René Pollesch

René Pollesch, born 1962 in Friedberg in Hesse, is an author and director. He studied Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen with Andrzej Wirth and Hans-Thies Lehmann. World premieres of his own plays since 1998 include Three Hysterical Women at the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Superblock at the Berliner Ensemble and Heidi Hoh at Podewil in Berlin. His practice as a director and author, as someone who writes, where he produces texts and brings content into play, also relies to a large extent on authorship, i.e. formulation of the artists assembled in the theatre, above all the actors, stage designers and costume designers, since only the autonomous collaboration of several people who do not hermetically think autonomy makes it possible for the theatre to formulate itself in its original form and not to submit to the command of the sole rule of the director over a production or even a whole understanding of theatre. From 2001 to 2007, René Pollesch was artistic director of the Prater of the Berliner Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. The Prater trilogy (Stadt als Beute, Insourcing des Zuhause - Menschen in Scheiß-Hotels und Sex nach Mae West) (City as Loot; Insourcing the Home – People in Shit Hotels; Sex – based on Mae West) was invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen in 2002. In the same year, he was voted best German-language playwright in the critics' survey of the specialist magazine Theater heute. René Pollesch staged his own plays at the Staatstheater Stuttgart, the Burgtheater Vienna, the Thalia Theater Hamburg, the Münchner Kammerspiele, the Schauspielhaus Hamburg, the Schauspielhaus Frankfurt, the Schauspielhaus Zürich, the Deutsches Theater Berlin as well as in Warsaw, Stockholm, Tokyo, Sofia and São Paulo. Until 2017 René Pollesch worked as a permanent member of the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, working with stage designer Bert Neumann for many years. His production Kill your Darlings! Streets of Berladelphia was invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen in 2012. At the Volksbühne he invented numerous productions as well as series and film formats such as 24 Stunden sind kein Tag, Bad Decisions and Niagara. René Pollesch received the Mülheimer Dramatikerpreis in 2001 for www-slums at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg and in 2006 for Cappuccetto Rosso (Prater der Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz) and in 2007 for Das purpurne Muttermal (The Purple Birthmark) at the Akademietheater Vienna the Nestroy Theaterpreis for the best play. For Fantasma (Akademietheater Vienna) he received the Audience Award of the Mülheimer Theatertage in 2009. In 2012 René Pollesch was awarded the Else-Lasker-Schüler playwright's prize and accepted into the Akademie der Künste Berlin. In 2018 he received the Jürgen Bansemer & Ute Nyssen Award for Dramatists. In the 2018/19 season, Pollesch premiered two productions at the Deutsches Theater Berlin: Cry Baby and Black Maria (at the Kammerspiele). Cry Baby was awarded "Performance of the Year 2018/19" by the TheaterGemeinde Berlin. In the 2019/20 season, René Pollesch will perform two further world premieres on the stages of the Deutsches Theater Berlin: (Life on earth can be sweet) Donna in December 2019 and Number Four (working title) in April 2020. From the 2021/22 season, René Pollesch will be the new artistic director of the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz.