Boris Liješević

Boris Liješević born in 1976 in Belgrade; he grew up in Budva, where he finished elementary school and grammar school. He graduated from the Department of Serbian Literature and Language at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad. In 2004, he graduated from the Directing Department at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, where he still teaches Acting as an associate professor. He was a triple scholarship holder of the Goethe Institute in Belgrade. He is an associate of the ZagrebActing Studio, where he teaches the Strasberg Method. In his directing work, he worked with different titles, authors and directions. The first years of his professional career were marked by collaborations with Serbian playwrights of the younger and middlegeneration: Fedor Šili, Minja Bogavac, Dušan Spasojević. He is interested in contemporary regional and European authors: David Harrower’s “Presence”, John Osborne’s “Look Back in Anger”, Lutz Hübner’s “Gretchen, Page 89”, Igor Štiks’ “Flour in the Veins”, Yasmina Reza’s “Bella Figura”, Ivan Vyrypaev’s “Drunks”. A significant part of his work is dedicated to documentary theatre, where authorial projects are created by recording topical conversations with selected anonymous interlocutors who reveal their authentic experiences: “Waiting Room” and “Fertile Days”, “In Commemoration of the Seagull”, “Our Fathers Were the City (Builders)” , “The Fifth Park”. The classic works of dramatic literature that he directed include “The Servant of Two Masters”, a comedy by Carlo Goldoni, Euripides’ “Alcestis”, “Lorenzaccio” by Alfred de Musset. Isidora Žebeljan’s opera “Two Heads and a Girl” based on the libretto by Borislav Čičovački, on which he worked in 2016, represents his first experience in the field of opera directing; he was a director supervisor of the children’s opera “Children’s Room” by M. Živković, based on verses by Desanka Maksimović. A large and growing part of his director’s oeuvre consists of plays based on dramatisations of the novels: “Municipal Child” by Branislav Nušić, “A Goat in Milk” by Yuri Polyakov, “Elijah’s Chair” by Igor Štiks, “Lazy Days” by Erlend Loe, Sándor Márai’s “Peace in Ithaka”, “Blue Moon” by Damir Karakaš, “The Use of Man” by Aleksandar Tišma, “Mephisto” by Klaus Mann in Ujvideki Szinhaz… For his work he has been awarded many national and regional awards, including three Sterija Awards (for the author’s project of the play “Waiting Room”, for directing the play “The Wizard” and for the best play “Drunks”), two awards of Sarajevo magazine “Dani” - Brave New World within the MESS Festival, “Mira Trailović” Award - Grand Prix of the Bitef Festival, “Ljubomir Muci Draškić” Award, “Bojan Stupica” Award, City of Belgrade Award for Theatre Creativity - “Despot Stefan Lazarević”, “Anđelko Štimac” Award for Best Director at the International Small Stage Theatre Festival in Rijeka, “Petar Kočić” Award at the Banja Luka Festival, Grand Prix at the Brčko Festival, “Ardalion” Award at the Užice Festival, “Spark of Culture” Award presented by the Institute of Culture of Vojvodina, awards at the “Vršac Autumn” Festival, awards at the Festival of Premiere Performances in Aleksinac, “Budva Theatre City” Award. He is also the recipient of annual awards presented by Atelje 212, Serbian National Theatre, Belgrade Drama Theatre and the Yugoslav Drama Theatre and some others. He lives and works between Belgrade, Novi Sad and Budva.