Anja Rabes

Anja Rabes was born in Munich in 1966. After an apprenticeship as a tailor at the Bavarian State Opera, she studied theater at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. She worked as costume assistant to Anna Viebrock, Axel Manthey and Johannes Grützke at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, the Burgtheater in Vienna and the Münchner Kammerspiele. During this time she created her own costume designs for dance theater productions by Verena Weiss and Carolyn Carlson. As a freelance costume designer, she has worked regularly since 1994 with directors Jossi Wieler , Sergio Morabito, Stephan Kimmig, Johan Simons, Christoph Marthaler and Calixto Bieito for plays and opera in Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Oslo, Vienna, London, Amsterdam and Stuttgart, at the Ruhrtriennale and since 1998 at the Salzburg Festival. Since 2002 Anja Rabes has also been active as a stage designer. In 2004 she designed the stage and costumes for Jossi Wieler's production of Paul Claudel's Mittagswende at the Münchner Kammerspiele, invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen. In 2008 she created stage and costumes for the world premiere of Elfriede Jelinek's Rechnitz (Der Würgeengel) at the Münchner Kammerspiele, which toured internationally to many guest performances, in 2009 for Das letzteBand/Bis dass der Tag euch scheidet (Beckett/Handke) and in 2010 for the world premiere of Angst by Koen Tachelet after Stefan Zweig at the Salzburg Festival, directed by Jossi Wieler. This was followed in 2021 by Mysteries by Knut Hamsun directed by Johan Simons in Bochum. Anja Rabes was a guest lecturer in the scenography class at the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe and a lecturer at the Hochschule für Theater und Musik in Hamburg.