Yeşim Özsoy Gülan

Yeşim Özsoy Gülan — Biography

Yeşim Özsoy Gülan is a leading name in contemporary Turkish playwriting and independent theatre. She writes and directs her own plays and also performs in them, and is known as the founder of the GalataPerform venue in Galata and director of the company Ve Diğer Şeyler Topluluğu (VeDST). She also teaches contemporary theatre at Boğaziçi University.

After Robert College she studied sociology at Boğaziçi, where she joined Stüdyo Oyuncuları, and then went to the United States, taking acting and directing classes in New York and earning a master's in performance studies at Northwestern University. With Home-works Theatre, the group she founded in New York, she staged Oyun Alaturka and Sene 2084 off-off Broadway. Back in Istanbul in 2001 she founded VeDST and, in 2003, opened GalataPerform. Under that roof she wrote plays such as Ev, Kakofonik Bir Oyun, Aksak İstanbul Hikayeleri, Son Dünya, Noter and Türkiye-Almanya 0:0. The Yeni Metin Yeni Tiyatro project, which she has run since 2006, has made room for new playwrights. Yüzyılın Aşkı and Aşk ve Faşizm followed, and her solo play Yüzyılın Evi reached international festivals including Edinburgh Fringe. In 2021 she guest-starred in the series Kırmızı Oda.

Ev, Kakofonik Bir Oyun was presented at the New Plays from Europe biennale. Aksak İstanbul Hikayeleri won the Lions Public Jury Innovative Theatre Award in 2005 and a playwriting award at the 2006 Afife Theatre Awards.