Hungary
Tamás Ascher was born in Budapest in 1949. After graduating from the Budapest Theater Academy in 1973, he worked as a stage director at the Gergely Csika Theater in Kaposvár. From 1978 to 1981 he worked at the National Theater in Budapest, which in those years was directed by Gábor Székely and Gábor Zsámbeki. Since 1993, Tamás Ascher has been a stage director at the Jozsef Katona Theater, but retains his position as artistic director of the Kaposvár Theater. He has been a personal member of the Union of Theaters of Europe since 1989. He teaches at the Theater Academy of Budapest. In 2006 he was elected president of the Academy.
Among his productions at the Jozsef Katona Theatre are: "Homecoming" by G. Pinter (1983), "Three Sisters" (1985) and "Platonov" (1990) by A. P. Chekhov, "The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum" by G. Böll. Böll (1992), "The New House" by C. Goldoni (1993), "Today We Improvise" by L. Pirandello (1994), "A Pig's Life" by D. Arden (1996), "The Presidents" by W. Schwab, "ART" by Y. Reza (1997), "Arcadia" by T. Stoppard(1998), "Herr Paul" by T. Dorst (1999), "Hangman's Vacation" by Corneille Hamwai (2000), "The Threepenny Opera" by B. Brecht - K. Weill (2001), "Dream of Autumn" by J. Fosse (2002), G. von Kleist's Revenge (2003), Chekhov's Ivanov (2004), W. Congreve's This Is What Happens in the Light (2005), A. Forgash's The Key (2005), Ibsen's The Wild Duck (2007) and Gorky's The Barbarians (2008).
Tamás Ascher's plays have been shown in more than 40 theaters around the world. In 1987, at the BITEF Festival in Belgrade, his Three Sisters shared the first prize with Andrzej Wajda's Crime and Punishment, and at the Caracas Festival it won the prize for the best foreign play of the year (1990). In the same 1990, his "Platonov" won the prize of the French Theater Critics in Paris. In 2002 "Tales of the Vienna Woods" was awarded the prize for Best Production in Oslo. In 2004 at the MESS Festival in Sarajevo "Ivanov" won the prize for best direction and best play.
In Hungary, Тamas Asсher has won the Hungarian Theater Critics' Award seven times and the National Theater Festival Award four times. He won the highest state award for actors - the Kossuth Prize, 1992.
At the IV Alexandrinsky International Theater Festival, the Jozef Katona Theater presented two performances by Tamash Asher - "BARBARIANS" by M. Gorky (September 16 and 17, 2009) and "IVANOV" by A. P. Chekhov (September 18 and 19, 2009).