Mira Trailović | Origin of Street Names

Column dedicated to giants - domestic and foreign personalities whose works, personal and social engagement had a civilizational significance, and after whom streets and squares throughout our country are named

Mira Trailović (1924 - 1989) was a Serbian and Yugoslav playwright and theater director, one of the most important figures in the history of Serbian avant-garde theater, co-founder of "Atelje 212" theater, as well as the prestigious BITEF theater festival.

She was born in Kraljevo, as Mira Milićević, in a bourgeois family where higher education was highly valued for generations. Before she graduated in directing at the Belgrade Faculty of Dramatic Arts, she completed the Music Academy and also studied architecture and art history.

Theater, film, and directing were her passion, and she took her first directorial steps at Radio Belgrade, initially working as a presenter and later directing over 70 radio dramas. It was in this position that she met journalist Dragoljub Trailović, whom she would soon marry and whose surname she would celebrate in a unique way in the following decades.

When in 1956 a group of theater workers and artists founded "Atelje 212", Mira Trailović was one of the pillars of the first Belgrade avant-garde theater and its longtime director. Additionally, the first play ever performed on these boards was Goethe's "Faust," directed by Mira Trailović.

Over the years, the repertoire of "Atelje" featured plays that made this theater a cult place in Belgrade and one of the most respected theaters in the world. Namely, the legendary musical "Hair" had its first non-American premiere at "Atelje 212." The famous rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar" pushed the boundaries of Yugoslav theater, as did the socially conscious play "Miracle in Šargan," "Bar, Court, Madhouse," "Behind Closed Doors," and many others. Each of them bore the signature of Mira Trailović as the director.

In 1967, together with her colleague Jovan Ćirilov, the energetic director founded the BITEF international theater festival (Belgrade International Theater Festival), which to this day remains one of the most prestigious and respected theater festivals in the world, breaking all political, social, and cultural barriers while following the latest trends in the world of theater.

Thanks to her charm and, above all, her great reputation in public and artistic circles, Mira Trailović brought to Belgrade some of the greatest names in European and world dramaturgy, including Jean-Paul Sartre, Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco, and others. Thanks to her, Belgrade and "Atelje 212" became important destinations on the theater map of Europe.

Mira Trailović passed away at the age of 65 and was buried at Belgrade's New Cemetery. Just a few months earlier, the reconstructed Evangelical Church in Dorćol became the home of the Bitef Theater, for which she herself was responsible.

After her death, a small square in front of the theater was named Mira Trailović Square. In addition, streets in various cities in Serbia now bear the name of the famous director, and a few years ago, the main stage of her "Atelje 212" was symbolically named after her.