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Zdenka Kovacicek became a member of PIK when she was 5 years old and there took acting, singing and dancing lessons. With this renowned children’s theatre she toured across Europe at a very young age. She remained one of the PIK’s members until she started her singing career.
 
Her next contact with the theatre happened in 1979 in Zagreb’s ‘Komedija’ theatre as the part of Metikos, Krajac and Prohaska’s rock opera ‘Gricka vjestica’ (‘The witch from Gric’) based on the novel by the Croatian writer Marija Juric-Zagorka. She played the part of baba Ursa in more than 200 performances.
 
From 1984 onwards she took acting lessons in the classes of the distinguished Croatian actors Marija Kohn and Kresimir Zidaric in ‘Bagatela’ theatre, led by Slavica Maras. Thrilled by Zdenka’s acting talent, Kresimir Zidaric founded an acting company comprised of theatre enthusiasts and talented actors at Mosa Pijade’s university in Zagreb. This resulted in a successful comedy piece entitled ‘Obljetnica braka’ (‘The Wedding Anniversary’) in which Zdenka and Kresimir Zidaric played the leads and for which Zdenka also chose the music. The world premiere took place in Zagreb’s ‘Vidra’ theatre in front of the ecstatic audiences. Unfortunately, Kresimir Zidaric’s premature death put a stop to further plans and guest appearances of this show.

 
 
Zdenka got her next opportunity to show her versatile talent in acting, imitating and TV hosting in 1997 with her own TV show entitled ‘I to sam ja’ (‘This is also me’), aired on Croatian National Television.
 
       
 
The year 2002 saw Zdenka’s collaboration with the renown director Damir Zlatar Frey in ‘Slovensko stalno gledalisce’ in Trieste, Italy, where she played the lead in the rock opera ‘Princesa na zrnu graha’ (‘The princess and the pea’). Once again she wowed the audiences and the critics in Slovenian, Italian and Croatian press.

 
 

 
Zdenka's greatest theatrical success to date occurred in the autumn of 2008, when she premiered her latest project ‘S ljubavlju, Janis’ (‘With love, Janis’) and the standing ovations that happened at the opening night continue with every new performance of this excellent musical. It’s worth noting that this is a European premiere of this musical and that Zdenka is the first European to play this role. Similarly, many critics emphasise that Zdenka is the only artist capable to mimic the legendary Janis Joplin with her unique vocals and outstanding interpretation.
 
This Broadway hit is written by Randall Myler and is based on the autobiography written in 1992 by Janis’ sister Laura upon the letters that Janis regularly sent to her family. Through these letters and her music we follow Janis’ short and restless life. Zdenka plays the part of Janis by singing the most of the vocally demanding score, while Marija Boric appears as a young Janis.
The company on stage consists of 11 people, both actors and musicians. Fifteen of Janis’ hit songs are performed chronologically with her life story by some of Zagreb’s famous rock musicians, such as Branko Bogunovic and Neven Mijac, to name just few. Other acting members of the company include Jasna Palic Picukaric, Davor Svedruzic and Adam Koncic.
 
More information on the show can be seen on ‘Komedija’ theatre official website here
 
 

            

Love, Janis - written by : Diana Rexhepi 

What took place on November 8/08 Saturday evening in the Zagreb municipal theater "Comedy" can be described as a most impressive cultural and musical event in the recent Croatian history.

It was the opening night of the biographical music story "Love, Janis" that in a packed house of the "Comedy" theatre by its quality stood out and outperformed all similar or less similar cultural and musical shows produced in Croatia in the last 20 years. The story told from the other side of a too short a life of the last-century's greatest female rock-star, Janis Joplin, and the live performance of her greatest hits provoked in the audience a deep emotional charge, raptures, screaming, tears out of enthusiasm and even crying aloud of some audience members.

The most responsible for eliciting such emotions in the audience is Zdenka Kovačiček whose performance of Janis's hits, accompanied by the playing of the very best Zagreb rock-musicians, swept away all we have seen so far in musical shows since Croatia has become the independent state. But it was by no means a perfectly reconstructed Janis's look in costumes worn by Zdenka Kovačiček that knocked the audience off its feet.

By her voice as well as by the typical stage movements of the 1960s Zdenka Kovačiček as Janis Joplin gave so authentic and thoroughbred performance that now and then it seemed like Janis herself had resurrected and sung in the Zagreb "Comedy" theatre.

That's what makes this show, which will be a lot written and heard of even outside Croatia, so special. There's also an interesting commentary made by an experienced female musician who after the show said that it's questionable whether Janis herself, if alive, would be able to sing in a row all her hits like Summertime, Me and Bobby McGee, Cry Baby, Mercedes Benz, Try...

Even after 50 years of her career, the phenomenon known as Zdenka Kovačiček, herself a music institution, is able to surprise, provoke, elate and enrapture. In a magnificent and sophisticated way this phenomenon has been dictating music taste to the Croatian audience and shaping its sensibility.

Indeed, Zdenka Kovačiček is one of the highest-quality female artists emerged in Croatia in the last hundred years.

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You can also read some of the acclaiming reviews from the Croatian press (in Croatian):
 
Burne ovacije broadwayskom hitu 'S ljubavlju, Janis'  (Autor MILJENKO MITROVIĆ)
(Outstanding ovations for the Brodway hit : Love, Janis)
 
Janis oživjela u glasu i glumi Zdenke Kovačiček    (Autor  ŽELJKO SLUNJSKI)
 
S ljubavlju, Janis  (Autor MIRTA ŠPOLJARIĆ)

 
About the musical
 
 
From the Croatian "News" and the show "Dobro jutro Hrvatska"
 
Summertime
 
 
From the TV show "Dancing with the stars"
 
Piece of my heart
 
 
 

 
    
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