Giorgio Strehler was an Italian opera and theatre director.
Giorgio Strehler focused on theater which was culturally relevant. He did not want to "pay an abstract homage to culture" or "to offer a mere distraction... passive contemplation". Instead both Giorgio and Paolo agreed that theater was "a place where people gather to hear statements that they can accept or reject".
In the 1950s he directed several plays by Bertolt Brecht with whom he would become close friends sharing his political beliefs.
He created the role of theater director (regista was actually coined in 1929) in Italy all by himself. Until he came plays were for the most part still put on by traveling companies that were a microcosm unto themselves. They directed themselves. They had never heard of a director. He also gave prominence to Italian authors, though few in number. Strehler used to say that "Italian theater has produced few important dramatic authors - Niccolò Machiavelli, Carlo Goldoni, Luigi Pirandello - but an enormous number of actors. Between 1500 and 1700, every self-respecting court in Europe had to have a company of Italian actors".
