About us
50 years of Gavella Drama Theatre
On May 29, 1953 a group of young actors and directors, mostly ''rebels'' from the Croatian National Theatre, led by dr. Branko Gavella as their ''primus inter pares'', took over the building of the Malo kazalište in Frankopanska 10 street and founded Zagreb Drama Theatre.
Due to the space being renovated the first performance was a guest performance in Subotica. Our theatre finally opened its doors to the viewers on October 30, 1954 with the performance of the play ''Golgota'' by Miroslav Krleža, directed by Branko Gavella.
dr. Branko Gavella
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.