Frank Castorf

Frank Castorf was born in East Berlin in 1951. He studied theatre studies at Humboldt University in Berlin and held his first position as a dramaturg at the Theater Senftenberg. Later, he worked as a director at the Brandenburger Theater. From 1981 until his politically motivated summary dismissal in 1985, he served as chief director at the Theater Anklam. In the years that followed, he directed plays by García Lorca, Goethe, Shakespeare, Lessing, Lenz, Schiller, Ibsen, and Brecht—as well as works by Heiner Müller on multiple occasions—at municipal theatres in the GDR (Halle, Gera, Karl-Marx-Stadt) and, from 1988 onwards, in West Germany and Switzerland. At the start of the 1992/93 season, Frank Castorf became the artistic director of the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in Berlin. Alongside this role, he worked as a guest director at other theatres and opera houses, including venues in Basel, Hamburg, Munich, Stockholm, Vienna, Zurich, Copenhagen, São Paulo, Stuttgart, and Paris. Over the next 25 years, he created more than 100 productions. His work as an artistic director and stage director has received numerous awards. Among others, he was honored with the Fritz Kortner Prize, the Berlin Theater Prize (awarded by the Preußische Seehandlung Foundation), the Nestroy Prize, the International Theatre Institute Prize, the Schiller Prize of the City of Mannheim, the Order of Merit of Berlin, the Friedrich Luft Prize, the Golden Laurel Wreath Award from the MESS International Theatre Festival, the German Theater Prize "Der Faust," and the Grand Art Prize of Berlin (2016).