Jeanette Spassova

Jeanette Spassova grew up in Sofia. She attended the Galabov Gymnasium, a German-language secondary school in Sofia, and
then studied drama at the Krastyo Sarafov National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts. While still a student she met author and
director Ivan Stanev. She was one of the founder members of Stanev's first theatre company, and together they developed their
own special language for theatre. This provoked a fierce reaction from the board of censors in Bulgaria, an Eastern Bloc state at
the time, and led to Stanev being temporarily barred from exercising his profession
In 1987 Spassova was engaged by the State theatre “ Sofia” in Sofia, where she made her debut in the role of Marie in Stanev's
production Die Wunde Woyzeck.[1] In 1988 Heiner Müller invited the company to stage the production in West Berlin. After this
guest performance, which formed part of the Heiner-Müller Werkschau, Stanev did not return to Bulgaria. In 1989 he invited
Spassova to Munich, where she played the leading role in Stanev's collage Betrogen/Gestern nach einem sonnigen
Nachmittag[2][3] at the Studiotheater München. In 1990 Spassova moved to Berlin, founded an international theatre company
with Stanev and performed at the Hebbel-Theater and the Podewil.
In 1996 she signed on with the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz and until 2000 performed there in numerous productions
by Frank Castorf, Christoph Marthaler and Penelope Wehrli, among others. She went on to work as a free-lance actress in Basel
(Theater Basel), Munich (Münchner Kammerspiele) and Salzburg (Salzburger Festspiele) and continued to work with Ivan
Stanev and his ensemble in Berlin and France.
In 2004 she returned to the Volksbühne in Berlin and until 2017 remained there as a permanent member of the company. In
addition to her work in theatre, Spassova has also played parts in many radio plays and audio books.
Her first roles as a film actress were in Tom Toelle's Bismarck, Stanev's Villa dei Misteri and Luxor Las Vegas and in Castorf's
Dämonen and Der Idiot.
In 2012 Spassova played the leading role in the Bulgarian feature film "Az sum Ti" (English: "I am You") and received several
awards for her performance. In 2013 "Az sum Ti" was screened at the 16th Shanghai International Film Festival