Dimiter Gotscheff

© Arno Declair

Born on 26 April 1943 in Parvomei, Bulgaria. Accompanied his father to the GDR in 1962 where he studied Veterinary Medicine and Theatre Sciences at Humboldt University in East Berlin. 1968 pupil of Benno Besson, assistant director under Fritz Marquardt and contact with Heiner Müller, whose plays he has repeatedly performed since then.

From 1972 first productions in Bulgaria and the GDR, which he left in 1979 in connection with the expatriation of Wolf Biermann. Then productions in Bulgaria until 1985, including a famous production of “Philoctetes” in Sofia in 1983.

1985 invitation by the manager of the Kölner Schauspiel, Klaus Pierwoß, for a guest production of Heiner Müller’s “Quartet”. Gotscheff moved to Cologne and since then has worked only in German-language theatre. In 1991 he was awarded the prize of the Critics’ Association of the Berlin Academy of the Arts and was voted Director of the Year in the critics’ survey of the journal “Theater heute”. He received this honour for a second time in 2005 for his production of “Ivanov”.

1993 to 1996 permanent in-house director at the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus. From 1995 to 2000 member of the management at Schauspielhaus Bochum during the management of Leander Haußmann. Since then, regular guest in Vienna, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and Hamburg.