Brit Bartkowiak
Born in 1980, Brit Bartkowiak majored in German and Theatre Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, and Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. In 2006 she began studying Theatre Directing at the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre. During her studies she served as an assistant at the Freischwimmer Festival, held at Hamburg’s Kampfnagel performing arts centre, and at the Thalia Theater Hamburg. While working on her degree, Bartkowiak directed Black Beast Sorrow by Anja Hilling at Hamburg’s Schauspielhaus, and Time to Love, Time to Die by Fritz Kater for Dresden’s Die Bühne. Since the 2009/2010 season Brit Bartkowiak has been an assistant director at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, working with directors such as Dimiter Gotscheff, Nicolas Stemann, Tom Kühnel and Jürgen Kuttner. At the DT she has staged: Christoph Hein’s Christmas story The Wild Horse under the Tiled Stove; Markus Breitscheidel's Arm Durch Arbeit (Working Poor) and Roland Schimmelpfennig’s The Golden Dragon – in cooperation with the Berlin University of the Arts. Along with Barbara Kantel, Bartkowiak also headed the Young DT project Here and Now. She also helped conceptualize and organize the ceremony for the Preussische Seehandlung Foundation’s Berlin Theatre Award in 2010 and 2011. Held at the Deutsches Theater, the recipients were Margit Bendokat (2010), and Dimiter Gotscheff and his team of actors (2011). In 2012, Bartkowiak staged the German-language premiere of Swchwrm by Toon Tellegen and Guy Cassiers at Düsseldorf’s Schauspielhaus, as well as Mother Tongue Mameloschn at the Deutsches Theater Berlin.

Photo: Arno Declair