- Artistic Director
Dora Ruždjak Podolski was born in 1971 in Zagreb, where she graduated from the Classical Grammar School and the School of Rhythmics and Dance. She later studied Latin and Greek, and graduated in theatrical direction and radiophony in 1997. Ruždjak Podolski has directed around eighty theatrical, operetta and opera projects and musicals. She has directed at the Croatian National Theatres of Zagreb, Split, Osijek and Rijeka, the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, the Komedija City Theatre, the Trešnja City Theatre, the Zagreb Youth Theatre and the Gavella Dramatic Theatre, as well as in Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Russia and Canada. She has directed prize winning ceremonies the Crni Mačak Award, the Porin Discography Award, the Croatian Theatre Award, the Dubrovnik Summer Festival Opening Ceremony and the Croatia Joins the EU Ceremony.
Her favourite directorial achievements in drama are J.P. Kamov's Tragedy of the Brains, W. Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I. Sajko’s Woman – Bomb, P. Zelenka’s Tales of Ordinary Madness, Regoč by I.B. Mažuranić, Dorothy Gale by T. Zajec, Anna Karenina by L.N. Tolstoy, Posljednji dani mira by I. Vidić and Črna mati zemla by K. Novak and T. Zajec.
In 2001, she co-founded the Association of Frustrated Theatre Directors (KUFER) with Franka Perković, aimed at promoting young artists, directors, actors, dancers and choreographers. From 2012, they have been the leaders of the Ruždjak & Perković Art Organisation (RUPER).
Dora Ruždjak Podolski awards include the Goran Young Poets Prize and the Croatian Theatre Awards for her direction of Chicago (2004), Beauty and the Beast (2008), Madame Buffault (2015) and Črna mati zemla (2017), as well as the awards for her direction of Črna mati zemla at the 32nd Gavella Theatre Evenings and 28th Marulić Days theatre festival. The plays Rent a Friend, Chicago, Beauty and the Beast, Cabaret and Črna mati zemla won the Croatian Theatre Award in the Best Play Category, while Črna mati zemla was also declared the best play overall at the 28th Marulić Days theatre festival and won the audience vote for best play at the 63rd Sterijino pozorje festival. The projects of the three art academies and the TTF - The Elixir of Love, The Magic Flute, The Nightingale, Madame Buffault and Agrippina – which she headed and directed, won her five Special Rector's Awards (2008, 2010, 2013, 2015 and 2016), while her The Magic Flute and La Boheme (the Croatian National Theatre of Split) won the Milka Trnina Award. Together with the theatre director Saša Božić, she wrote the text Rent a Friend (the ASSITEJ Award for the best dramatic text, 2012). She has written a book of poetry entitled Šetač (Goran's Spring 1992) and a libretto for the opera Komorni trio by Olja Jelaska which was first performed at the 1997 Music biennale.
As an assistant professor, she teaches acting at Zagreb Academy of Music and the Academy of Dramatic Arts, where she is also employed. She served as the Assistant Artistic Director of the Dubrovnik Summer Festival for the theatre programme from 2009 to 2012, and as of August 2017, she has been the Dubrovnik Summer Festival’s Artistic Director.
Contact:
E: dora.ruzdjak.podolski@dubrovnik-festival.hr
T: +385 (0)20 326 100