Theater

Already during the time of his studies at the State Theater and Film Academy Vitiz in Sofia, Samuel Finzi was engaged for various theatrical roles. His first collaborations with Ivan Stanev brought him to Berlin into the collective that surrounded this director, who aimed to establish a new form of theater. An engagement at the Schauspielhaus Cologne followed, where he would make his breakthrough in the German-speaking world as 'Kostja' in Dimiter Gotscheff's staging of Anton Chekhov’s 'The Seagull'. His detailed, sensitive portrayal was celebrated by audiences as well as the press. The director recognized the intelligent acting talent of Samuel Finzi and promoted him. This has led to a long-standing, award-winning collaboration that extended to the death of the director. Following performances in Cologne, he appeared at all of the important German language theaters such as the Burgtheater in Vienna, the Deutsches Theater Berlin, Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin, Thalia Theater Hamburg and the Volksbühne in Berlin as well as at theaters in Bochum, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg and Zurich.

Samuel Finzi's intelligent, associative character studies are esteemed by directing legends such as Benno Besson, Dušan David Pařízek, Frank Castorf, Jürgen Gosch, Luc Bondy and Robert Wilson and he has been engaged for their productions, which have significantly influenced contemporary theater. He is convincing as the world-weary Ivanov, as the defeated commander Xerxes, as the inimitable lunatic or as the rampant figure in a Shakespearean roundelay. On stage, the actor possesses the uncanny ability to employ his body, his face and the text as equal elements in the performance to explore the limits of the human essence. He does not portray anyone, nor does he play anyone. He embodies his characters. In so doing, he is always concerned with an honesty, a truthfulness of human motives. For him, the stage becomes a special area where he effortlessly pushes human behavior to its limits. His precise and universal acting have served to make him one of the stars of theater in the German speaking world. For his multifarious, spirited performances, Samuel Finzi has been honored repeatedly, including with the 'Advancement Award for Dramatic Arts' of the State Capital of Düsseldorf, the Critics' Award, 'Best Actor of the Year' Nordrhein-Westfalen, the 'Theater Prize' Berlin and recognized by the renowned theater magazine Theater Heute for his outstanding acting performance as 'Actor of the Year 2015'.