Suzanne Osten

Suzanne Osten
Suzanne Osten in 2015.
Born	Carlota Suzanne Osten (1944-06-20) 20 June 1944 (age 72) , Sweden
Nationality	Swedish
Occupation	Playwright, director, writer, theater director, professor
Years active	1971–present
Children	Hanna

Carlota Suzanne Osten (born 20 June 1944) is a Swedish film director stage director and screenwriter. She won the award for Best Director at the 22nd Guldbagge Awards for the film The Mozart Brothers.

Suzanne Osten was born in Stockholm. She is the daughter of toolmaker Karl Otto Osten (1912–1970) and film critic Gerd Osten (born Ekbom), whose frustrating efforts to direct a film in a male-dominated film industry are the subject matter of her daughter Suzanne’s debut film Mamma (1982). Osten's father was a social democrat and resistance man who came to Sweden when he fled from the Nazi regime in Germany. Her parents were married in 1941 but divorced when Suzanne Osten was little. In 1963, Osten graduated from Viggbyholmsskolan, a high school with a curriculum focused on language and creative subjects, and, after this, she studied art, literature and history at Lund University where she began directing at the university theater.

Osten formed one of Sweden’s first fringe theatrical companies, Fickteatern, and began her career as a stage director there in the late 1960s. In 1971, she continued to , which would be her fixed point for many decades. At that venue, she became a leader in developing the political theater of that time. Together with Margareta Garpe, she wrote the play Tjejsnack [Girl talk] (1971), intended for teenaged girls. Some of the songs from that play, such as the feminist anthem Vi måste höja våra röster [We have to raise our voices] are on the record Sånger för kvinnor och män [Songs for women and men] from 1972. After this, Osten and Garpe wrote the plays Kärleksföreställningen [The love notion] (1973), Jösses flickor! Befrielsen är nära [Gee girls! Liberation is close] (1974) and Fabriksflickorna, makten och härligheten [Factory girls, the power and the glory] (1980). All of these plays have a distinct connection to the Swedish feminist organization Grupp 8.

Suzanne Osten is a pioneer in developing theater for children. Throughout her career, she has advocated for art and culture for children and youth. She asserts that the child perspective is a question of power, about describing power relationships, and about seeing power from the perspective of the powerless, i.e., from an underdog perspective. A child is always more dependent on the adult since children are powerless in relation to adults. Osten has remained true to this standpoint in her writing, directing, and even casting of plays and films. In 1975, she formed Unga Klara, a branch of Stockholm City Theater for the purpose of producing theatrical performances for children and youth. Osten worked there as both stage director and artistic director until the summer of 2014 and developed a process for creating a performance.