Jovan Ćirilov


Jovan Ćirilov was a Serbian theatrologist, philosopher, writer, theatre selector, and poet.

Biography

Ćirilov was born in Kikinda. the only son of Milivoj Ćirilov, a council clerk, and his wife, Jelica. His parents later divorced. After finishing school in his home town, he enrolled and graduated philosophy at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy in 1955. He was at the head of the Yugoslav Drama Theatre from 1985–1999, and before that he had worked as a dramaturge since 1956, as well in Atelje 212 since 1967 to 1985. Since establishment in 1967 to 2014, Jovan was the artistic director and selector of BITEF festival, longest in the history of international theatre festivals. Since 2001 to 2007, he was the President of the National Commission of Yugoslavia, then Serbia, in UNESCO.
He wrote the plays Room for four and House of Silence, scripts for the Vladimir Slijepčević film Real state of situation, Ward, Where after the rain, radio plays Windy Roads, Mechanical secretary and others. Adapted for the stage of The Damned Yard by Ivo Andrić, and together with Belović Discovery, by Dobrica Ćosić.
He was the author of novels, several collections of poems, theatrological essays, books of memories, an anthology of plays and vocabularies. He had translated plays by Christopher Fry, Bertolt Brecht, Jean Genet, Stoppard, Sam Shepard, David Mamet, Marber and the musical Hair.
Writer of columns in NIN magazine,, two columns a week in the Blic newspaper, and theater news in the Ludus theatre newspapers.
As a member of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, he was the first person who publicly called for decriminalisation of male same-sex relations in the 1980s.
He spoke German, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Serbian and studied Chinese.

Death

He died in Belgrade after a short illness on 16 November 2014. He is interred in the Alley of Distinguished Citizens in the Belgrade New Cemetery.

Works

Published books