GRETA AMEND
SHORT RESUME
Originally from Düsseldorf, Greta moved to the unique creative beat of Berlin in 1989, the year before the Wall came down. Here, immediately after graduating from the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, she began her acting career, which would soon take her to Poland, Italy and Moscow, with a stopover in the master class for directing and acting at the GITIS Academy.
For three decades now, Greta has been on a multi-faceted adventure as a pan-European artist. She is not only an actress with 30 years of stage, film and television experience, but also a director, casting director with over 50 productions, lecturer for 15 years, producer, recognized researcher in the field of performing arts and also a mentor for directors in screenwriting and production. With her artist duo "Superbohemians" and guest artists, she has been producing works for film, stage and new media since 2015.
The combination of her training as an actress and director and her practical experience is one of a kind. That is why she is regularly invited by leading European film and theater schools to teach her post-graduate master classes and pass on her knowledge to young artists, for example at the National Danish Film School, the Danish National School of Performing Arts, the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB) or the Catalyst Institute for Creative Arts and Technology in Berlin. Greta is also politically committed to gender equality, diversity and fights against any kind of discrimination.
DETAILED RESUME
Greta entered the entertainment industry early as a professional actress for theatre and film, and has always been driven by a strong interest in the art of acting, teaching and directing. She studied drama at the Hannover College for Music and Theatre from 1983 to 1987, graduating by both playing in "Toda esta larga noche" (This is the long night) by Jorge Díaz, as well as by writing & directing her first medium-long film "Full House - House of Fools" (33 min.), which premièred at the Media Art Festival in Osnabrück 1987.
Between 1990 and 1992 she continued her studies with Anatolij Vasil`jev at the Theatre of Dramatic Arts in Moscow. With the International Theatre Centre Akt-Zent and the GITIS Academy Moscow she studied from 1996 to 1998 in the Masterclass "Acting and Directing", including most acting techniques based on the Russian school.
Gretas substancial education as artist is enriched by her participation in the international theatre and film directing workshops of Künstlerhaus Bethanien which enjoyed cult status in the Berlin of the early 90´s. Greta studied with directors Krzysztof Kieslowski, Andrej Wajda, Peter Palitzsch, Thomas Schulte-Michels, Ruth Zapora, Sergej Ashkenasy, Yoshi Oida, Henning Carlsen and Wojiech Marczewski.
Greta has been pursuing her acting career by working extensively in theatre productions with numerous foreign and local companies in Europe. Her stage credits include: Sophiensäle Berlin, Mind the Gap Dance Theatre, Wuppertal, Theater zum westlichen Stadthirschen Berlin, The Theatre of Dramatic Art Moscow, Theatre Mali Warsaw, Academy of the Arts Berlin, Gasteig Black Box Munich, Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin, GITIS Akademie Moscow or Theater am Halleschen Ufer.
Greta worked as actress for production companies like Teamworx, Grundy UFA, Studio Hamburg, Nova Film and different film schools as the German Film Academy dffb and KHM Film School Cologne.
In 2002 Greta launched a new career as Casting Director for Grundy Ufa TV Production in Potsdam Babelsberg, being responsible for the serial casting of Europe’s most popular daily soap opera "Gute Zeiten/Schlechte Zeiten”. Since 2005 she has been an independent casting director for cinema productions, amongst them the biggest russian-european screen epic in history yet: "Dau" by Ilya Khrzhanovsky (Ukraine | Russia | Netherlands | Germany | Sweden, premiered at Berlinale 2020) or "Stadt, Land, Fluss" by Benjamin Cantu, which won the Teddy Award at Berlinale 2011. A score of several independent features followed. Greta specialized in finding the right actors ensemble for short film productions, and has been casting more than 45 productions of the German Film Academy Berlin dffb and independent productions until today.
Additionally Greta founded the Embassy of Perfoming Arts in 2008, which produced performances, roundtables and short films until 2015. As part of it, she adapted and directed the play "White nights" by russian author Fjodor Dostojevsky at the Theater an der Glocksee, Hannover.
Since 2006 Greta devised and developed numerous innovative workshop and masterclass concepts with a focus on acting, directing and casting techniques for professional film- and theatre actors and directors. Her teachings made themselves a name in the international actors and directors scene, and often were trailblazers for the current education and training scene in Europe.
She has been teaching in Germany, Austria, Denmark, Norway and Switzerland, and is a guest lecturer in her masterclasses for directors and actors at the post-graduate department of the National Danish Film School (Filmskolens Efteruddannelse), the Danish National School of Performing Arts (Den Danske Scenekunstskole), the Norwegian Actors´Center (in cooperation with the Norwegian Film Institute), the German Film- and Television Academy & Catalyst Inistitute for Arts and Technology Berlin, the XXL EU Experts Workshop, Vienna, and in her masterclasses at the Medienakademie Hamburg.
Currently Greta is forwarding her broad knowledge in private sessions, as a personal mentor for european directors and actors for TV, theatre and film. With her international group "Superbohemians", she is creating and producing for film, theatre and media.