language, Croatian and Serbian language, Serbian: ''Univerzitet u Sarajevu'' / Sveučilište u Sarajevu / Универзитет у Сарајеву) is a List of universities in Bo ...

. Following her studies, she founded Teatar Amfiteatar Sarajevo (TAS) theatre, which she ran for seven years. Čelan has also worked as a directing professor at the Academy for Scenic Arts, Sarajevo. Her awards have included Best Young Actress in

Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina The Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Bosna i Hercegovina, Социјалистичка Pепублика Босна и Херцеговина), commonly referred to as Socia ...

, the Yugoslavian award for

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

Arts, and Best Director award at the Avant-garde Theatre Festival in

Socialist Republic of Montenegro The Socialist Republic of Montenegro ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Crna Gora, Социјалистичка Република Црна Гора), commonly referred to as Socialist Montenegro or simply Montenegro, was ...

. She has been the production director of the International Theatre Festival in

Kotor Kotor (Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Котор, ), historically known as Cattaro (from Italian language, Italian: ), is a town in Coastal Montenegro, Coastal region of Montenegro. It is located in a secluded part of the Bay of Kotor. The city has ...

, Montenegro. As a theatre academic she held

fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

ships in Moscow and Vienna.Theater TAS Official, Mission & History
/ref>

Slovenia and Germany

Prior to the siege of Sarajevo, Čelan moved to

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

, where she worked as a writer and director for a year. With a fellowship from the German cultural department and the

Heinrich Böll Foundation The Heinrich Böll Foundation (German language, German: ''Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Eingetragener Verein, e.V.''; Abbreviation: HBS) is a German legally independent political foundation. Affiliated with Alliance '90/The Greens, Alliance 90/The Gr ...

in hand, she moved to Germany in 1993. In the Böll-House, she founded the TAS theatre in exile, and during its first project, ''Project 3'', she toured well-known German theatres such as the

Munich Kammerspiele The Munich Kammerspiele (German: Münchner Kammerspiele) is a state-funded German-language theater company based at the ''Schauspielhaus'' on Maximilianstraße (Munich), Maximilianstrasse in the Bavarian capital. The company currently has three ...

and Hamburg's Thalia Theater. In 1999 she founded her acting school, the Čelan Theatre School at Burgau Castle, where her theatre was based as well. In 1995, Čelan won the first prize for the best German-language play from the Bund der Theatergemeinden (Alliance of the German Theatre Community) for her play '. That was followed by the International Award, Kristal Vilenice, for poetry in 1996. The next year the Cultural Minister of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

awarded her the prize in theatre literature.

New York and Los Angeles

In 2008, Čelan re-established Theater TAS in New York City with the performance and installation ''Yard Sale: New Footfalls...'' as its first production, presented by the arts organization

chashama ChaShaMa is a non-profit arts organization based in New York City. ChaShaMa nurtures artists by transforming unused property into affordable work and presentation space. __NOTOC__ Description Since being founded in 1995 by Anita Durst, daughter ...

. She is a member of

PEN American Center PEN America (formerly PEN American Center), founded in 1922, and headquartered in New York City, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose goal is to raise awareness for the protection of free expression in the United States and worldwide thr ...

. The Theater TAS production of

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Rainer Werner Fassbinder (; 31 May 1945 – 10 June 1982), sometimes credited as R. W. Fassbinder, was a German filmmaker, dramatist and actor. He is widely regarded as one of the major figures and catalysts of the New German Cinema moveme ...

's play "Blood on the Cat's Neck" directed by Čelan was presented in March 2014 by the

Goethe-Institut The Goethe-Institut (; GI, ''Goethe Institute'') is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit German culture, cultural organization operational worldwide with more than 150 cultural centres, promoting the study of the German language abroad and en ...

LA as a multimedia theater and film performance. On June 28, 2014, the

Max Kade Dr. h.c. Max Kade (13 October 1882, Steinbach near Schwäbisch Hall, Württemberg, Germany – 15 July 1967, Davos, Switzerland) was an emigrant from Germany to New York City who became successful in the pharmaceutical industry. Kade was committ ...

Institute at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

hosted the multimedia reading of Čelan's play "Woyzeck von Sarajevo" under her direction.Theater TAS Official, Current
/ref>

Works

Čelan's plays have been performed on the German radio and in theatres. In addition to her own plays, such as ''The Last Story'', ''Woyzeck from Sarajevo'' (both translated into English) and ''Struwwelpit & Co.'', she has directed twenty plays by classical authors, including

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

Edward Albee Edward Franklin Albee III ( ; March 12, 1928 – September 16, 2016) was an American playwright known for works such as ''The Zoo Story'' (1958), ''The Sandbox (play), The Sandbox'' (1959), ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' (1962), ''A Delicat ...

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...

Sophocles Sophocles ( 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least two plays have survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those ...

, and

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

, in her theatre. Her works have been published in English, German and Serbo-Croatian. Čelan has translated texts written by

Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet and author. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for '' The Colossus and Other Poems'' (1960), '' Ariel'' (1965), a ...

Leonid Andreyev Leonid Nikolaievich Andreyev (, – 12 September 1919) was a Russian playwright, novelist and short-story writer, who is considered to be a father of Expressionism in Russian literature. He is regarded as one of the most talented and prolific ...

and

Isak Samokovlija Isak Samokovlija (3 September 1889 – 15 January 1955) was a Bosnian writer. By profession he was a physician. His stories describe the life of the Bosnian Sephardic Jews. Biography Samokovlija was born into a Sephardi Jewish family in Goraž ...

among others.

Drama

* ''The Death of Omer & Merima'' * ''The Royal Marine'' * ''The King’s Murderers'' * ''Heimatbuch'' (Homeland Book) * ''Commedia Goldoniana'' * ''The Last Story'' (translated into English) * ''Chekhov'' * ''Woyzeck from Sarajevo'' (translated into English) * ''Felix'' * ''Cabaret International'' * ''The Struwwelpit & Co.'' (in collaboration with Maria Fuß) * ''Picollo Fratello Francesco''

Other

* ''Woyzeck from Sarajevo'' (radio play) * ''Clean Hands'' (book)

Awards

* Best Young Actress in

SR Bosnia and Herzegovina The Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Bosna i Hercegovina, Социјалистичка Pепублика Босна и Херцеговина), commonly referred to as Socia ...

* Yugoslavian Award for

Avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

Arts * Best Director Award at the Avant-garde Theatre Festival in

SR Montenegro The Socialist Republic of Montenegro ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Crna Gora, Социјалистичка Република Црна Гора), commonly referred to as Socialist Montenegro or simply Montenegro, was ...

* Dramatist Award of the Bund der Theatergemeinden (Alliance of the German Theatre Community) for the best German-language play for her play ''Heimatbuch'' (Homeland Book), 1995 * Kristal Vilenice, International Literature Award for Poetry, for her book ''Me and You – Book of Love Poetry'', 1996 * Artist Award of the Cultural Minister of the State of

(NRW) in the field of Theatre Literature, 1997

References

External links

Theater TAS Official Website
*
Rhizome Artist Profile

Theater TAS on Vimeo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Celan, Kaca 1956 births Living people People from Odžaci Bosnia and Herzegovina actresses Women dramatists and playwrights Yugoslav writers Bosnia and Herzegovina emigrants Immigrants to Germany Immigrants to the United States