About us

Branko Gavella (b. Zagreb, July 29, 1885 – d. Zagreb, April 8, 1962), theatre director, general manager, pedagogist, theatrologist, theatre critic and translator. Wrote under the pseudonim Brankač and Aleksandar Mautner. Graduated in Zagreb and studied philosophy, germanic and slavic studies in Vienna, where he obtained his doctoral degree in 1908. From 1909 he worked in the University Library in Zagreb and in 1914 he started to direct in Zagreb Theatre. Here and afterwards in all southern slavic theatre centres, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Italy too, he staged 279 dramas and operas, out of whom the productions of Držić, Gundulić, Brezovački, Krleža, Begović, Shakespeare, Pirandello and Wagner especially stood out. He was the founder of the Academy of Theatrical Arts in Zagreb (1950) and one of the founders of Zagreb Drama Theatre (1953), today Gavella Drama Theatre. He was a fellow of JAZU (the Yugoslav Academy of Science and Art) from 1961.