ProtagonistCarlos Medina

Carlos Medina was born in Chile in 1944. He studied in Santiago de Chile in the 1960s at an institute for acting and was active in the Communist Party there. After the military coup in 1973, he emigrated with his family to the GDR, where he founded the Teatro Nuevo Popular in Rostock together with other Chileans involved in the theatre scene. From 1976–80 he studied directing at the Institut für Schauspielregie (Institute for Stage Directing) in Berlin. He became the first foreign director at the Berliner Ensemble performing arts theatre. He later transferred to the Deutsches Theater in East Berlin, where he held the role of resident director.

Following an amnesty, Medina’s family moved back to Chile in 1983. But after an assassination attempt on Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet ushered in a wave of repression, they fled back to the GDR. Medina received international awards and directing projects in both West and East Berlin, but always came back to the GDR, where he had received a lot of support and appreciation.

In 1991 he founded this own international theatre group in Berlin, the Ikaron Theater.

Today he is a representative for cultural affairs at the embassy of Chile and lives in Berlin.