The German-born playwright, poet and director, Bertolt Brecht was born in Augsburg, Germany in February 1898. Following a period working as assistant to Max Reinhardt at the famous Deutsches Theater, he established himself as a playwright and director during the 1920s and early 1930s with plays such as BAAL, MAN IS MAN, THE THREEPENNY OPERA and THE MOTHER. It was during this period that he started to form his theories of epic theatre which informed so much of his later work. In 1933, as Hitler came to power in Germany, Brecht fled to Scandinavia before eventually settling in the USA where he remained until 1947. During the war years, he wrote many of his best known plays, including, THE LIFE OF GALILEO, THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE, MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN and THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI. He returned to Europe in 1947 and shortly after his arrival formed the Berliner Ensemble. He died in Berlin on 14th August 1956 but remains a hugely influential theatre practitioner.