Bernd Isele Dramaturgy, Festival Director ATT, Project Director Inclusive Art Practice
Vita
Bernd Isele, born in Schwarzwald, studied German language and literature, history and art history in Constance and at the University of Münster. From 2002 to 2005, he worked as a research assistant in a special research centre on the history and culture of the Eastern Mediterranean. In 2006, he completed his doctorate on the phenomenon of religious violence in late antiquity. His thesis was published by Aschendorff Verlag in 2010.
In 2004/2005 Bernd Isele was a guest assistant at the Schauspielhaus Zurich. From 2006, he worked at the Lucerne Theatre as a dramaturge for drama with excursions into opera and dance. He also runs the Experimentierbühne UG, a basement theatre for contemporary theatre. Bernd Isele is the editor of a history of theatre in Central Switzerland, which will be published by Pro Libro in 2016.
From 2013 to 2018, Bernd Isele was engaged at the Staatstheater Stuttgart. He worked in opera with Calixto Bieito and in theatre with Christopher Rüping, Armin Petras, Christiane Pohle, Stephan Kimmig, Schorsch Kamerun and many other directors. Invitations to the Berlin Theatertreffen and festivals in Germany and abroad followed. Co-productions have taken him to the Staatsschauspiel Dresden, Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Freiburg Theatre, Teatrul National Radu Stanca in Sibiu and Vig Theatre Budapest. From 2014 to 2018, Bernd Isele was a lecturer in dramaturgy at the Academy of Performing Arts Baden-Württemberg.
Bernd Isele has been working at the Deutsches Theater Berlin since 2018. As a dramaturge, he supervises the cooperation projects with the inclusive partner theatre RambaZamba and various world premieres by Elfriede Jelinek, René Pollesch, Nino Haratischwili, Ingrid Lausund, Moritz Rinke, Peter Handke, Ferdinand Schmalz, Rosa von Praunheim and many younger authors. The world premieres have been performed at the Wiener Festwochen, Mülheimer Theatertage, Radikal jung, Heidelberger Stückemarkt, Frankfurter Positionen and other festivals. Since 2018, Bernd Isele has directed the Autor:innenTheaterTage festival for contemporary drama at the Deutsches Theater, which he expanded into a year-round residency and funding programme when Iris Laufenberg took over as artistic director. Bernd Isele has published on the theatre of Elfriede Jelinek, Peter Handke, Fritz Kater and others; an anthology on the interrelationship between authorship and theatre will be published by Alexander-Verlag in 2022.