Haris Pašović (born 16 July 1961) is a Bosnian theatre and film director. Over the course of his wide-ranging career, he has also worked as a playwright, producer, choreographer, performer, and designer[1]. He is best known for his productions of Wedekind’s “Spring Awakening” and numerous collaborations with other artists, including Susan Sontag, Miki Manojlovic and Peter Brook.[2] He is the artistic leader of the East West Theatre Company in Sarajevo and Professor of Directing at the Performing Arts Academy in Sarajevo.
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Pasovic was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1961. His education includes the Academy of Performing Arts in Novi Sad, ex Yugoslavia; the Fulbright Scholarship in the USA (University of Hawaii, Honolulu, New York University and the University of Wisconsin, Madison); the UNESCO High Levels for Directors, Festival d’Avignon, France, and other professional trainings.
He directed in some of the most significant theatres in the former Yugoslavia and participated in a number of festivals worldwide. His productions of Frank Wedekind’s “Spring Awakening” and “Calling the Birds” based on Aristophanes’ play “The Birds” (both at the Yugoslav Drama Theatre, Belgrade 1987/90) have been considered as the landmarks in the theatre of the former Yugoslavia. Likewise, Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” (Belgrade Drama Theatre) and Alfred Jarry’s “Ubu Roi” (National Theatre Subotica) have been considered as the classic productions in the ex-Yugoslav theatre, the former being the last Yugoslav premiere performed on the eve of the war in the country. As the artistic leader of theatre “Promena” (“Change”), Pasovic directed with a great success Wiess’ “Marat/Sade”; Wedensky’s “The Christmas Three at the Ivanovs”; Kis’ “Simon the Magus” on a lake surrounded by sand desert; Bunuel’s “Hamlet” placed in the fortress sitting on a rock rising from the Adriatic Sea (Dubrovnik Summer Festival) and many other plays.[3]
During the siege of Sarajevo (1992–95) Pasovic spent most of the time in Sarajevo managing the MES International Theatre Festival.[4] He directed plays and produced several shows, among others “Waiting for Godot”, directed by Susan Sontag.[5] In 1993, while Sarajevo was still under the siege, he also organized the first Sarajevo Film Festival “Beyond the End of the World”[6] and was one of the most prominent advocates of naming a square in Sarajevo after Susan Sontag.[7] Pasovic even managed to tour in 1994 to several European countries (under UNESCO auspices) with the Sarajevo Festival Ensemble invited by Peter Brook and Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord. During the tour, the Ensemble preformed two productions he had directed in the besieged city: “Silk Drums” based on the Noh plays, and In the Country of Last Things, based on Paul Auster’s novel.
After the war, Pasovic directed several documentaries including “Greta”, a story on Prof. Greta Ferusic who survived both Auschwitz and the siege of Sarajevo; a documentary trilogy entitled “Home,” “Love Thy Neighbor” and “The Balkans – Blood and Honey” about the American journalists David Rieff, Peter Maass and Ron Haviv, who had reported from the Bosnian war and an art documentary entitled “A Propos de Sarajevo” about the Sarajevo International Jazz Festival.
In 2002, Pasovic made a spectacular comeback to theatre directing Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” in front of the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina in a downtown Sarajevo. This was a brave futuristic production about a Muslim Romeo and a Christian Juliet, which involved 25 actors and live musicians, 1000 sq. m of stage, a 60-member crew, arms, vehicles, fireworks, video projections across the façade of the Parliament building and has stopped the traffic in the main city artery for four hours each night it was performed.
In 2005, Pasovic established the East West Theatre Company and directed a number of shows. Pasovic also writes the plays. He wrote “Rebellion at the National Theatre”, “Ulysses”, “Silk drums”, “Bolero, Sarajevo” and “Football, Football”. He also adapted several texts including Alfred Jarry’s “Ubu Roi”, Aristophanes’ “The birds”, Miroslav Krleza's Europe Today[8], Nigel Williams’ “Class Enemy[9]” and several others. He writes essays[10] and articles.
Pasovic gave a number of workshops and master-classes for directors and actors, as well as public lectures (Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annaghmakkering, Ireland; National Theatre of Scotland/Edinburgh International Festival; Queens University, Belfast; Drama Centre Singapore; Festival Desire Subotica, Serbia, etc.).
He is a co-founder of the Directing Department at the Performing Arts Academy in Sarajevo. Several of his students are today internationally acclaimed film directors (such as Danis Tanovic and Jasmila Zbanic). Pasovic lives in Sarajevo. He is a professor of the Performing Arts Academy in Sarajevo and the Bled School of Management, Slovenia, where he teaches the subject Arts and Leadership.[6]