Anna Gutto, or Anna Guttormsgaard is a Norwegian director, writer and
artistic director living in Los Angeles and Oslo. Her career includes
acting, writing, translating, directing and adaptations into English
from Norwegian texts.Anna Gutto started her dedication to acting and
story-telling through the theater already as a child. Not letting
herself be sidelined by the largest roles being for men, she spent her
childhood years playing several male characters. Committed to a
professional life in the theater, she went from school and community
theater to the performing arts high school Hartvig Nissen in Oslo. She
made her professional debut in 1997 when director Stein Winge,
artistic director Svein Sturla Hungnes and set designer John-Kristian
Alsaker chose her to play Solveig in Peer Gynt at the Riksteatret (The
Norwegian State Theater) after fierce competition. She later received
a two-year contract at "Teatret VÃ¥rt" in Molde, where she played
roles such as Lady Anne in Richard III, Bianca in The Taming of the
Shrew, Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice, and Maja in Prinsen og
pryleguten. There, together with Carl Morten Amundsen, she also
created the one-woman performance Fidel's Island for the 2000 Molde
International Jazz Festival. She has worked with award-winning
Scandinavian theater artists such as Bjørn Sundquist, Hilda Hellwiig,
Yngve Sundvor, Sven Nordin, Jan Grønli, and Sossen Krogh, among
others. During her time in Molde she was also artistic director for
the independent production of The Lover by Harold Pinter.Anna's work
has particularly pinpointed the development of translation and
adaptation as an important part of cultural enhancement. Ms Gutto was
instrumental in bringing Norway’s most prominent contemporary
playwright, Jon Fosse, to the United States. Fosse's plays have been
staged all over the world, but it was not until 2004 with Anna's
theater company Oslo Elsewhere's production of Night Sings Its Songs
that the American audience experienced how this internationally
renowned playwright has influenced modern theater. In 2006 Anna Gutto
was also instrumental in bringing a contemporary adaptation of Henrik
Ibsen's Rosmersholm to New York, allowing New Yorkers to take part in
the 2006 international centennial celebrations of one of the world’s
most-produced playwrights.Her first theatrical creation in New York
was Pissing in the Wind, which she co-wrote and directed for the 2002
New York International Fringe Festival. She did seven productions in
the following years and in 2005 portrayed Simone in the production of
The Workroom at Manhattan Theatre Source. The production was later
invited by the French Embassy to be part of the Act French Festival in
New York City 2005. She was last seen as Rebecca West in Rosmersholm
at 59E59 Theaters in New York. Other acting credits include The Young
Woman in the US-premiere of Jon Fosse's Night Sings Its Songs, Boys'
Life, After the Fall, Under Milk Wood, Game of Patience, and The
Physics Project.
artistic director living in Los Angeles and Oslo. Her career includes
acting, writing, translating, directing and adaptations into English
from Norwegian texts.Anna Gutto started her dedication to acting and
story-telling through the theater already as a child. Not letting
herself be sidelined by the largest roles being for men, she spent her
childhood years playing several male characters. Committed to a
professional life in the theater, she went from school and community
theater to the performing arts high school Hartvig Nissen in Oslo. She
made her professional debut in 1997 when director Stein Winge,
artistic director Svein Sturla Hungnes and set designer John-Kristian
Alsaker chose her to play Solveig in Peer Gynt at the Riksteatret (The
Norwegian State Theater) after fierce competition. She later received
a two-year contract at "Teatret VÃ¥rt" in Molde, where she played
roles such as Lady Anne in Richard III, Bianca in The Taming of the
Shrew, Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice, and Maja in Prinsen og
pryleguten. There, together with Carl Morten Amundsen, she also
created the one-woman performance Fidel's Island for the 2000 Molde
International Jazz Festival. She has worked with award-winning
Scandinavian theater artists such as Bjørn Sundquist, Hilda Hellwiig,
Yngve Sundvor, Sven Nordin, Jan Grønli, and Sossen Krogh, among
others. During her time in Molde she was also artistic director for
the independent production of The Lover by Harold Pinter.Anna's work
has particularly pinpointed the development of translation and
adaptation as an important part of cultural enhancement. Ms Gutto was
instrumental in bringing Norway’s most prominent contemporary
playwright, Jon Fosse, to the United States. Fosse's plays have been
staged all over the world, but it was not until 2004 with Anna's
theater company Oslo Elsewhere's production of Night Sings Its Songs
that the American audience experienced how this internationally
renowned playwright has influenced modern theater. In 2006 Anna Gutto
was also instrumental in bringing a contemporary adaptation of Henrik
Ibsen's Rosmersholm to New York, allowing New Yorkers to take part in
the 2006 international centennial celebrations of one of the world’s
most-produced playwrights.Her first theatrical creation in New York
was Pissing in the Wind, which she co-wrote and directed for the 2002
New York International Fringe Festival. She did seven productions in
the following years and in 2005 portrayed Simone in the production of
The Workroom at Manhattan Theatre Source. The production was later
invited by the French Embassy to be part of the Act French Festival in
New York City 2005. She was last seen as Rebecca West in Rosmersholm
at 59E59 Theaters in New York. Other acting credits include The Young
Woman in the US-premiere of Jon Fosse's Night Sings Its Songs, Boys'
Life, After the Fall, Under Milk Wood, Game of Patience, and The
Physics Project.
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