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Walter D. Asmus (born 1941 inLübeck) is a German theatre director.

Asmus studied German and English Literature, Philosophy and Theatre Sciences in Hamburg, Vienna and Freiburg and spent a year in London in the late sixties where he lived in the vibrant Camden Town with the North Villas set. Experience as an actor and director at University drama groups. First publications (Theater heute, Shakespeare yearbook)After two years as co-director of Theatre in der Tonne (Reutlingen), he worked at theSchiller Theatre in Berlin as assistant director/dramaturgical collaborator and director. There he metSamuel Beckett in 1974 and was assistant for the author's renowned production of "Waiting for Godot", 1975.

Asmus worked with Samuel Beckett (theatre and television) until the authors death in 1989 (That Time/Footfalls/Play/Come and Go/ Waiting for Godot/...but the clouds.../Ghost Trio/Eh Joe/What Where).

Since 1976 he was freelance director at the Schiller Theater,Staatstheater Darmstadt,Staatstheater Kassel,Thalia Theater,Theater Freiburg and internationally. 1983-1986 he was director atBadisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe. He was Professor in the acting department at theHochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannoverufrom 1986ntil he became emeritus in 2006. He was Head of the Department since 1994.

Asmus directed all of Samuel Beckett's plays internationally.

His 1991Gate Theatre (Dublin) production ofWaiting for Godot was revived several times with the same cast until 2008 and had en suite runs at the Gate Theatre. It went on tour to Chicago, Sevilla, Toronto, Melbourne, London, New York (Lincoln Center Festival), Beijing and Shanghai. US-tours in 1998 and 2006. It finished after an all-Ireland tour (32 counties, one night only) on October 3, 2008. This production ofWaiting for Godot (starringBarry McGovern,Johnny Murphy,Alan Stanford andStephen Brennan) was regarded by reviewers and academics alike as "definitive". In 2000 Asmus was Co-director of the international Beckett-Festival "Beckett in Berlin 2000", Berlin.

• 1977Happy Days, Bristol Music Centre Teatret, Copenhagen
• 1978Waiting for Godot,Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York -Endgame, Bristol Music Centre Teatret, Copenhagen
• 1979Rough for Theatre I/II, (world premiers), Thalia Theatre Hamburg -That Time,Not I,Footfalls, State Theatre Darmstadt
• 1981Endgame, Stary Teatret, Cracow
• 1982Krapp's Last Tape,Not I,Ohio Impromptu,Rockaby,Betty Nansen Teatret, Copenhagen
• 1983Waiting for Godot, State Theatre Karlsruhe
• 1984Waiting for Godot, San Quentin Drama Workshop,Goodman Theatre, Chicago/ Riverside Studios, London, in collaboration with the author
• 1988Waiting for Godot, Gate Theatre, Dublin -Endgame, Theater Freiburg
• 1990Waiting for Godot, Betty Nansen Teatret, Copenhagen
• 1991Waiting for Godot, Gate Theatre, DublinBreath,That Time,A Piece of Monologue Betty Nansen Teatret, Copenhagen
• 2003Waiting for Godot, 7Stages, Atlanta
• 2004Waiting for Godot,Footfalls,A Piece of Monologue, Rubicon Theatre, Ventura
• 2005Endgame, Dramatic Arts Centre, Shanghai. First production ever in Mandarin in China
• 2006 Revival ofEndgame in Shanghai - Stage adaptation of Beckett's NovellaFirst Love for the Sydney Writers´ Festival (performed at Sydney Theatre Company)
• 2014 "Not I", "Footfalls", "Rockaby" with Lisa Dwan. Royal Court Theatre, London. West End transfer (Duchess Theatre).
• 2016 "Not I", "Eh Joe",Østre Gasværk Teater, Copenhagen, withMorten Grunwald.
• 2017 "Not I", "Footfalls", "Eh Joe",Volksbühne Berlin, withAnne Tismer andMorten Grunwald.

• 1976 Samuel Beckett's Berlin production ofWaiting for Godot at the Schiller-Theater for German televisionZDF
• 1988Rockaby,Footfalls andEh Joe, withBillie Whitelaw for German television stationSDR, Stuttgart
• 1988 The San Quentin Drama Workshop production ofWaiting for Godot from 1984 and Beckett's production (1978) ofKrapp's Last Tape with Rick Cluchey. Both plays in French (withRoman Polanski andRoland Bertin among others) for French TV stationsLa Sept andFrance 3 and US stationPBS, Paris

• 2000Footfalls for theBeckett on Film Project, Dublin. TheWaiting for Godot film for the same project was based on his 1991 production of the play at the Gate Theatre.
• 2013 "What Where" produced by UWS (University of Western Sydney) in Sydney

• 1995 Company for German stationSWRBaden-Baden.

Numerous publications and interviews about the collaboration with Samuel Beckett in periodicals e.g. Theater Heute, Theater Quarterly and TheJournal of Beckett Studies.

• 2004 Nomination for the Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Award for best direction of a play (Waiting for Godot at Rubicon Theatre, Ventura, CA)
• 2009/ 2010 AIR AWARD (The Annenberg Foundation) and Artist-in-Residence at the Metabolic Studio Pipeline Project (Annenberg Foundation), Los Angeles.

• Walter D. Asmus atIMDb
• New York Times: Proof: If Godot Exists, He's Likely to Be Irish
• Beckett in Berlin 2000, Foyer onYouTube
• James Knowlson, Damned to Fame, The life of Samuel Beckett, Bloomsbury, London 1996, pp. xi, 607–9, 660, 690–1, 702
• Dougald McMillan and Martha Fehsenfeld, Beckett in the Theatre, John Calder, London 1988, pp. 66, 87, 88, 136, 136ff, 148ff
• SAMUEL BECKETT, Photographs by John Minihan, Secker&Warburg, London 1995, pp. 34/35
• John Fletcher, about Beckett, the playwright and the work, faber and faber (ff), London 2003
• Beryl S. and John Fletcher, A student's Guide to the Plays of SAMUEL BECKETT, faber and faber (ff), London 1978, p. 117
• Enoch Brater, Beyond Minimalism, Beckett's Late Style In The Theatre, Oxford University Press, New York/Oxford 1987

• 1941 births
• Living people
• German theatre directors
• People from Lübeck

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