Hakan Savaş Mican

Born 1978 in Berlin and raised in Turkey, Hakan Savaş Mican moved back to Berlin in 1997, where he finished his studies in architecture in 2004. He then studied directing at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB). During his studies, Mican shot feature and documentary films for ARTE and Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (rbb). He worked as an director on two television projects – “24h Berlin” and “20xBrandenburg” – that were honoured with the Grimme Award, among others.

Mican has worked in the theatre since 2008, staging productions at Ballhaus Naunynstraße, Staatstheater Mainz, Volkstheater München. He has been a director-in-residence at Maxim Gorki Theater since 2013. In addition, he has written numerous plays, including “Der Besuch” (The Visit), “Die Schwäne vom Schlachthof” (The Swans from the Slaughterhouse), “Schnee” (Snow) and “Die Saison der Krabben” (The Season of the Crabs), which was honoured with the Monica Bleibtreu award for best contemporary drama at the PRIVATTHEATERTAGE festival for private theatres in 2013. Mican’s first production at the Maxim Gorki Theater, “Schwimmen Lernen – ein Lovesong” (Learning to Swim – a love song) by author-in-residence Sasha Marianna Salzmann, was invited to the Radikal jung theatre festival and the Heidelberg Stückemarkt festival for new plays in 2014.

The Maxim Gorki Theater opened the 2020/21 season with Mican’s staging of his play “Berlin Oranienplatz – 1. Teil der Stadttrilogie”. The second part “Berlin Kleistpark” followed at the end of 2021. Since the 2023/24 season, his production of “Unser Deutschlandmärchen” based on the novel by Dinçer Güçyeter is shown on the Gorki stage. With this production he was invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen. His latest production “Vatermal”, based on the novel by Necati Öziri, premiered in 2024. Hakan Savaş Mican lives in Berlin and is a striker for the national writers’ football Team.